Premiere: Michael James Keane Shares Video For 'All The Green Leaves'

Michael James Keane's darkly beautiful and emotionally intense solo album The Cascade was a quiet local highlight of late 2018. The Pōneke-based, former So Laid Back Country China co-leader has treated aficionados of his "deeply and almost uncomfortably personal" songs to a smattering of live appearances since his long player launched, and is now back with a gorgeous video for 'All the Green Leaves' from the record which we're proud to premiere here, directed by Amber Beaton (Giantess). With a new album already recorded and more live events on the horizon, Michael James Keane opened up about how his latest audio-visual collaboration came together...

"Amber was fantastic to work with. I am not a visual person and always appreciate working with someone who has a strong vision. I often struggle to place in my minds eye how something will turn out on film. The main things we discussed were around presenting the band on film for the first time, as well as bridging 'The Cascade' to the next record, which was the main reason for the song choice. Other than that it is all Ambers vision, a short narrative mostly focused on the performance.

The song is about living life with a feeling of impending dread, irrational and unplaced. I’m singing about quiet situations when we find ourselves alone looking for motivation to keep moving.

James Goldsmith, the band and myself have just finished the next record, it’s being prepared to master at this stage for release early next year. It’s an exciting record, different and larger than 'The Cascade' in many ways, recorded and produced by James at Lee Prebble’s Surgery in Wellington."