British director/composer Grant Armour has been travelling the world for the past decade making documentaries on subjects like drugs, rave culture, climate activism, fetishes, mental health, prisons, ancient rituals, homelessness, LGBTQ+ rights and space tourism…to name a few. He made the first documentary on Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement, and has collaborated with Brian Eno on a film about the anniversary of the moon landings.
His experiences as a documentary filmmaker primarily influence his music, most of which is instrumental as accompaniments to his own films and other productions. For him, music is compulsory and therapeutic, with the hope of sharing that with the listener. Now he’s using his voice, distorted breaks and sleazy guitars to make moody pop belters like his latest single, “Wrap My Arms Around You”.
“The song is…about stepping outside of routine, whether that be your job or even a hedonistic cycle, to transcend into new realms right in front of your eyes. Whether that be falling in love, working on your relationships or immersing yourself in the everyday euphoria and the psychedelia of the natural world.”
The video is a lo-fi vapourwave-flavoured visual extravaganza, filtered through glitches, cathode ray tubes and inversion, creating an intriguing broadcast.
Grant Armour believes in limitations in timbre to create space in music, to capture the emotion and energy of the song, to communicate the initial idea – so he typically writes and records his songs within 24 hours. He cites Suzanne Vega, 2 Bad Mice, ESG, The Dust Brothers, and anything on Bzrk Records as influences.
“My songs are about the human condition in the end times, isolation, perceptions of time and space, the loss of privacy and modern love, so I needed to see some shit before I could write anything decent…this song was made at a frustrating time of wanting to dance during an apocalypse of sorts, but not having the outlet, so continuing the rave in your dreams or in the metaverse. I couldn’t resist focusing on the hypnotic rolling movement of the break to add layers of melody and make an emotional banger. This was also a chance to let loose on my synths.”
Listen below:
Preorder the album here.
Follow Grant Armour:
Toronto shoegaze outfit Rituals first stirred to life in 2009, a quiet experiment in Adam Seward’s small, dim room, where…
Filled with fire Come to me Suspended with so much pleasure No matter how scared we may be To live…
Be a starlight once more that guides me in the dead of night and when your fire weakens I shall…
Sarcophagus golden carcass Sarcophagus rigor mortis Drenched in cataclysm and curled in dystopian dread, Qual—William Maybelline’s fierce alter ego—seizes the…
Skin sloughed off Exposed rot Sickness spied Wet, weak eyes Lacerated soul Psychodermatology is a medical field that studies the…
Loving something you shouldn’t is like clutching a live wire—painful, charged, and impossible to release. You know it’s wrong, yet…