We are very pleased to premiere the video for the beautiful and arch track ‘Running Mate’ by Melbourne-based outfit Hot Coppers.
Hot Coppers is the solo studio project of music producer Gareth Parton (Foals, The Go! Team, The Breeders) with a live band that features luminaries from The Lucksmiths, Mid-State Orange, Monnone Alone, The Zebras, Amarillo and Clan Analogue. Parton has been on a twenty year hiatus and sprang back into recording during the COVID lockdowns. And we are truly the beneficiary of that.
For anyone who remembers the elegant pathos of Jonah Lewie, the track ‘Running Mate’ has the same gentle and eloquent frailty – a pastoral, bucolic sound fringed by piano with gentle, wry wordplay weaving through the vocals. The chorus is as expansive as the southern skies with an euphoric, pulse-quickening glow. Parton says of the track:
…around the time I was writing this one, I did one of those pseudo-scientific personality tests and it said I was a “Campaigner” – no idea what that means but it got me on the campaign trail.
The video has the novelty of being shot in 3D – special glasses are being offered separately – but is still viewable without. It’s a simple humorous shot of Parton faux jogging in all the correct paraphernalia against a green-screen backdrop as he delivers his self-deprecating tale of a man who came undone. It is filled with a certain pathos adorned by a wry grin as Parton plays intricate word games.
Reminiscent of those 50’s 3D Monster movies, Hot Coppers home-made three-dimensional music video features a monster of a different kind: a middle-aged man jogging around the park. Made by Hot Coppers frontman Gareth Parton, it captures the tongue-in-cheek traumas of a man playing ‘catch-up’.
‘Running Mate’ is pure indie pop of the highest order – intelligent, quirky and majestic – and the video is a perfect accompaniment:
Lost and Lonesome Recording Company, which you can pre-order through the link below. First thirty vinyl pre-orders receive a pair of red/blue 3D anaglyph spex to see the video in all its glory!
Hot Coppers will be launching the album on Friday, 21 July 2023 at the Fitzroy Pinnacle in Melbourne – details and tickets available here.
It’s worth catching up with Parton’s podcast SixPack too – details here – where his musical connections lead to some very impressive guests.
