Tasmanian stars A. Swayze and the Ghosts have highly impressed us earlier this year with their post punky single ‘Mess of Me‘ released in February. With a US tour unfortunately cancelled as a result of the COBID 19 crisis, the band has just released a fantastically bizarre and creative video for their new theatrical glam stomper single ‘Cancer’.
Front man Andrew Swayze says of the song:
I love this track’s elements of early house music in its Oberheim DMX drum machine, repetitive bass-line and guitar silence in sections.
Indeed it is a fascinating mash of styles with its arched lyricism, glam beat, thundering bass and electronic spine, wrapped up in a container load of punk attitude. A. Swayze and the Ghosts are very much part of a very impressive coterie of Australian bands making a global impact and this release confirms their status.
The video presents surreal imagery that fits the slightly unhinged feel to the track. Swayze says of the video:
The images came to me in a dream. As soon as I woke I briefed Olivia (the Director) and we took it from there. We were locked up at home so had been forced to make it entirely on our own from inside a little makeshift cupboard come production office we’d created. Clown paint doesn’t dry which is surprising.
It’s a tightly wound and very enthralling sound and vision:
There detectable hints of Elvis Costello mixed with The Clash combining to form something very nice indeed. ‘Cancer’ is off the newly announced album, ‘Paid Salvation’ due out on Friday, 18 September 2020 through Ivy League Records which can be pre-ordered here.
Feature Photograph: Rick Clifford
