This week, Melbourne duo Maison Hall will officially release new single ‘Montreux’, the band’s first new music since their debut album It Was Never About Me back in 2017.
It’s a scrappy, fiery rocker – all blistering, fuzzed-out-to-fuck guitars and propulsive drumming, with vocalist Joe Kneipp’s vocals soaring above the mix. It takes some interesting sonic turns, sitting in the same ballpark as the likes of Japandroids, No Age and Cymbals Eat Guitar.
“Montreux is celebratory. Not just because we’re still doing this, but because we’re still doing this despite our ‘real-life’ obligations, the distance between us, the total absence of pecuniary success,” explains Kneipp. “We are so divorced from any external validations – the simple fact is, I love making music, and I love making music with Ben. And we’re gonna keep fucking doing it.”
Today, we’re premiering the accompanying video clip for ‘Montreux’ before it officially drops tomorrow (21st January). Presented as an ever-cycling job interview contrasted with a painter in the middle of a slow-release breakdown, it’s a tongue-in-cheek meditation on the tension and push-and-pull that comes with being a working artist. How do you balance the urge to create, to make art, with the demands of surviving in a capitalist society?
“The concept of the clip is pretty on the nose – the juxtaposition between the left and right brain, the creative and the pragmatist, the poetic and the prosaic,” Kneipp says.
“If you’re a musician, or any creative for that matter, who’s not lucky enough to make all their money from creative endeavours, you’ll understand these tensions. I workshopped it with Ben and then James Cooney, who stars in the clip as the ‘right-brain’ and is part of our live lineup.”
Watch the video for ‘Montreux’ below.
