Broken Chanter – Wholesale (Video Premiere)

Since Broken Chanter, the solo moniker of Kid Canaveral’s David MacGregor, was first brought to our attention last August, he's been gigging lots, slowly but surely building momentum, preparing to unleash something quite different to anything he’s done in the past with KC.

With plans afoot to release his eponymous debut album in September via Last Night From Glasgow and Olive Grove Records, this new direction finds MacGregor working alongside longtime collaborator, engineer and producer Gal, with additional instrumentation and vocals from an impressive roster of talent that includes Audrey Tait (Hector Bizerk), Jill O’Sullivan (Sparrow and the Workshop, BDY_PRTS), Gavin Prentice (ULTRAS, Over the Wall), Hannah Shepherd (eagleowl, Withered Hand), Emma Kupa and Kim Carnie.

If you’ve not yet experienced Broken Chanter, then the album’s lead single Wholesale is the perfect introduction. Unsettling guitars and strings, pulsing synths, driving drums and MacGregor’s distinct vocals all feature, and backing vocals from O’Sullivan provide another layer, adding to the overall unease and tension of the track. The chorus refrain of ‘And you lose sight’ is an absolute earworm and we can’t wait to hear what’s to come next.

Set for release on 24 May through digital download and transparent lathe-cut square 7" vinyl, The Skinny are delighted to be premiering the music video for Wholesale, directed by Richie Morgan, which you can watch in the above YouTube player (click here if it’s not displaying correctly).

"I asked Richie for ominous and the man delivered," MacGregor tells us of the video, which features him bloody and tied up in the back of a 4x4 for its entirety. "I spoke to Richie about keeping a similar setting to the short teaser films we'd done together towards the end of last year – instrumental snippets of tracks from the album. The album was mostly written and recorded in remote, rural or island locations and there are found sounds and field recording in there, so we wanted to keep it stark, beautiful, and imposing. There was an ambiguous tone to the teasers, a character seemingly out of place for the first few of them.

"For Wholesale, I wanted to go a step further into sinister. We shot the video up at my in-laws, in and around Kilchoan in Ardnamurchan. My father-in-law's workshop looks like it could be plucked from the set of a classic horror film. There are clamps, blades, a chainsaw, all sorts. He's one of the friendliest people on the planet though, so we've done him a disservice portraying his workspace as a villainous 'nutty room'."

Of the video's cast, MacGregor says: "Izzy Flower seemed to relish her role as pro/antagonist (depending on how you interpret the video) and looked pretty chuffed with the cache of weapons (improvised and actual) that she got to wield. Without too many spoilers, a thought must be spared for poor Lloyd Meredith of Olive Grove Records, whose method acting means that he'll forever be a part of the West Highland scenery."

"Living and working in a city, a place like Ardnamurchan really disconnects you in a positive way," Morgan tells us, "but as a filmmaker you can’t help thinking about playing with that isolation and the potential for out and out lawlessness. It really does feel like a place where anything can happen which is incredible fuel for the imagination.

"David and I worked together on the concept, picking up on what was available to us and throwing it all into this mad little story and, of course, it almost feels like cheating; you can practically point the camera at anything and have a beautiful shot. Driving around single track roads and shouting ‘STOP HERE’ when you see something nice, piling out and filming a bit is a wonderfully free and energising way of creating."

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Wholesale is released on 24 May via Last Night From Glasgow and Olive Grove Records; Broken Chanter is set for release in September

Broken Chanter plays Leith Depot, Edinburgh, 23 May; The Glad Cafe, Glasgow, 24 May; The Hug & Pint, Glasgow, 25 May; Long Division Festival, Wakefield, 1 Jun; Xpo North, Inverness, 3/4 Jul; Doune the Rabbit Hole, Port of Mentieth, Stirling, 20 Jul

brokenchanter.com