Raveloe – Abalone (track premiere)

Having received a lovely email at the start of the year from Lloyd Meredith, ever the enthusiastic music lover and indie label boss over at Olive Grove Records, it brought us great joy and comfort to know that even through the hardest of years there were indie labels out there still keeping their ear to the ground for fresh talent. "I don't think there will be many labels who would have been scouting out new artists at a live show during lockdown,” Meredith tells us, “but I was lucky enough to catch Kim Grant (Raveloe) play at the Govanhill Street Music Festival back in the summer.

“I first came across Kim after seeing the name Raveloe crop up a few times on a few live stream shows that folk were putting on.” He continues: “Admittedly I missed all of the sessions, but I was intrigued and I listened back to some of the home recordings that Kim had been posting up on Bandcamp. I was really captivated by the raw intimacy of her vocals and ended up quite obsessively listening to the two songs she’d posted online. When I saw that she was playing live, I took the opportunity to go along and catch her in the flesh.

“Usually I’d be going along to check out new artists in a sweaty wee basement somewhere in Glasgow. Instead, I found myself watching Kim play in the centre of Govanhill Park, performing to the backdrop of a children's play park, which was full of screaming kids (including one of my own). 

“Despite having to battle against the noise of wailing kids, I thought she was incredible and I approached her after for a chat, with a five-year-old in tow. I think any air of credibility went swiftly out the window, as I had my youngest, Luke, telling Kim: ‘My daddy runs a record label’. With my mask of mystique well and truly gone, we quickly built up a rapport and I was able to establish that Kim had an EP in the works, which I am really excited that we’ll be releasing [in February]. It’s an incredible debut and I can’t wait to share it with the world.”

Until the release of Notes and Dreams on 12 February, The Skinny is delighted to be premiering the video for Abalone, the EP’s lead single, which you can watch in the above YouTube player (click here if it’s not displaying correctly). Perfectly abstract in parts and cinematic in feel, the mood captured in the video – from it’s opening crashing waves to its closing on a secluded lake at dusk, surrounded by tall pines – perfectly aligns with that of this beautiful and equally moody track.

Of the single’s inspiration, Grant tells us: "An abalone shell has an ornate, mother of pearl layer on the inside, I found one along the coast of the Western Cape when I was visiting a few years ago. I wrote this song during lockdown when I was spending a lot of time reflecting, alone. The song is about my connection to the ocean, the blurring of the line between dream and reality and love."

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Abalone is released on 28 Jan via Olive Grove Records; Notes and Dreams is released on 12 Feb via Olive Grove Records

raveloemusic.bandcamp.com
olivegrove.bandcamp.com