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Sep 17, 2018 Frontperson By Christopher Roberts

Frontperson is a new duo that features Kathryn Calder of The New Pornographers (and also a solo artist and formerly of Immaculate Machine) and Mark Andrew Hamilton (who has released six albums as Woodpigeon). They are releasing their debut album, Frontrunner, this Friday (September 21) via Calder’s own label, Oscar St. Previously they shared a video for its first single, “Tick - Tock (Frontrunner)” (which was one of our Songs of the Week), which was followed by a video for “Young Love” (which was also one of our Songs of the Week). Now they have shared another song from the album, “Long Night,” via a video for it. The band’s Hamilton co-directed the video with Maëlle Ramsay. It stars Tranna Wintour, a Canadian comedian who sings along to the song in the video. Watch it below via Billboard (who premiered it).

Calder had this to say about the song in a press release: “I originally wrote ‘Long Night’ with a ‘60s British psychedelic-folk direction in mind for it, but when we went to the National Music Centre studio to record, they had so many incredible instruments at hand, we ended up putting a drum machine on it, plus a ton of cool synths, and it completely changed the atmosphere in a really great way. Mark and I still wanted to keep some of that psychedelic-folk influence of the original vision, which is more prominently heard at the beginning of the song, but then the song morphs in a neat and unexpected way.”

Hamilton had this to say about the video in the press release: “The video stars my amazing, inspiring friend Tranna Wintour, who’s a performer, singer, comedienne here in Montréal. In terms of the LGBTQ+ community here in Montréal - and the rest of Canada, to be honest - she’s a beacon of what’s possible and what can be for someone who just wants to be who they are. I remember having such a fun time making this song so when we were discussing video ideas, I thought the idea of Tranna singing the song (sometimes one, sometimes three of her to make up for all of Kathryn’s amazing harmonies) would fit it perfectly. We spent some nights running around Montréal, including on the rooftop of an underground venue (which is now sadly defunct) we all love called Crystal Palace. A lot has happened under that roof, so it’s nice to document some great stuff happening on top of it too. I just love watching Tranna having an amazing time and looking fantastic.”

Rob Leickner and Ryan Sudds directed the previous “Tick - Tock (Frontrunner)” video, which featured various track & field events, sometimes running backwards, and was filmed at the 2018 Langley Pacific Invitational and the 2018 BC Masters Track & Field Championships. The album cover also features a track & field event and is a photograph that actually inspired the album title. Hamilton explains in a press release: “About 20 years ago, a photographer friend of mine named Ambrose Fan gave me this incredible picture of a young girl with her fists clenched, getting ready to run a race at a track meet. I’ve lived in a lot of places since then, and this photo has always come with me. When we started recording at the National Music Centre - basically one of the world’s best keyboard museums where we had pretty much free reign over their incredible collections of synths and such - I put the photo on the recording console, and it stayed there for two weeks guiding the making of our record. Whenever someone would ask what sound we were going for, I’d just point at that picture.”

Calder adds: “The photograph is now our record cover, it was the inspiration for our album name, and it’s still guiding this record, because we decided to use it as inspiration for the video for our first song, ‘Tick-Tock (Frontrunner).’”

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