The BackBeat Podcast

View Original

MELBOURNE ARTIST CANTRIPS RETURNS WITH NEW TRACK ‘GOODBYE YESTERDAY’

Embracing a new year of music and creativity, Melbourne multi-instrumentalist Cantrips releases his latest single, ‘Goodbye Yesterday’.

Leaning further into some rich songwriting skills that bring out a gorgeous combination of surf-rock and psychedelic grooves, Cantrips (aka Patrick Ryan) has demonstrated how his sonic scope has broadened through 2020 with ‘Goodbye Yesterday’.

In a year that was unprecedented and unpredictable for many, Cantrips kept busy and continued to release music throughout 2020. His two singles - ‘Off With His Head’ and ‘Don’t Open The Bag’ - were exciting new additions to the building Cantrips body of work and with his latest, the artist is striving forward.

Elements of nostalgia and bittersweet moments of self-awareness are prominent in Cantrips’ lyricism on ‘Goodbye Yesterday’. With the majority of the track written and recorded in his Thornbury home studio, Cantrips took the opportunity to dive deep into his love for instrumentation and production here; the final result being a layered and textured piece of music marked by his individualism.

“This song was written around the time where I'd just left the safety of full-time employment and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with myself. I’d been living in this sort of limbo, bereft of meaningful work and was tired of doing nothing about it. I was listening to a lot of 60s pop (Beatles, early Pink Floyd, Margo Guryan), a ton of Curtis Mayfield and other Motown grooves, and surfing a bunch. This track meets somewhere in the middle of the three. It’s a song about personal transformation - letting go of who you used to be and taking steps to finding out who you can be.” Cantrips

Hitting the coastal surrounds of Rye in regional Victoria, Cantrips and videographer William Hamilton-Coates injected humour into proceedings when it came to creating the ‘Goodbye Yesterday’ music video.

“The late lockdown and ongoing restrictions in Victoria meant that we had to get creative with both concept and execution. I’d been watching a lot of Monty Python at the time and the drummer on this track, Lachlan Clulow, suggested using something similar to the ‘endless running’ scene in The Holy Grail. If that wasn’t a sign…” Cantrips

As a performer, Ryan has had years of experience in touring behind him as he developed the Cantrips solo project. Having performed extensively with psych-rock band Sofala until 2019, his love for music in both its studio and live forms runs deep. In the creation of Cantrips, Ryan has been able to chase his own unique vision for music and writing, celebrating it in its intricacy and different forms.

Creating his own independent label too in Dune Castle Records, Cantrips is kicking off a new creative era. ‘Goodbye Yesterday’ is significant in this important formative time for the artist, laying down the foundations for an exciting year ahead.

FOLLOW CANTRIPS
Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Triple J Unearthed