New Zealand musician and poet Callum Gentleman has released his first material since moving to America. “Cigarettes” is a stripped back folk inspired track that Callum wrote as a tribute to nights spent with his father. But director Hayley Robertson took a more surreal twist for the accompanying video. She teamed Callum with a temperamental puppet!
The arrangements for both the “Cigarettes” single and forthcoming EP Smoke (due 3rd August) characterize the more moody, atmospheric tone that Callum and his collaborators bring to their live shows. A tone Callum felt was well suited to a song about spending long nights drinking and smoking with his dad. However, Hayley Robertson had a slightly different tone in mind for her accompanying video.
“I really admire Hayley’s work. It’s always fun and a little enigmatic. I gave her free rein to do whatever she wanted. When she told me her concept I loved it. My only concern was that I was going to get upstaged by a puppet! And that maybe my dad would think the puppet was supposed to be him.” – Callum Gentleman
Having toured his home nation numerous times, and to Australia twice in 2017, this year Callum Gentleman decided to aim a little bigger – he’s moved to America. At the time of writing he’s based in Denver, Colorado.