Dyson Stringer Cloher – the music project of three of Australia’s most accomplished and dynamic songwriters, Jen Cloher, Mia Dyson and Liz Stringer have released their new single and video Falling Clouds.
The clip directed by Annelise Hickey sees the trio dressing in drag to make a comment about how women in Australian rock are often overlooked.
The song reminisces a time when Jen Cloher saw The Clouds and Falling Joys at an underage gig in her hometown of Adelaide in the early 90s.
“You kicked the door wide open so I could walk onto that stage” Cloher sings, paying tribute to the axe wielding women in Australian music who showed those coming up that it could be done.
In the same song, the band questions the absence of Australia’s female poet laureate, naming checking high profile male songwriters Paul Kelly and Nick Cave. “Nothing against Paul or Nick, but if you want to be remembered, then you better have a dick.” the trio sings.
Jen Cloher has explained why the group decided to enter the world of drag kings.
“Drag has always been a fun way to explore gender through performance. Falling Clouds examines how the rules and privileges of gender have shaped the careers of women and non binary artists in Australia. Whilst it’s a serious subject, we decided to have some fun with it. Choosing to take on three of glam rocks most revered icons, we discovered that even masculinity is a performance. Ru Paul nailed it when he said, ‘We’re all born naked, the rest is drag.’”
Director Annelise Hickey said creating the video was a lot of fun.
“This project was a lot of fun to work on with Jen, Mia, Liz and our wonderful crew. In all honesty, I’m always cautious of working on music video clips where the artist has come up with the concept themselves. Sometimes the budgets are unrealistic for ambitious ideas or there’s a massive risk in creating vision for someone else’s concept only to leave them disappointed. But after listening to the track and meeting with Jen about her concept, there was something she said that stayed with me.
“This isn’t a direct quote but it was something like “we celebrate men being in touch with their femininity but we don’t really celebrate women exploring their masculinity.” I’ve always been a bit of a tomboy and remember strapping down my boobs when I was younger because they made me feel girly, so I was excited to explore the idea of women dressing up like men and taking it that step even further to make those characters based on gay glam rock icons (Freddie Mercury, Elton John and David Bowie).
“The concept was visually rich and having worked with Jen before, I knew how ballsy she would be in approaching her own performance in the clip. Asking Jen Cloher to shove a fake penis down the front of her pants was something a director probably only gets to do once so I guess I’m pretty lucky!”
In 2013, Jen Cloher, Mia Dyson and Liz Stringer came together in the spirit of collaboration and experimentation to release a 3-track EP. They took their music deep into the heart of the country, playing more than 40 shows across every state and territory, as well as festival performances at Byron Bay Bluesfest and Queenscliff Music Festival.
In the intervening six years they all pursued their solo careers – releasing a combined 8 studio albums, winning multiple awards and touring globally. Now, the trio mark their return with Falling Clouds.
Check out the video and the new tune.
Source: Media Release
