13th Floor New Song Of The Day: The Sou’Westers – Blue Pillow

Here’s a little something to mellow you out on this Friday…The Sou’Westers’ new song, Blue Pillow.

And just who are these Sou’Westers? They are: Liam Ryan ( keyboards) and Dean Hetherington (guitars) and singer/guitarist Aly Cook.

Here’s the record company blurb with more info:

New single release “Blue Pillow” comes 5 years since the Sou’Westers’ album “Going West” dropped in 2015. In the years between the band has charted in New Zealand and Australia, toured and played festival gigs and continues to weave its magic highlighting the musical interplay between Liam Ryan ( keyboards) and Dean Hetherington (guitars) and the gifted vocals of singer/guitarist Aly Cook.

‘Blue Pillow’ had its genesis in a poem written by Ryan’s wife Amanda who riffed on ideas of loneliness and abandonment while living in Diamond Harbour in 2016. The band did a late night jam on the song and the files were shelved for a couple of years while Ryan fulfilled keyboard duties with The Narcs and relocated his studio from Christchurch north to Waihi and Cook pursued the release of her third solo album ‘Caught in the Middle’ in Australia. The lyric motif was fleshed out by Ryan and Cook in Waihi early in 2020 just as Covid 19 was about to launch itself across the globe. The song’s sentiments resonated with themes of distance and isolation.

As the world went into lockdown Ryan went to work mixing the song and the band called on the services of Sydney drummer Graham ‘Buzz’ Bidstrup (The Angels, GANGgajang) to add some Australian swag to the rhythm.

The result is “Blue Pillow” – a melancholy but uplifting hymn to solitude and the yearning for human touch.

With both the music production and video produced in level 4 lock down files travelled between Australia, Nelson, Hokitika and Waihi and some stock footage added in and the single and video was created .