Today we premiere the new video for ‘The Great Pretend’ from pop chameleon Piney Gir, watch it above. Evocative, ever so slightly surreal and wry, she bills it as a “celebration of analogue gear with a sound that nods back to when music was on the cusp of change, just before synth pop and just after punk rock.” Piney’s lyrics are a little twisted but ripe with duality, like a backhanded compliment from Dorothy Parker. The song was inspired by an eventful night spent at cult author Neil Strauss’s home in Malibu, where he lives in Rick Reuben’s tree house.
Piney explains more about ‘The Great Pretend’ and the infamous night with Neil Strauss; “I arrived on a balmy LA night with a full moon and the warm sea breeze lilting over the palm tree silhouettes, it was a real ‘how the other half live’ moment, this place was like paradise, full moon, palm trees. I introduced myself to the bodyguard at the door and took my place at the large table I was led to.
There was an ex-prostitute-cum-presenter vomiting loudly in the toilet, there was an artist whose thing was painting large oil paintings of stills from porn films, then there was me and next to me was Matt the founder of Light In The Attic Records. I tried my first pickleback which is a dangerous kind of truth serum, and it got pretty weird; all the while I had this worry that I was some kind of an imposter, what am I doing in this treehouse in Malibu with this glitterati?
I sometimes feel like I’ve got little girl lost syndrome, and Neil actually called me up on it and we had a very ‘sh*t got real’ kinda conversation, he had this ability to tap into my psyche in a way that I hadn’t encountered before. I was telling these people stuff I’d never told anyone and I left confused and elated by this weird night. This song is about that experience and how polarising it was in my strange brain. I knew I would never forget that night, although I didn’t know it would inspire a song, but here it is.”
She has been touring with Gaz Coombes, both as the support act and as his backing singer. You can see them in action on Later With Jools Holland from last week – HERE
