David Gray :: There’s Talk Of Mutineers

Twenty-one years since his first studio record, David Gray talks to Donal Dineen about his tenth album Mutineers, released in 2014. In this film the singer-songwriter tells of a new-found confidence that sees him chart unfamiliar territory while cultivating a pugnacious but respectful relationship with his own history. “I think if you’re going forward with an open heart, good things will happen,” says Gray. “You have to sort of tear up the past and let it go.”

——————————————————————

Note from Director :

This footage was filmed before the album ‘Mutineers’ was released. Unfortunately there was a massive lack of communication which meant the documentary I intended to make was never commissioned and my footage was discarded. A year later I am exiled at home, three months housebound after a horrific accident that nearly killed me. I found myself looking through hard drives for something to edit, anything at all. That’s when I unearthed the David Gray interview and all the accompanying footage.

The interviewer Donal Dineen is an old friend of David. They know each other since David’s acclaimed album White Ladder, the cover of which is a design by Donal. I have always been a massive fan of Donals visual imagery and over the years we too have become good friends, sharing a passion for music and living in the same creative landscape.

On the day of the interview all three of us traveled out to Norfolk from London where David took us on a long walk of a coastal region. Excited and fueled by the love of creation, I have never spent as much energy in the space of a few hours as I did that day. My lens bag weighed a massive forty pounds. I would pause every few minutes to change lenses, take a shot, and then run to catch up with David and Donal. The awe inspiring landscape and my body’s adrenalin added to the excitement and joy of running, stopping, capturing, creating. The project pretty much stayed at that kind of pace for three days. The same can be said for legging it around London, filming the city at dawn, during the day, at dusk then night.

To not finish this document for which I am extremely proud, because of poor communication, would have been a creative injustice. Had I died in January this film would never have seen light. I am enormously proud of this effort and happy that it too, lives and breathes.

Myles