Sobering alt-pop with a highly personal feel...

George Gretton knew he had to go it alone.

Growing up in Nottingham and now London-based, the alt-pop auteur chooses to go down the DIY road, resulting in some curiously infectious hand made documents.

New single 'Tread Water' is a case in point. Delving into social anxiety and that continual feeling of personal disruption, it emerged during a spell where George was attempting to teach himself production.

He explains: "'Tread Water' was written at a time where I didn’t really have a musical identity or lyrics to draw inspiration from. I had just started to teach myself basic production and I had become fascinated with vocal manipulation and using a contrast between organic and artificial sounds to tell different sides of the same situation. I suddenly found that writing with obscure instrumentation gave me a lot of creative freedom, and the lyrics and arrangement came together pretty quickly after that."

Director Imogen Harrison seizes on the song's latent nervous energy, crafting a video that explores different mental states:

"A couple of months ago, George sent me ’Tread Water’ and I immediately felt a pull to visually represent the anxiety and state of flux that you can hear in the track. George and I spoke a lot about those sleepless nights, where you're left alone to contemplate your own thoughts. The video visualises the dark and intense mental state that comes with change and self-acceptance."

George adds: "There’s this nervous, insecure energy to the song that’s been captured really well. It’s sonically and lyrically frantic but Imogen’s recreated the emotion behind it in a pretty powerful way. We also got to shoot in some beautiful, atmospheric locations - a couple of which we were lucky enough to stumble across en route."

Tune in now.

Photo Credit: Imogen Harrison


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