GUEST MUSICIAN PAUL McLANEY backgrounds his new album Know Return

When the first Gramsci album Permanence was released 25 years ago, at the turn of the millennium, I had the notion that I was embarking on a body of work and I decided that the first letter of each album title should create the overall title.

Sophomore album Object followed two years later. As it turned out, by the time Dave Holmes - my original partner in crime - and I got to the third album, 2005’s Like Stray Voltage, Gramsci went on a semi-permanent hiatus.

I certainly thought there would be no more albums under that moniker and my creative output shifted first on to acoustic albums, (EDIN, Diamond Side) and then IDM/electronica (The Impending Adorations).

As an artist I believe you have to trust your instincts.

I’ve come to call that belief ‘Slot Car Theology’ - the idea that the slot car won’t travel around the track unless its needle is in the groove. I’ve always trusted that intuition.

I still feel the same way… and 15 years and 11 intervening albums later, I decided to resurrect Gramsci.

I should in fact say I found myself writing a collection of songs that were quite obviously the new Gramsci album Inheritance and I found my needle back in that groove.

Greg Haver came on board and was followed by the incredible Marika Hodgson on 2022’s The Hinterlands.

Richard Bell (Depeche Mode, U2, Nirvana) and I collaborated on a companion film T/Here for which I composed new ambient instrumental music to underscore some of the spoken word pieces featured in the film. That collection of music was quietly released as In Formation

That brings us to the last letter of the word that titles the body of work known as Gramsci. The forthcoming album is entitled Know Return

P O L I T I K

Know Return was co-written and produced by Devin Abrams (Pacific Heights) and along with Greg Haver we play all of the instruments.

Devin and I had recently collaborated on a track for his last Pacific Heights album and we wanted to build on that creative partnership. We found ourselves making the final Gramsci album.

I had a magical moment tracking the vocals with Devin in the Hawkes Bay which was a full circle moment to where the first two albums were made.

The first single The Price Of Admission is about taking stock midway through a life and recognising I'm still the same person I have always been, with the same motivations and truth.

The Price of Admission

 

Music, songwriting and the recording process have sustained me as an artist since I first started out in 1996.

In that time I have created 28 albums by my count alongside dozens of collaborations. Some got a lot of attention, some not so much.

I know I’ve been guilty of not giving each release as much attention or promotion that I should. Indeed my two personal favourites to date are probably the least known… I’ve been guilty of always moving on to the next thing and then the next thing.

In the creation of Know Return I knew I was completing something and that it was time to take stock of a quarter century of musical output.

I think it's now time to look at my songs as repertoire and go back and tend those gardens, water those plants and become the singer of those songs, share them.

But I feel like I’m happy to move on from songwriting for the time being.

In March 2024 I released my first book The Deep Dark Hole, a standalone poem which I followed up a few months later with my first poetry collection, Bookshop Prayers.

And I have just completed its successor Too Much Sunlight. My creative needle is now very much in the poetry groove and I find the lyricism I honed in songwriting is finding a renaissance in the poetic form which also allows me a broader palette of topic and humour.

My tastes in music complimented by the aesthetic of my singing voice meant I was composing for my instrument. Now that I have unbridled words from music I’m excited about where the road is taking me.

I’m incredibly proud of Know Return and feel like it is a culmination of all of my musical endeavours and the most ambitious album I’ve ever made; a very good place to leave it.

I had thought about putting it all out in one hit but given it's the last one I don’t want it to be all over on one Friday morning!

I’ve also made the decision to initially release it exclusively on Bandcamp.

No doubt it will eventually find its way to the streaming services but as I begin this final chapter I want it to be with the community that has given me so much support and who value music as the spiritual nourishment it is.

.

Gramsci's Know Return is at bandcamp here