PREMIERE: Alt-folk outfit Moxie unveil vibrant DIY video for 'The Place Above'

Culture
16 Aug 21

'The Place Above' marks the second single to be taken from Moxie's upcoming album, ‘The Dawn of Motion’.

Energetic Irish alt-folk group Moxie have shared the brand new video for new single 'The Place Above', premiered below by Hot Press.

In the second track taken from forthcoming album The Dawn of Motion, the band’s Tunisian-raised French singer Julia Spanu explores her relationship with her adoptive country, Ireland. The talented singer is currently completing her Masters degree in Performance & Popular Music at Cork School of Music.

Fused with Moxie’s traditional signature sound, the song is a celebration of contemporary songwriting and past heritage. Funky electric guitars and clever instrumentation allows the sound of accordions to soar above colourful electronic modulations, paired with Spanu's spirited vocals and intrepid lyrics.

Their self-directed new music video takes the predominantly Sligo-based band to their local hangout spots, also heading down to a mobile home to film a few karaoke-inspired scenes. The clip shows Moxie belting out the fun tune from a car on a night drive, with Spanu's charisma drawing the viewer in.

"It's a lot of fun," Moxie member Ted Kelly tells Hot Press. Julia took on the role of art director for the shoot, while Ted filmed and edited the clip.

"We shot is around Sligo - myself and Julia shot it around town ourselves to give it more of an urban look compared to the last video. Then we went down to Mullaghmore. The parents of myself and Jos have a mobile home down there and we shot inside to give it that kind of '70s TV show look."

‘The Place Above’ creatively embodies the fundamentals of pop music, conveying the thrill of going on an adventure without knowing the final destination.

Moxie began its journey in 2011, when founding members Darren Roche (accordion), Jos Kelly (accordion, keyboards), Cillian Doheny (banjo, guitar) and Ted Kelly (banjo, tenor guitars) met in Miltown Malbay at popular traditional festival, The Willie Clancy Summer School.

The band released their debut album Planted in 2014 before Josh Sampson joined the band as a drummer in 2017. The sixth and most recent member became Julia Spanu, a French vocalist/songwriter with Vietnamese and Italian roots.

Over the past decade, Moxie has travelled the world - including a state visit to Vietnam, folk festivals in Scotland, the US, and Australia, and tours in Europe and Canada. At home, they have played the likes of Body & Soul and Electric Picnic, and were invited by President Michael D. Higgins’s to entertain German president Joachim Gauck in Áras an Uachtaráin in 2015.

In 2019, Moxie spent the latter months holed up in the wilds of Tipperary writing their new album. In January of last year, the six-member group began recording The Dawn Of Motion at Camden Studios in Dublin. The band chose Alex Borwick (Ellie Goulding, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Jack L) as the chief engineer on the project, it was produced by Jake Birch (Carly Rae Jepsen, Theo Katzman), and Jean Christophe Morel wrote and performed strings.

With roots in traditional Irish music, Moxie are reimagining the genre for a new era by working with modern music production tools and technology to explore how far the boundaries can be pushed. Julia’s pop oriented writing style gave the band a chance to expand their musical horizon and craft a unique new sound.

The Dawn of Motion is slated to arrive on September 3rd.

Check out the video for 'The Place Above' below: