Taken from his debut album, 2003 Dream, which was released in September, ‘Mutual Friends’ is a tribute to the singer’s home suburb of Footscray. Made by filmmaker Max Wood, the clip finds the singer performing to the camera as the backdrop serves as a revolving travelogue of the area’s points of interest, including the train station, the fruit market and what is presumably his own house.
As every bit as quirky, charming and intelligent as the music itself, the clip suits the laid back vibe of the song, although the track’s inspiration was eve more surreal.
“Early last year I had to do one of those icebreaker exercises in a class full of 4th year psychology students,” recalls Jarrow. “We had to pick an item from our bag that defined us as a person, and talk about it with a partner to then share with the class briefly after. The partner I ended up working with was a woman who turned out to be probably the craziest person I had ever met in my life. She detailed her history of psychoanalysing herself – not having a series of breakdowns but instead having a series of ‘breakthroughs’. After this class I went straight home and wrote the song, and the rest is history.”
Although only 20 years old at the time, Jarrow personally wrote, recorded and mixed his entire album, which was recently longlisted for the Australian Music Prize. Besides supporting Car Seat Headrest on their sold out gigs later in the month, Jarrow will also play a headline show at The Yarra Hotel in Melbourne this Friday. We recommend you head along.
Jarrow will play The Yarra Hotel in Melbourne on Friday January 20 with tickets available at the door. 2003 Dream is out now on Barely Dressed Records/Remote Control, get it here.
