Inishturk

We put the video for our song Ghosts online a few weeks back and I wanted to let people know a bit about the process and how we made the video. It was filmed on a small island called Inishturk just off the west coast of Ireland – about here....

 

We had filmed music videos before but never with someone who wasn’t our mate, so we were all really looking forward to working with director Eoighan Kidney. Also we couldn't wait to get pretty awkward and embarrassed as a load of strangers watched us lip sync to a double-speed version of the song...

So, we set off for Ireland. Getting on a plane anywhere with Sons & Lovers is always a dream because Josh is terrified of flying, so it always makes for a fun journey. 

We flew to Knock Airport, met up with Eoighan and producer Maura and got a ferry over to the Island. Sons & Lovers is NOT a seafaring beast, so there was lots of trying to pose and look casually cool while feeling pretty queasy (hence the lack of footage of us on the boat I believe…).

We got to Inishturk in the early evening and were instantly in awe of the remote, wind-swept, stone wall-riddled island and the immediately welcoming smiles of the locals. We filmed up on the cliffs until it was dark, then headed back to our B&B (the only one on the island).

We had a 5am call the next morning (NOT the one), where it pretty much rained constantly as we were trying to shoot.

We went up into the mountains and did a SHIT LOAD of this...

And this...

Loads more of this...

Got directed a bit like this...

More importantly, we met THIS GUY...

And this guy...

And then we had some of these... 

We then went over to see the much-talked-about Inishturk sheep sheering competition, where Dan pretty much instantly became the official photographer for the local paper – talented lad!

The islanders put on some light entertainment, the like of which I have never seen...

We went exploring and found this absolute delight of a beach...

And after a bit of liquid courage…

  

…we got all over excited and went swimming in the Atlantic. COLD IS NOT THE WORD.

We then did some more walking on some pretty Jurassic Park-esque cliffs up in the clouds, some more singing and then some more walking again. We bloody love a cliff walk now, even though we got pretty cold and wet and still, somehow, got sunburnt. Classic S&L.

After a pretty long day we wrapped the filming and went to visit Inishturk’s Community Centre where there was some SERIOUS dancing going on.

Some of us tried to join in... (by far my favourite video of the weekend)

I’d never experienced anything like what happened next. People sitting at the bar started to, out of nowhere, sing these incredibly passionate, heartbreaking ballads and the room just fell silent until they’d finished. They sang about hardship, lost love, famine and family. Lots of people sang but there were some pretty tough looking men sitting at the bar, who would just seemingly empty their souls to the room which was amazingly moving. It's something that I don’t think I’ll forget anytime soon, I could never imagine that happening in England.

There was a great band playing throughout, but unfortunately, the islanders then wanted to hear what we sounded like so we played a few songs – because I’m apparently I'm that guy now...
(Also, not quite sure why this was filmed on a camera from the stone age)

We had a really fun evening and want to thank everyone on the island for making us feel so welcome and for sorting Dan's hair out... 

On the ferry back to the mainland the next morning I kept thinking of what led us to this remote, weather-worn Atlantic island, how we ended up meeting the wonderful, welcoming islanders and hearing their stories and songs. All because of a three-and-a-half-minute song we wrote in a tiny room in North London a few months beforehand... Who’d have thought?

We got to the airport and all my overly philosophical, sentimental and generally emo feelings were transformed into devious joy as I realised Josh had to get on yet another plane.

Inishturk – thanks for being awesome, we love you.

Tom x

SONS & LOVERS - GHOSTS