Watch the video for 'Evolve' here -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju1Nzuj8iwU

As well as Sad Clown, for a while, I had a separate project called ‘The Palette Social that focused on more progressive and heavier music. This is where Sam Robson and I really found our feet as collaborators, using it as an opportunity to explore what we felt we couldn’t in our existing projects. Unfortunately, as often can happen, this project became unsustainable due to other band members needing to leave to focus on other projects, money, time etc
But, Sam and I continued to work on the material and spent months going back and forth on the best way to get this stuff out there. Ultimately, we felt that having this be an expansion of Sad Clown was best and could potentially even begin a trend of collaborative E.Ps.

The title of the E.P, 'Sons Of Omission', was actually, originally, a potential band name for us releasing music as a duo. This may be revisited in the future if more collaborations are possible.

A little about the tracks;

Evolve – I have always loved to incorporate elements of traditional dance based music into heavier and more alternative arenas. This song features a combination of heavy riffage with traditional Irish jigs and folk music and was so much fun to record. This track almost ended up being the title track of the E.P due to the fact that it’s theme does act as a very appropriate headline to the transitional period I went through during it’s creation. Exploring the idea of becoming a new person after a trauma has been present in a lot of my songwriting recently and is certainly reflective of where I currently am in my life.

Among The Machines – The songs on this E.P were all, in some way or another, influenced heavily by film, even written with specific potential visuals in mind. This was very much the ‘Sci-fi’ track, exploring the idea of technologies corruption of our society and future. Stylistically I’d say this draws on influences of heavily orchestrated and futuristic rock/metal like Devin Townsend and Muse, but also, as my music often does, embraces the fragility and softness of bands like The Shins and Death Cab For Cutie. It has been a lot of fun having the opportunity to explore a more ‘quirky’ and ‘darker’ side to my arrangements.

Dead Or Alive – This, I would say, is the closet to a traditional Sad Clown track within this collection. While still embracing a heavier feel and more dense arrangement, this more acoustic and natural feeling song was one that bounced between multiple projects for a while.
As these projects evolved, I was more and more wanting to incorporate my guitar playing. I previously had side lined solos in Sad Clown as I wanted to focus on story telling and slightly simpler arrangements. But, by allowing the guitar to come back in as a bigger feature, I do feel that I am able to achieve a more raw and immediate expression and I want to use Sad Clown as a platform to show as many different sides to myself as possible.

Our Truth (In Denial But Getting By) – This song was really important in the development of this project. Sam’s love for this track fuelled such intense inspiration and creativity that it really got the ball rolling for the whole E.P. Our normal working structure for this project was for me to get the songs 70 percent there and then connect with Sam to re-arrange/restructure, finalise production and put the icing on the cake. However, we took a very different approach with this song. After hearing my demo, Sam was immediately filled with ideas and I wanted to give him as much freedom as possible to make it his own. This song is, perhaps, the best example of the direction ‘The Palette Social’ was heading in, had it continued. I hope to be able to incorporate elements of this style in future Sad Clown songs and definitely collaborate with Sam again in the future.