Ger Eaton (pronounced Jair, short for Gerard) is an Irish multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, hair stylist and retro-vintage aficionado, most recently known as keyboardist/guitarist for Dublin alt-rock heroes The Pale.
However, Ger has been a revered mainstay of the Irish music scene for many years as a member of Premonition (EMI), Las Vegas Basement (Columbia), Les Marionettes, Pugwash, The Carnival Brothers and via numerous solo and collaborative recordings.
Throughout this time he has also recorded and toured extensively with the likes of Mundy, Duke Special, Jack L and Fionn Regan, playing everywhere from Glastonbury Festival to the ‘Later With Jools Holland’ TV show.
Ger explains that the subject matter of his slo-mo, psych-folk redolent new single, ‘Season Changes’, “deals with the often inevitable decay of a relationship, from the glowing bloom of its Spring, gradually ebbing away to its wintry conclusion,” while the song itself was “born out of a newly strung guitar and a late night rewatching of The Wicker Man.”
“I’ve always found that one of the most useful tools as a songwriter is using different instruments (from my ever-expanding collection!) to form a song’s cornerstone,” Ger continues. “In the case of ‘Season Changes’, it was my old Fender acoustic guitar that I’d just restrung in Nashville tuning. It seemed to give it an almost ethereal quality that guided the formation of the song’s hypnotic and echoing arpeggio. I found myself happily picking the same chord shape for hours, my mind lost in its musical simplicity, yet also acutely aware of its endless melodic potential. Later that evening, to switch off and unwind, I decided to rewatch one of my favourite films….and so the song’s journey began.”
The evocative extended video for ‘Season Changes’ was shot in the historic Tea Lane Cemetery in Celbridge, Co Kildare, a dozen miles west of Dublin and where Eaton has been primarily based for two decades. “I approached its custodian with my idea for the video, and they very kindly granted me access, with my very own key, to its wonderfully creaky gates! We had decided that the clip should have a dark, almost gothic feel, and be our own special homage to the folk horror genre. All of my videos to date have been shot in a single continuous take, and we kept with that format up until around midway through, when things took a more sinister turn…”
GER EATON – MAN ABOUT THE TOWN