DT: OCTOBER 23, 2020

FM: MITCH SCHNEIDER/KELLY WALSH

 

MULTICULTURAL ACOUSTIC GUITARIST-SINGER-SONGWRITER
IAN GOTHE

JOINS FORCES WITH AMERICANA-UK
TO REVEAL MUSIC VIDEO + Q&A FOR
“LIEZAH”
(ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY ENGLISH OUTFIT THE CORAL)

DIRECTED BY
PRINCE BAGDASARIAN

TRACK FEATURED ON IAN’S DEBUT ALBUM
‘MEMENTO’

OUT NOW VIA BLACKBIRD RECORD LABEL

cid:image009.jpg@01D5D695.30771780Photo credit: Fred Mendoza

“With excellent musicianship and an engaging arrangement, Gothe makes the song his own.”
–Andrew Frolish, Americana-UK (10/21/2020)

Los Angeles-based acoustic guitarist-singer-songwriter IAN GOTHE spent much of his adolescence traveling across continents in search of a home. Born to an Armenian family in Iran, his family relocated to England before the revolution and he later made his way to the United States. Being able to experience music from his vast cultural upbringing influenced his eclectic style which fuses musical genres and language barriers alike. On his debut album MEMENTO—co-produced by IAN and Grammy-winning producer with engineer Jim Scott (Wilco, Tom Petty) and released this past February via the California-based Blackbird Record Label—IAN pays tribute to these influences including a lively cover of “Liezah” by the revered British rock group The Coral. He has partnered with the UK-based site Americana-UK to premiere the song’s cinematic music video which was shot in multiple locations throughout Southern California. Watch it streaming below or via YouTube here and read a Q&A with IAN below.

The music video is based on IAN’s “story of a modern-day Robin Hood,” and features actress + model Katie Shorey as Liezah while being directed by Prince Bagdasarian whose current film Abducted is airing now on Showtime, and his directorial debut feature film Abstraction has garnered various awards at festivals after its release in the U.S. by Breaking Glass Pictures in 2015. Read more about the track and the making of the video in a Q&A below with IAN.

Ian Gothe - Liezah

IAN GOTHE Q&A ABOUT THE “LIEZAH”
TRACK + VIDEO

What did you want the video to communicate?

IAN GOTHE: “This is the fifth video from the album.  Just like the previous four, I wanted each to be different from the previous one.  In this video, I didn’t want the focus to be on me–I wanted it to be on the main character, Liezah, for which actress Katie Shorey did a great job.  I wanted the video to be entertaining, to tell a fun short story.  So I wrote the story of a modern-day Robin Hood.”

Where was the video filmed?

“There were different residential properties utilized in Glendale, Montrose and La Crescenta. The nighttime driving footage was shot in Montrose, the laundromat footage was filmed in City of Sylmar and the outside city/horse footage was captured in the Acton.”

Any interesting anecdotes to relate during the making of the video?

“On the last day of filming, we were heading to Saddleback Butte State Park to capture some desert footage and possibly some footage at an abandoned gas station near the park.  On our way there in a 1968 Firebird, the car stalled on us on the freeway and we were still about an hour and a half away from our destination.  About ten minutes later while waiting for a tow truck, the car started again, and we got off the first exit to a safe location.  The car was running now but we didn’t want to take the chance to drive to the desert and get stuck there, so instead of calling it a day, we said let’s see if we can find an interesting location near here that we can use.  After driving in the area for about 15 minutes, we stopped in front of a barn that looked cool.  We got out and I started playing/singing the song. What happened next was really cool–a few horses came down the hill and stood in front of me and started to intensely listen to the song, and we said that’s it! This is the location! And the horses ended up in the video.  The car stalling on us was a happy accident.”

What led you to cover this song by the British group The Coral?

“Whenever I hear the song, it takes me back to the time when I lived in England.  Reminds me of the good times I had there.”

What do you feel the song possesses that inspired you to do your own version?

“Well, I love the lyrical imagery of the song.  Also just like me, I think at one point or another everyone has had a Liezah in their lives, a woman who was not particularly nice to them, but no matter what she did, you still love her.”

Your version of the song had beautiful production touches. Can you walk about what you feel producer Jim Scott added to the track?

“Yes, it was a pleasure working with Jim.  It was Jim who asked me to play the electric sitar on this song.  Another cool instrument that Jim had in his studio that we used on this song was a vintage marxophone. One more thing that I’m personally proud of in this video is the intro music that I played on the pedal harp.”

MEMENTO features performances by all-star musicians Derek Frank (Shania Twain, Gwen Stefani), Fernando Perdomo (Jakob Dylan, Fiona Apple), Tamir Barzilay (Macy Gray, Tal Wilkenfeld), and Sam Babayan (The Dirty Diamond).

The album’s leading single was a cover of The Doors’ “Spanish Caravan” premiered via Guitar Player magazine (10/30/19) and garnered praise from The Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger who said: “I love it! It’s tough to cover Doors songs because the originals are so iconic. But Ian wasn’t afraid to stick to the original format and did a great job of capturing the feel. There’s a new flamenco/rock movement happening now in Europe–maybe Ian will lead the way!”


Three additional singles were released during the campaign: his original track “Take Me Home,” which is sung entirely in Armenian, opening track “Andalusian Moondance” and “Blood On the Rooftops In Montrose.” The latter is IAN’s homage to Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett for which the intro to the song is from Hackett’s “Blood On The Rooftops,” from the Genesis album Wind & Wuthering, paired with an original piece by IAN.

Stream/download MEMENTO at http://smarturl.it/IanGothe.

For more information on IAN GOTHE, please visit:
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM

SRO PR ASSETS: http://www.msopr.com/ian-gothe

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For press inquiries, please contact:

SRO PR
Mitch Schneider – mschneider@sropr.com
Kelly Walsh – kwalsh@sropr.com