The Irish singer and multi-instrumentalist shares the barren and moorish new visuals for ‘So Easy Pt. II’.

Enda Gallery (FKA delush) has developed a reputation as an orchestrator of sorts and a collaborator capable of harnessing raw talent and leveraging his experience to help realise the vision of some of the country’s most exciting young acts. His ‘Welcome To The New World’ label is staffed by the likes of Strange Boy, Tolü Makay and Willzee among others and across the releases he’s displayed there’s scope for staying true to Ireland’s musical history without compromising on the ultimate goal of innovation. Just a brief listen to Strange Boy’s cutting edge blend of rap and trad on his debut album will give you a feel for the direction of the label.

Enda applies the same approach to much of his own work and today we’ve got the exclusive first look at the visuals for ‘So Easy Pt. II’ which sees the singer and label head explore the barren lands of rural Ireland whilst inviting GRAMMY-nominated production duo Christian Rich to reimagine the track from his debut album and push it into uncharted territory.

Shot across a number of days in County Clare, the naturalistic visuals mark the first new music video from Enda since ‘Lean On It’ released last month. Ahead of the premiere we spoke to Enda about the visuals and how they came together.

Could you talk a little about how the video came together and where it was filmed?

The video was shot during lockdown with Chris Schwarz. Chris is a close friend and I love collaborating with him. In that same week we shot this video, the video for ‘Cowboy Coffee‘ and the video for Strange Boy’s ‘The Pope’. We stayed at my late grandparents’ house near the Burren in County Clare, they ventured out before sunrise and around sunset every day to film the video.

The word “Burren” comes from an Irish word “Boíreann” meaning a rocky place. 

The barren landscape evokes the feeling of a disconnected mind, separate from life, harsh in its conditions and severe in its aesthetic, and yet, somehow beautiful. It almost looks like a different planet there, or the surface of the moon. It’s starkness is a great representation of a treacherous mind. It was no easy feat to film and in pursuit of the shots, we climbed one particularly challenging thorny mountain of rock, I was in barefoot and mostly in the nip in the cold of an October night and morning. Specifically we were working around Mullaghmore and in and around Inchiquin Lough which is said to be enchanted and definitely felt enchanted. 

One night we had climbed the mountain at Mullahmore and the shots up there were just too good to leave. We pushed the time and it was clear the darkness would descend on us while still close to the top. We had remembered the way and used the film lights to show the way for our slow descent. Of course the torrential rain arrived to welcome us as we finally made it down, haha, but it was worth it.

What inspired the track itself?

I was originally riffing over a Nils Frahm instrumental at my friend Habib’s house. 

He wanted to get into songwriting and I was encouraging him to break through that barrier of self-judgement that stops people just flowing with what’s already there inside. 
I said to him, It’s so easy, let me show you how easy it is brother, you just go and let the words and melody come out without judgement – straight from the soul. 

I turned up the music and jokingly started singing “It’s So Easyyyyy” in a very particular way over the background piano and both of us immediately were like “Oh that’s actually amazing” and I kept going like a confessional stream of consciousness. 
We had been smoking a little and conversing deeply and the whole song just arrived right there. It was awesome. 

How did you connect with Christian Rich?

The story of this song is not your typical one. My sound got a rep in Berlin as being smooth, lush, deep. I was invited to perform live at an ethical pornography screening in Soho House, Berlin. The concept was four artistic and ethically made films shown with live scoring performed by four different artists. Mine caught the attention of Christian Rich who were performing at another event and attending the screening. They asked to be introduced and told me they loved what I was doing, my voice, my writing and were overall just so kind and genuine. I had no idea who they were right then but immediately the click and spiritual connection between us was powerful. We hung out a bunch and they asked me to contribute writing and vocals to the soundtrack of their beautiful short film ‘Everything Looks Bigger Closer’.

The guys have endless talents and interests. In the back and forth of creative exploration, they were moved by an early unreleased demo of my song ‘So Easy’. It was a much different version to the one which is out now on my debut album ‘The Journey to Zero’. They set to work on it and totally re-imagined and re-worked the song giving the track a brand new birth and masterfully created something incredible. It was pretty surreal, they would head away to work with Die Antwoord, ASAP Rocky and Jaden and then come back and continue work on the track. They are true professionals and have stayed totally grounded despite their success, which is the only way to truly live. I learned a lot from them and I’m grateful to life that this happened. 

Watch the video for ‘So Easy, Pt. II’ below:

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