One True Pairing (Tom Fleming) returns with new music - “Frozen Food Centre” out now
One True Pairing
Tom Fleming returns with new music
“Frozen Food Centre” out now
Watch short film directed by James Hankins here
One True Pairing, aka Thomas Fleming, former Wild Beasts songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, returns today with the blissfully tender “Frozen Food Centre” and a beautifully human short film directed by James Hankins (Richard Dawson).
Produced and mixed by John ‘Spud’ Murphy (Lankum, black midi, caroline) at Dublin’s Hellfire Studios and featuring Cormac MacDiarmada of Lankum on banjo among a cast of Irish instrumentalists, “Frozen Food Centre” is a poignant small-town vignette about childhood and adulthood, where home is a place to escape and there are ghosts in the aisles of supermarkets. A track that had “been in (Tom’s) head for about seven years”, it is one of the most honest and searching songs of his career.
“There's a Chris Marker quote, ‘I have been around the world several times, and now only banality interests me’," Tom says. “Places that aren’t on the map and may not ever be. Well-kept gardens, ring roads, clusters of identical houses. Ghouls ten years your senior seeping out of the cracks. They know your name and your habits, drifting under the floodlights in the car park.”
Following the story of many unnamed characters, the accompanying short film directed by James Hankins is dark, cold and grey, yet at the same time, a poignant visual depiction of unwavering human strength and the tireless will to carry on. “The heroism and resilience of people constantly amaze me,” says Tom. “How rich their lives are and how little we see of them. You never really escape your fate. Not really. Thank you to James Hankins for creating this for me.”
James comments: "After spending a few months fighting mould in my real life home, I decided to bring that same stress and worry into these characters' lives too."
Watch the short film for “Frozen Food Centre” here.
Listen to “Frozen Food Centre” here.
In 2019, Fleming released his debut album as One True Pairing - his first since the split of Wild Beasts and an album described by The Quietus as “excellent” and praised by Clash for its “surprisingly confrontational” meditation on class frustration and self despair.
Flemings’ output has always looked at ideas around masculinity - the sad and sexy music of Wild Beasts subverting accepted roles around young Northern men. Now older and wiser, his new music continues this theme from a place of newfound experience.
Watch this space for new music soon!
One True Pairing Online:
Website | Instagram | Facebook
