Premiere – Cathal Coughlan and Jacknife Lee’s Telefis project share video for ‘Mister Imperator’
Duo created album of “corrosive nostalgia” during lockdown
Telefís – a collaboration between Cathal Coughlan and Jacknife Lee – share the video for new single ‘Mister Imperator’ exclusively on Juno Daily today.
During the lockdown period, Coughlan – the former singer with Microdisney and Fatima Mansions as well as a long established solo artist – and Jacknife Lee (U2, REM, Two Door Cinema Club) created their debut album, a hAon, a collection of songs that express a “corrosive nostalgia”. The album is set for release in January 2022 on Dimple Discs. ‘Mister Imperator’ is the second song to be shared from this record, following the recent “theocratic electro-pop” of ‘We Need’.
On the new collaboration Cathal had this to say…
“Collaborating in this way, with a dynamic and consummate artist, who has access to a wide range of skills which I don’t have, but with whom I share many common interests and cultural/historical reference points, has been one of the highlights of my creative life. It’s made me so glad that I’ve been able to remain active for long enough to see something like this happen.”
Jacknife Lee added: “I’d just finished mangling a Luke Haines and Peter Buck record. Luke knows Cathal and re-introduced us. On the first or second correspondence we thought we should make some music together. Music is probably the only way I can properly communicate with someone. I sent Cathal the backing track that would become “We Need” and he sent me back the vocal and we went back and forth from there. I’m in Los Angeles and Cathal is mostly in London. Lockdowns and travel restrictions forced us to work remotely and I think helped us get to where we got so quickly. Cathal is without doubt one of the finest lyricists of our time and writes like no one else. Some of the vocals he sent over made me burst out laughing with giddiness and delight at the novelty of them. Mischievous, dark, arcane, crispy fresh, and always unexpected. Every song with a backstory that could be a novel. This is easily the most enjoyable and rewarding music that I’ve been involved with.” On the release of “Mister Imperator” Cathal notes…
“When the Messiah comes, he shall be born of a public house lock-in in Crossmaglen. He will be attended by antelopes”. So runs a gnomic prophecy which was made at the inception of televisual broadcasting in the Irish Republic in 1961, by a deranged Archbishop of Dublin (said to be distracted with anger at the last-minute cancellation of a Monte Carlo luncheon appointment with General Francisco Franco). In time, the launch of the TV station did indeed result in the arrival of a new media class, sometimes augmented by some eccentric or even dangerous characters. In 2021, Telefís presents a potted biography of such a character, the eponymous Mister Imperator. Light entertainment meets contract killing and the whims of today’s Tsars, in the person of a once-unassuming TV studio musician. A male midlife crisis leading to mass ‘misadventures’ and bad Chris de Burgh cover versions in the Russian ‘near abroad’.
The video, by documentary-maker Niall McCann (“Art Will Save The World”, “Science of Ghosts”, “Lost In France”) and photographer Gregory Dunn (whose work is currently exhibited at the National Gallery of Ireland) captures a world where past meet present, where legend meets forensic accountancy, and the knick-knacks get up and bark like hyenas.”
Stream the single here
Buy Cathal Coughlan vinyl here
Buy Jacknife Lee vinyl here
Check the Dimple Discs catalogue here
Telefis channels:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/telefis1961
Twitter: https://twitter.com/telefis1961
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/telefis
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBQvW6eYx1JL6wY9XBEelfQ
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/39tH2fk