VIDEO PREMIERE | Tullycraft, "The Railway Prince Hotel"

The upbeat arts of Tullycraft; press photo courtesy of the band/HHBTM Records.

Following up Lost in Light Rotation from 2013, Tullycraft celebrate the release of their album The Railway Prince Hotel with a debut look at the video for the title track. The gang of Jenny Mears, Sean Tollefson, Chris Munford and Corianton Hale continue on their seventh album a tradition steeped in the C86 sounds of tapes and discs held near and dear to the band's hearts and spirits that continue to inform the modernist minimalism of today's rising upstarts. The group embraces an aesthetic that is both sentimental and sensible that greets life's tribulations and challenges with a smile and attitude that leaves the audience uplifted with the feeling of a holiday in the hearts of their listeners.

Taking their name from a slice of 60s mod culture lore; the visual for "The Railway Prince Hotel" is a visual montage of throwback images from that halcyon era of polyester clad happenings and carefree youth in revolt. Everything from beehive wigs, go-go dance parties, train track tomfoolery and a barrage of outdoor events of unlimited excitement are shown in split-screens that visually jams together all the enthusiasm of the title cut. The classic imagery speaks to the styles and sensibilities that Tullycraft adores to no end, editing an array of vintage film to compliment the warm feel of their pepped-up sound that is dedicated to all the beloved former forebears that have shaped our contemporary modern world of eclectic sounds & visions.

Tullycraft shared the back story as to what initially inspired “The Railway Prince Hotel”:

Richard Barnes was roommates with Pete Townshend in the early 60’s. They bonded over their mutual love for old R&B and soul records and Townshend has said that Barnes was very important to The Who's thinking process in the early days. Townshend once said: [Barnes] and I used to sit around and talk about The Who as an installation, we wrote a manifesto for the group together. When the band needed a new name (they had previously been called The High Numbers and The Detours) Townshend and Barnes sat up all night suggesting joke names, until Barnes finally came up with The Who.

In early 1964, Richard Barnes was working as a promoter for the Railway Hotel in Wealdstone. He hosted a Mod Night every Tuesday. When I heard this quote from him about prepping the club for one of these Tuesday night events, I was convinced there was a song idea in there:

What we did with the Railway Hotel, it was a sort of an institutional pub kind of place. It was a bit sordid and grotty like they all are. So we blacked out all the windows, turned all the radiators up and we took all the light bulbs out and put in pink or red ones. So it was dark. It was hot. The bands were loud. We had too many people in there. And it was fantastic.  —Richard Barnes

So obviously, black out the windows at the Railway Prince Hotel was inspired by this quote. I changed the venue name slightly to make it our own thing, an actual hotel and I wrote the rest of the song around this initial idea. Sometimes it just takes one line to inspire a whole song.

Tullycraft’s The Railway Prince Hotel is available now via HHBTM Records.