Photo by Madeline Harvey
Relying on shadowy, backlit shots of songwriter Tony Presley wandering through Waller Creek’s dry bed filmed by Mike Ozmun and early 20th century archival footage from the Library of Congress, Real Live Tigers’ new video for “Denatured” captures a sense of somber reflection. The song is the title track from an LP due out on Keeled Scales on April 15. Presley has been wandering the country with little more than a few changes of clothes, an occasional vehicle, and a nylon string guitar for more than a decade. He returned to Texas after moving away for several years, and the title of this new work yields some understanding of his journey.Waller Creek’s dry bed depicts a natural form robbed of that which defines it–water. Similarly, the artistic energy of Austin was the missing sustenance for Presley’s restless creativity. “Denatured” is a pensive processing of a journey through one’s own consciousness in a quest for self-awareness.
