There's a deeply felt vulnerability when it comes to John Murry's songwriting, whether it be the topic of grief as we recently heard in 'Ones+ Zeros' or whether it be an outpouring of thoughts as you'll find when listening to the Mississippian's latest song 'I Refuse To Believe (You Could Love Me)'.
As Murry tells it: “This song is my take on what Ric Ocasek (RIP) from The Cars mighta written if he had been into those dark "UK Surf" era Pixies mixes and found himself a bit trapped in Kilkenny, Ireland, for some years and - while there - grew a bit more alienated, broke, maligned, and bored by the day, then week, then month, then years. Ric would've probably written something much catchier, but y'all catch my drift, yeah?”
The humdrum of life is contrasted with creative freedom, something emphasised in the music video in which director Ishmael Claxton portrays Murry in a gender-fluid role. The musician transforms into traditionally feminine regalia and performs on stage with Irish drag queens, all of whom are escaping the mundanity of their lives into one of fantasy and self-expression.
Here Claxton expands further on his vision:“The project started two years ago when I met John and Sarah at the Grá 3x2 show at 3 walls gallery. At the show, I had some photos from the early Drag queen series in New York. Over the years since A lot of my work evolved with the non-binary community. Sara reached out about making a video of John in a gender-fluid roll and gave me Artistic freedom. I wrote the script, directed the video with the help of an amazing team. The video deals with breaking down stereotypes, and questioning how do we define the non-binary within ourselves.”