Premiere: Joe Mungovan announces debut album, shares new song Give Me Your Love

There's a couple of reasons why you may recognise Joe Mungovan as a tall-standing figure of New South Wales' indie world. The first is through his work as one-half of El Grande: A project he's built over the last near-decade with Jimmy Vann of alt-rock favourites The Vanns, releasing a couple of singles throughout the course of 2021 after returning with their first single in five years back in February. Then, there is his self-titled solo project, which has an extensive discography of its own as well as a live repertoire including support slots for Gang of Youths and Lime Cordiale, as well as a music festival slot - or 20 - over the last few years.

They're two of the most exciting coastal New South Wales projects there are; long-standing favourites with consistent discographies and enough acclaim to earn them the right as some of the region's most notorious and successful acts of the indie-esque explosion. They're also both acts eyeing a breakthrough year in 2021, with El Grande sharing those aforementioned singles as the Joe Mungovan project announces its debut album A Flower In The Weeds for release this November.

"This album was written and recorded throughout 2020/21," Mungovan announces the project. " I was living remotely when COVID hit and I ended up staying in the home studio I had set up for the rest of the year. I finally felt like I had the time and space to create a cohesive piece of art. I used the time to reflect on the past year of touring, life and love. A Flower In The Weeds was my head-in-the-sand approach to the pandemic, focusing on the positives instead of getting swept up in the bullshit."

Today, we're stoked to premiere the album's next taste in the form of Give Me Your Love, a song that seems to encapsulate the beauty of the album's core theme while offering yet more dimensions to the already multi-faceted sonic palette that Joe Mungovan has spent the last decade so painstakingly building. It's a shimmering and rather low-key moment, tender with a sense of soft romanticism that nestles itself amongst the enchanting melodies and Mungovan's hazy vocal; the end result feeling near-cinematic-like with its gradual, potent unveiling.

There's also an official video clip premiering alongside, the clip - directed by Mungovan and close friend and collaborator Mikey Conlon - bringing the musician back to his hometown of Kiama, New South Wales; a part-love letter, part-ode to the coastal town that raised him. "We were quite restricted with making this video. The initial idea for it had to change quite drastically when the second lockdown became quite serious in NSW," he says.

Nevertheless, they persevered - and the end result is really something quite magical; a reminder of the beauty of a state that as we speak, is really going through it at the moment. "I decided to make it a one shot through my beautiful hometown of Kiama. We came up with a rough map of where we wanted to go and winged it a few times. Although we stumbled across a few hurdles (car doors not opening and lights falling over) we got there in the end."

Give Me Your Love officially arrives this Friday (August 27th), but before then, you can take a dive into the video below, and pre-save the single here. Stay tuned for more information on Joe Mungovan's debut album to come.

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