Feather Trade Drop “A Ready Defense” Video

“I wouldn’t say this was ever meant to be a ‘Christmas’ song as such, but it’s a song about winter and how I believe it is, after all these centuries, still the hardest time of the year for humanity. Deep down I think it brings out our best nature to want to look for the greater good in everyone, but I think we’re often tortured by the inability to find ways to do it.” (Chisholm Thompson)

Manchester via Athens, Georgia trio Feather Trade have followed their recent successful UK tour by releasing the stunning video for their latest single, A Ready Defense, that was co-directed by Manchester film maker and cinematographer Pete Tomkies and the band’s vocalist and guitarist Chisolm Thompson. The video follows the three members of the band travelling over land from morning until night, struggling over the moors and endeavoring toward some greater goal. Interlaced throughout the video are shots of various people holding various statistics concerning the affects of winter on humanity, for better and for worse. Intermittently are shots of the band in darkness facing these facts in both a literal and a more symbolically internal sense.

“I have an old Victorian postcard of nocturnal animals in the moonlight on a desolate snow-covered hill, holding hands and dancing around a blindfolded rabbit. At the bottom the text reads ‘By Loving Friends You Are Surrounded, Oh Be Not Blind To This’. In A Ready Defense, both the song and the video, we wanted to offer something that brings attention to the struggles we all face at this time of year. In doing so, we wanted to remind everyone that we are together, as we share the common struggles. Some may not fight the same battles as you, but they may be anguished for ways to be your ally. You may have miles of challenges but there is someone willing to walk with you, or who has walked in your shoes before.” (Chisholm Thompson)

The band acknowledge that the images in the video may be a trigger point to some and a call to action for others and recognise the urgency of this responsibility. As such, on their website they have provided links that, as they say, they hope “Will help in your time of need or in your time of generosity”. The video for A Ready Defense comes ahead of the release of the debut studio album from Feather Trade, recorded with US producer Matt Yelton and scheduled for released next Spring, with further UK dates to be announced to coincide with the release.