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PREMIERE: Mike Waters paints a pretty picture with Gambling Man

Don’t feel left out if you haven’t heard of Melbourne’s Mike Waters yet. In fact, many of his close family and friends didn’t know who he was until recently. Well… they knew he was a person they just didn’t know that he was whittling away at music stuffs in the wee hours behind closed doors.

Mike the person is a humble web developer by day, but by night he has been fighting crime writing and recording his own music in the quiet confines of his bedroom. Now Mike is ready to unleash the fruits of his labor with his debut EP LIFE along with his goopy video for Gambling Man.

Mike Waters premi

Mike Waters paints the man he wants to be in the simple, fun and endearing film clip for Gambling Man.

The video for Gambling Man could easily be the spiritual counterpart to Children Collide‘s video for Loveless. The obvious comparisons are there with the lone singer being accosted by ambiguous hands and ludicrous amounts of face paint. But while the Loveless video symbolised the stripping away of one’s life, Gambling Man embraces the notion of moving forward, growing and changing into something better. Which is appropriate given the EP is called LIFE after all.

The clip was directed by Mike’s mate and award winning photographer Oli Sansom. The guys had wanted to collaborate together on a video project for a while, as long as it could be done on the cheap, quickly and would be something to be proud of. It’s safe to say they’ve met those requirements and then some.

Needless to say when shooting a one take video that involves lots of paint plenty of rehearsal was involved. Says Mike on the development of the video “I regularly sat in that chair in the freezing cold, shirtless and with my head covered in a mixture of sorbolene, cornflour and food colouring. Oli’s studio doesn’t have hot water, so cleaning up afterwards was testing. But it was definitely worth it”. It’s a playful video, and any signs of discomfort or stress are non existent. As Mike is repeatedly smeared with different colours and cleansed before the next helping there is a sense of discovery. It’s as though he is peeling back the layers to confirm his identity, not just as an artist but as a man.

Mike will be hitting the road to launch LIFE, so be sure to get down and check him out, or at the very least ask for some web design pointers. Get your tix here!

Thursday June 11 – The Wheatsheaf, Adelaide

Friday June 12 – Oxford Art Factory Gallery Bar, Sydney

Friday June 19 – Shebeen, Melbourne