Haken guitarist Charlie Griffiths has released a new video for Crawl Walk Run – watch it below! The track features a vocal performance from former Textures vocalist Danïel De Jongh, and is taken from Griffiths' palaeontology-inspired debut soo album Tiktaalika, which is out now via InsideOut.
"This was actually the first track I completed for the album and it was the first track I heard with Darby Todd playing real drums, as opposed to my demo programming," explains Griffiths. "Once I heard the magic he brought to the song, it really inspired me to push the other tracks further to utilise his style to the max.
"I’ve also been a fan of Daniel De Jongh’s voice since I heard his band Cilice on MySpace I think!? Years before he joined Textures. Hearing his blend of aggression, soul and feel delivering my lyrics was an incredible feeling too, far surpassing how I imagined it. I wanted to put together this video so people can see these guys in action in their studios, as a kind of behind the scenes look at how Tiktaalika was made."
Alongside De Jongh and Todd, Tiktaalika also features a host of guest musicians including keyboard wizard Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) and saxophonist Rob Townsend (Steve Hackett).
“All of the guest musicians took the songs to another level,” Griffiths adds. “I had everything written and demoed, so the guys could quickly learn the parts, but I gave free rein for them to bring their personality to the party. Darby’s drumming style, is so beautifully improvised and more jazz-fusion influenced, when paired with my riffs, it resulted in something unexpected. It blows my mind that the synth solo Jordan played was the very first take! Capturing that spirit of spontaneity within a structured piece is always very special."
Griffiths has previously released videos for Luminous Beings, Digging Deeper, Arctic Cemetery and the album's title track.
