Darren Hanlon: Folk Insomnia from shoottheplayer.com

Sydney singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon sometimes hosts ‘Under the Clothesline’ gigs in his backyard; for $5 you can get a veggie burger and see great local & international musicians play to an intimate audience of friends. It’s at these little gigs where we connected with many of the bands we first filmed for Shoot The Player;  people like Ned Collette, Pikelet & Laura Jean.

We’ve wanted to film Darren for years, Jonathan and I are big fans of both his music & his funny stage banter – he’s a great storyteller.  How can you not like a guy who sings songs about the greatness of squash?

Darren Hanlon: Scenes from a Separation from shoottheplayer.com.

Darren wanted to make a film in an office in Sydney, but we never got around to making this happen.  When Amelia literally ran into him on the street in Portland Oregon the timing just seemed right.  Amelia was in town working on a documentary & Darren was recording and competing in pinball tournaments.

Amelia filmed Darren over two days – one typically grey and chilly, and the other gloriously sunny and warm.  For the first, a cold Darren took us to the iconic Portland 24-Hour Church of Elvis and across the street to a pinball arcade.  For our second shoot, we all enjoyed a sunny emerald-green lawn overlooking Portland’s train yards.

We’ve posted in this blog two new songs and a Darren Hanlon classic.  Keep an eye out for the pinball video and Darren singing to some native Portlanders in another blog soon, as well as a video of Darren and Andrew Bird playing in the famous backyard.