Throughout his career as the lead guitarist and co-writer of the Canadian indie rock band The Dears, Patrick Krief has been busy, and we mean b u s y. Touring with the likes of Midlake, Morrissey, Metric, Broken Social Scene in places like the Wembley Arena, Hyde Park, Electric Ballroom, Koko as well as V Festival, Redding, Leeds, Glastonbury, T in the Park to name (not) a few.

Krief is ready to release his solo material, He overcomes grief and loss through songwriting therapy on his paired album Automanic Red and the darker Automanic Blue. The grief of losing close friends and family reaches audiences on a universal connection, further enhanced by poetic lyrics and familiar rock motifs.

The video for “Automanic” animates the album artwork (below) reliving the tense moments before a car crash. In the video, the driver struggles to focus on the road as painful memories break her concentration. Krief appears as a ghostlike passenger in the car, reminding us that we can’t run away from our demons. The blinding headlights signal the collision and the impact beautifully overlaps dizzying camera effects during an orchestral bridge. In the final chorus, the message comes back to us in the lyrics, “it’s in your hands now.”

Krief on “Automanic”

‘I often think of a film in my mind and write to that picture. The imagery I was getting for the song “Automanic” was that of someone driving on a dark highway and experiencing hallucinations in their passenger seat. Each hallucination is reminiscent of a failed relationship, ultimately distracting the driver into crashing the car. With that in mind I wanted the song to have a sense of acceleration and impending doom that I achieved by using pitch-shifting synths, and a drum beat that would get more chaotic with each measure. I chose this song as the title track, ’cause to me, it’s one song on the album that encapsulates every single other song involved. I approached Daniel Abraham and Pierre Alexandre Girard with the concept, and they brought it to a whole other level.’

L I V E
UK Tour Dates:
– 18th November – The Swan, Ipswich
– 21st November- The Wheatsheat- Oxford City Festival
– 23rd November- Paper Dress Vintage, London
– 24th November- Sofar Sounds, London
– 25th November- Factory, Manchester