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Christian Wethered [pron. wether-red] is a Dublin-based poet and songwriter. His debut album, ‘Mon Petit Jardin’, garnered some well-earned praise; with his poetic lyrics reminiscent of a young Cohen, it is no surprise that the album featured in Hotpress’ top folk albums of 2021.
We have the pleasure of sharing his new video for ‘Into the Garden’, a song centred around the concept of home and what it means to belong. Christian shares:
On the song, he says: “This lonely song charts the tragic but necessary shattering of one’s ideas of perfection, innocence, and home. Once they have left, the lovers cannot return to the Garden of Eden – similarly, each new experience, while beautiful, also has an element of sacrifice. I grew up in Sussex and have spent the last 20 years in and out of Ireland. The increasing number of homeless refugees on the streets of Dublin, the catastrophic conflict in Russia and the Ukraine, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza only serve to problematise our concept of home beyond our wildest conceptions.”
The video was filmed by Nestor Romero Clemente – a recent collaborator with Inni-K. The film, which takes place in Christ Church, Rathgar in Dublin, is a darkly ironic subversion of our attachment to fixed norms, i.e. religion or dogma.
As well as receiving the support of RTE1, RTE Culture and TodayFM for his debut album, he most recently played at Hot Press’ Y&E, The Ruby Sessions, Electric Picnic, Ireland Music Week and First Fortnight. Recent exposure saw him play the MainStage at Beyond the Pale Festival, as well as a series of gigs through Selective Memory, where he supported Hayden Thorpe of Wild Beasts, amongst others. This year, the music video for his single ‘La Madeleine’ won ‘Best Music Video’ at the Dublin International Short Film and Music Festival and is also an ‘Official Selection’ for the Prague Short-film Festival 2023. He currently teaches poetry and songwriting at UCD.
