Dublin singer-songwriter Robert John Ardiff’s ‘Gimme All Of Your Money’ is an earworm of a tune that like Spinal Tap, has to come right out and tell you everything in demanding some of your cash.
This time, the demand is coming from the perspective of a bank manager in the current housing crisis. Ardiff says the tune is “a tongue in cheek response to our current financial/housing crisis.”
I imagined a character with a balaclava going into a bank and asking for a loan and the bank manager taking it off him and putting it on themselves.
The video for the song by Steve Battle (who Ardiff was in Come On Live Long with), underscores the idea, with Ardiff playing both the downtrodden artist asking for cash from the bank and the manager, who is more of a pimp in this situation. Battle says:
” When Robert came to me with his vision for the film I instantly knew that we could have a lot of fun with the theme whilst also hitting a resonant chord.
The cost of living coupled with rising inflation and the near impossibility of gaining a mortgage as a practising artist is a reality that all too many have to face these days. Many have had to turn their back on their art and compromise as a result.
I wanted the music video to have a playful element whilst also maintaining at its core an important message about the divide in society.
The film for Gimme All of Your Money is a grotesque satirical nod to a world where the rich keep on getting their way oblivious to the plight of those in lower social-economic groups who face a very real struggle on a daily basis.”
The song features on Robert John Ardiff’s forthcoming third album Once I Was, coming after The Corridors of Love (2021) and Between The Bed and Room (2018).
“‘Once I Was’ deals with looking back on your past and acknowledging and exploring how and why something appears differently now to how you perceived it at the time. It deals with the experience of moving away to places where you didn’t speak the language, working shit jobs to survive, the housing/financial crisis, jealousy, honesty, friendships. Sonically, it is a more ambitious and experimental record to what I’ve previously released”
Ardiff
Robert John Ardiff on Insta / Spotify / Bandcamp
‘Once I Was’’ features a vast array of musicians and performers. It was
mixed by Ardiff and producer James Eager (The Scratch, The Cope, James Vincent McMorrow).
Video Credits
Directed and Produced by Steven Battle
Director of Photography: Ronan Nissenbaum
AC and Grading: JP Quill
Gaffer: Padraig Conaty
Editor: Steven Battle
Thanks also to Eoin Heaney and Louise Gaffney
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