For Those I Love has announced the release of single Birthday / The Pain. This comes ahead of his self-titled debut album, due out on 26th March 2021. The music video for the single was directed by Sam Davis, who has also worked with Sad Night Dynamite and Metronomy.
For Those I Love posted on his Instagram page: “I was six when I first encountered the fallout of a violent death. It’s such a haunting burden at that age, and still is. Birthday recalls that moment and the desperation of trying to make sense of it as a child, and what it’d mean for me growing up against that backdrop… All of these experiences swirl together and can push ya to the devil and oblivion, but Birthday grounds itself in the moments of relief from all of that, in the comfort of the love of friends.”
The Dublin-based songwriter and musician, also known as David Balfe, released two singles from the upcoming album in 2020 – I Have A Love and Top Scheme. He tackles the subject of the suicide of close friend Paul Curran on the upcoming album.
Writing on the subject, Balfe says: “I’m going into this process with a lot of mixed feelings. There is stress, irrational guilt, and still a great deal of pain around the record. I find it hard to say I’m happy that it’s coming out, but I do feel a great deal of pride, and beyond that, I feel very loved. I wrote and recorded this album in my Ma’s shed in Donaghmede, quietly at night and alone. To see it come to life at this scale is overwhelming and I can’t thank you all enough.”
For Those I Love appeared on Later… With Jools Holland at the end of 2020, and featured on NME’s Essential Emerging Artists for 2021 list, which wrote: “Turning the loss of his best friend Paul Curran into a powerful living eulogy, For Those I Love offers a startlingly beautiful encapsulation of friendship, austerity and personal reckoning in the gritty vein of This Is England or Trainspotting, heightened by the subversive use of euphoric ‘90s rave samplesand biting political commentary.”
