Irish songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist For Those I Love, born David Balfe, has shared a new song and video. Self-directed by Balfe, Top Scheme is a powerful and poignant visual essay that directly tackles various social issues in Ireland, such as sexism, classism, and the prison industrial complex.
About Top Scheme, Dave said “I wrote Top Scheme to directly spit in the face of the state, the banks, and those that continue to socially cripple the less fortunate without ever looking at the world we have been forced to live and grow within. It sits within a wider group of songs that look at the social alienation of the working class and how that continues to haunt us as we grow older.”
Watch the video for Top Scheme via YouTube below.
Dave first began work on the project as a chance to write frankly about the struggles he and his friends faced while growing up in north Dublin. Anecdotally and otherwise, For Those I Love documents the harsh realities of a daily life up against it, and holds a mirror up to the clear disparity between a working class upbringing and the lack of opportunity that remains to this day.
At its core, the forthcoming album pays tribute to Dave’s best friend and former bandmate, Paul Curran, who passed away in 2018. Following Paul’s tragic death, Dave locked himself away in his home studio for months, ultimately recording over 76 songs that would eventually be condensed down to form the basis of his debut album. The result is an incredibly beautiful, raw and uncompromising 9-track project addressing grief and catharsis, an important record that could only emerge from an entirely honest place.
The song follows For Those I Love’s debut single I Have a Love, which is also accompanied by a moving, self-directed video. I Have a Love followed closely after the release of mix, ‘Into A World That Doesn’t Understand It, Unless You’re From It,’ which showcased unreleased tracks, ideas and demos that didn’t fit onto the album and sold out of its limited tape run in only hours.
The self-titled debut album from For Those I Love will arrive early next year via September Recordings.
