Even if we are destined to wait until next February to listen to the new album, The Smile You Send Out Returns To You -which, ideed, will be releases 28^th February 2025 on Last Night From Glasgow- from our beloved Constant Follower, we are nevertheless blessed with the release of a new single.
After the wonderful Whole Be, out in August and produced by Dan Duszynski of Loma, Constant Follower release All Is Well -again produced by Duszynski- a song that’s heavy and uplifting at the same time, as it usually happens with great songwriting. This new song is dedicated to McAll’s young friend Jake, who was killed while in the care of the NHS Forth Valley Psychiatric services. There is also an astonishing video for All Is Well, filmed and directed by Edinburgh-based videographer & photographer Kris Boyle.
Constant Follower (the project of Stirling acoustic guitarist singer and noisemaker Stephen McAll with guitarist Andrew Kurd Pankhurst) debut album Neither Is, Nor Ever Was was critically lauded, earning recognition from the SAY Award, while 2023 release Even Days Dissolve was a remarkable union with primitive guitarist Scott William Urquhart. A double A-side single, Turn Around For Me / See You Soon followed earlier this year.

What They Say
McAll: “This is my favourite song on the album. I don’t remember writing the song but I believe it’s referencing the disconnect between the promise of technology and governance, and the reality. Wake up, go to work, come home, numb yourself with whatever is available—alcohol, substances, social media, mindless TV—then do it all over again. Often, it feels like the work we do, the routines we follow, wouldn’t matter if we didn’t show up. It’s a bleak outlook, but I believe people are beginning to wake up and strive for something more meaningful.“

Kurd (electric guitar): “This track underwent the biggest metamorphosis of any of our tunes so far. Me and McAll had been playing this for years as a kind of acoustic and slide guitar song, and it’s turned into this sort of weightless, blissed-out epic. There’s so much cool sonic detail lurking in the corners of this. It’s definitely one to enjoy on headphones.”

About the video
Kris Boyle (filmmaker): “Working together is everything for me, it’s that incomprehensible feeling of artistic entanglement—a reason for meeting in the middle. McAll has created a beautiful piece of moving, musical poetry that stopped me in my tracks the first time I heard it. I was honestly daunted by the prospect of trying to create something that could accompany it with such gravitas. But I thought of water, elements, life, movement, color—all strong movements of life that could punctuate the song’s beauty in the most modest way possible. And, to me, modesty is beauty in its most honest form.”

McAll: ” Whole Be is a meditation on identity and existence. It’s about exploring the paradox of seeking ‘wholeness’ while acknowledging our inherent imperfections. It resonates with the idea that our efforts to achieve completeness are what define us at a basic level, even if the end goal remains elusive. Whole Be is an invitation to embrace our journey towards wholeness, recognising that every step, no matter how small, contributes to the grace we seek.” “The music video was directed by Peter Lilly, aka Code Word Zebra and I think it offers a poignant narrative in reverse. It shows a man cycling through a sequence of events that undo a potential future of despair. It ends at the beginning, staring straight into the eyes of the protagonist as he experiences a powerful moment of clarity, symbolising the realisation of the fork in the road that he’s on. It’s a story of reversing the path to catastrophe and finding hope in such moments of clarity.”

Kurd: “This is one we had started kicking around a bit before the recording started, but the result turned out completely different. The transformative thing was the chanting that Dan and McAll worked on in Texas; it adds this sort of choral feel to it that gives it a lightness that seems to work well against what is otherwise quite a dark feeling song.”

All Is Well is out now. The Smile You Send Out Returns To You will be releases 28^th February 2025 via Last Night From Glasgow. Look HERE for more information on Constant Follower.