Americana Highways brings you this video premiere of Sarah McQuaid’s song “If We Dig Any Deeper” from her forthcoming album The St. Buryan Sessions. The album was produced and recorded live by Martin Stansbury in St Buryan Church, Cornwall, UK; mixed by Martin Stansbury at Cacophony Cottage Studio; and mastered by Stuart Bruce.
“If We Dig Any Deeper” is Sarah McQuaid on vocals and electric guitar with live looping by Martin Stansbury.
The video is was filmed and directed by Mawgan Lewis of Purple Knif, with cameras by John Crooks
and colour grading by Kelly Green. Sarah McQuaid’s songs have a slow winding timelessness, and this popular one is no exception. The harmonies have a symphonic flow, and the video magnifies the enchantment with a live performance, which is the way the whole album was done. Watch all the way to the end for a behind-the-scenes take.
Thanks a million to Americana Highways for premiering this video! This song feels as relevant now as it did back when I first wrote it; it’s also the first song I ever wrote on electric guitar, after the great Michael Chapman phoned me up one day to tell me he was UPS-ing me that beautiful red Ibanez Artist of his so I could write some songs on it. I was devastated to learn just a few weeks ago that Michael had left this world – he was a real musical mentor to me and I miss him desperately. Michael also produced and played on my original recording of “If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous,” but once I went out and started performing it solo the song kept growing and developing, especially when my wonderful manager and sound engineer Martin Stansbury came up with the idea of looping my voice live so that I could sing my own backing vocals. It was also Martin who came up with the idea for The St Buryan Sessions — recording and filming an album live in lockdown with no audience — and who produced the album and did such a brilliant job of capturing the natural acoustic of the gorgeous medieval church of St Buryan by placing pairs of microphones all around the space as well as in front of me. I’m indebted to him, and also to Mawgan Lewis who did the filming with help from John Crooks on cameras. — Sarah McQuaid
Find more music here: https://sarahmcquaid.bandcamp.com/album/the-st-buryan-sessions
Enjoy our interview of Sarah McQuaid here: Interview: Sarah McQuaid Takes Us to Church