Cornish singer songwriter Ruarri Joseph will release the beautiful and hypnotic “More Than Most” as a single on 18 May, 2009. The track, taken from Joseph’s new album Both Sides Of The Coin, is mixed by Grammy Award winning Stephen Fitzmaurice (U2, Depeche Mode, Kate Nash) and will be released digitally featuring a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’, recorded live on Dermot O’Leary’s Radio 2 show, as a b-side.
The video to the single, directed by the multi-award winning Sam Walker follows the journey and emotions of two genuine child Thai boxers, aged 8 & 9, as they compete in the final of the Warriors Thai Boxing Show in Crawley, Sussex. The promo is in split-screen format presenting the fight from two very personal and poignant points of view.
The son of a micro-biologist and a practising witch, Joseph was born in Edinburgh and raised in Cornwall until the age of 13, when his parents separated and he was taken to live with his mother and brother in a devout Christian community in New Zealand. Unable to share his family’s faith, Joseph moved back to Cornwall at the age of 16. From there, Joseph took a string of different jobs, from bar work to teaching music to disaffected and disadvantaged young people, whilst also attempting to pursue music as a full-time career.
In late 2006, Joseph landed a deal with Atlantic Records and, just six months later, the demos he had recorded at home became the basis of his acclaimed debut album, Tales Of Grime And Grit. Hit singles ‘Patience’ and ‘Blankets’ followed, as did a headline UK tour, support slots with Funeral For A Friend and Paolo Nutini and a summer spent on festival stages, from Glastonbury to Bestival.
Unhappy with Atlantic’s input on a follow up record, Joseph chose to quit the label and with the help of his a&r guy, now at Universal, the two of them launched the independent label PIP Records. Joseph then returned to his Cornish roots, where he locked himself up with an assortment of instruments and the resolve to make the music which was in his head. Eight months later, and with the help of a microphone and an old computer, Both Sides of The Coin was complete.
Almost every instrument on the album was played by Joseph, who sometimes had to move instruments in one at a time due to the lack of space. As the title suggests, it’s an album of two halves, one side characterised by pessimism and melancholy, the other exploring more light-hearted topics. Through this juxtaposition, Joseph created a thought-provoking album, which was released in March 2009.