Award-winning songwriter Blake Dantier returns with his new single and video ‘Layover’ , following on from the success of his previous single ‘Last Call’, which spent 14 weeks on the CountryTown Hot 50 airplay charts, peaking at #8. It caps off a successful year for Dantier and one that doesn’t look like slowing down any time soon.
Layover’ comes with a sunny disposition perfect for the onset of the hot Australian summer. “It’s got a real laid-back groove that we tried to make reminiscent of a tropical paradise”, Dantier says. A keen amateur brewer, he has made a name for himself of late with songs inspired by whiskey, beer and good times, but this time its tinged with a side order of melancholy and heartbreak. “My previous few songs have been about drinking but this one’s something different,” he says. “With only some really slight references to drinking. It tells the story of a guy who proposes to his girlfriend on a vacation, only to have her say no. Awkward as hell. He finds out in a pretty rough way that he was just a layover, while she was waiting for the next guy to come along.”
With the single produced by Simon Johnson at Hillbilly Huts studios, the lyric video for ‘Layover’ was produced by Dantier during a spark of pandemic-induced creativity. “As you can imagine, being a couple of months deep in a COVID lockdown gave me a lot of time to experiment with things. The video went through a couple of different versions, but I eventually settled on something really simple. The track is chill and uncomplicated, so I wanted the video to reflect that”, Dantier says.
2021 has been a successful year for Dantier, picking up two gongs at the Tamworth Songwriters Salute Awards, for New Songwriter of The Year and Country Ballad of The Year. He’s been active on the road, both with his own shows and as a sideman to his fiancé Cass Hopetoun, who recently toured with Hurricane Fall. He will be featured as a guitar-slinger in Cass Hopetoun’s band supporting The Wolfe Brothers later in the year. You can next catch Dantier performing his hit singles at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in 2022.
Blake Dantier has proven himself as a versatile and prodigious songwriter, able to create music that captures the mood of the moment. The Music Network has described him as “One of the most exciting prospects on the local country scene” and with ‘Layover’, he’s about to continue to fly high to bigger and better triumphs.