‘I Killed A Man’ , released today. Available on all streaming platforms … I imagined his voice , stripped of everything but a single question: ‘I killed a man… am I unworthy of love ?’
The song is inspired by the 1903 Darlington picnic tragedy. A group of French foreigners set out from Fremantle into the hills of Perth to have a picnic and refill their casks of wine. One of them , the man in the yellow suit, brought a gun. They drank too much, returned to the winery, there was an argument with the Swiss Winemaker, then a scuffle and a shot. The winemaker fell. All eight were charged but at the trial, the crime settled on one man alone, Ferdinand Maillat,the man in the yellow suit. He was sentenced to death.
I found myself drawn to the man at the centre of it all, waiting in a cell for the end.
He was buried in an unmarked grave at Fremantle Cemetery.
Artwork photography-Elliot Ramsay
@xlightco
‘Red Velvet covered gun’ 2025, original artwork by Olga Cironis
@olga_cironis
Design-Joe Kapiteyn
@redroomdesign
Music footage , shot in Darlington- Peta Walter
@shackfetish
Produced, recorded and mixed- Elliot Smith
@sundownstudiosperth
A big thank you to everyone who’s worked on this labour of love with us … and to my dearest
@aidanthekelly who first shared this piece of history with me ❤️
#newsingle #newmusic #perthbands
