Born and raised in Swansea, UK, Steve Balsamo started out singing in rock bands as a teenager before he came to the public’s attention in the mid ’90s by way of a beard, long hair and a loincloth! (His own words to describe his epic stint in the West End as Jesus in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar!)
Steve is back with a new song and powerful new video which we are thrilled to premiere right here on Lyric Magazine. Lighthouse Keeper was written with Gareth Lewis and Andy Collins, Steve’s old compadre from The Storys. Steve and Andy spent Lockdown collaborating over Zoom with Liverpool singer songwriter Pete Riley, formerly of Treehouse and currently part Edwin Mccain’s band. They have an EP as Balsamo Collins Riley coming early next year.
“I wanted to get Lighthouse Keeper out this year, to give BCR a
good run at it next spring. As we are still in a state of flux and
pandemic recovery, a song about hope in a seemingly hopeless world seems
a good idea! We made a beautiful video with Rhys Davies of Furball
Films, who I’ve worked with a lot over the years. I love how cinematic
he is – he makes mini films really”, says Steve.
The video takes inspiration from the Wim Wenders’ classic Wings Of
Desire and it features classically trained dancer Toby Seddon who is the
grandson of the late, great Eric Woolfson – the writer and vocalist
with The Alan Parsons Project.
“I worked a lot with Eric, helping
him develop the musical Poe. It was based on the life of Edgar Alan Poe,
who I played at its conception and premier at Abbey Road Studios in
2004”.
Toby was 18 months old at the time and tells Steve that the show and his grandad Eric inspired him to be in the arts.
“I
saw a clip of Toby dancing on Instagram and reached out to him to see
if he wanted to be in the video. Toby is amazing and basically
improvised the whole thing. I find it very moving”.
Both are so
excited to ‘close the circle’, and Steve says, “I know that wherever
Eric is, he’s smiling and very happy at this collaboration”.
