Arun O'Connor comes from a family of award-winning country musicians, so it seems only natural that he would follow suit. The lone wolf guitar player in a line of drummers, Arun swept the 2018 Gold Guitar Awards in the Vocal and New Country categories, winning Southland Musician of the Year and sending him on the road to recording his debut album with industry greats in Nashville. Having never previously written his own songs, the two self-penned singles from his Stateside stint reached the top of the NZ charts. "Too Far Gone" is his first single from the upcoming debut album Songs from the Reading Room - an infectiously catchy tune with poignant introspective lyrics about life and how we lead it.
Arun says, "'Too Far Gone" is a song about the mistakes we make in life, with all the bad choices that lead us down the roads we don’t want to go down. It is a song that will hopefully make us question our own intentions and reevaluate what is most important in our lives. Maybe we deserve that second chance. Maybe we can change and be the person we had always set out to be. "Too Far Gone" speaks of a seemingly never-ending cycle of mistakes and regrets but with a stubbornness of not wholeheartedly wanting to change."
Growing up in the small city of Invercargill at the southern tip of Aotearoa New Zealand’s South Island, Arun’s musical sensibilities were shaped not only by his dad and brothers, but also by the American country music his parents played – Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline, et al. These influences - and Arun's fascination with Eagles musicianship - are evident in the sing-along melody and chorus of "Too Far Gone".
"Too Far Gone" is available via all good streaming services from Friday 29 October on a/b Records.