Country rocker and singer/songwriter Sturgill Simpson has released a new song and video “Make Art Not Friends,” which soundtracks the new Netflix anime film Sound & Fury. The film accompanied the GRAMMY winner’s album of the same name that was released last year. The video for “Make Art Not Friends” was previously only available on Netflix as part of the film but now becomes available as a stand-alone video for the first time on YouTube.
Originally released in 2019, the video for “Make Art Not Friends” feels eerily close to the current state of the world. In the video, a skateboarder donning a hazmat suit is seen wandering through a deserted, post-apocalyptic city, searching for mementos and any diamonds in the rough. The clip makes the thumping song that much more powerful and pairs well with the song’s tone and subject matter. The video also marks another compelling entry to the catalogue of director Michael Arias who is most widely known for producing the Animatarix anthology and directing Tekkonkinkreet, Heaven’s Door and Harmon.
According to a press release, Sound & Fury was produced by Simpson and bandmates Bobby Emmett, Chuck Bartels, Miles Miller in collaboration with John Hill, who has also worked with mainstream rock acts including Cage The Elephant, Portugal.The Man and Bleachers. The album received widespread critical acclaim and appeared on a number of 2019 Best Albums lists including those from Rolling Stone, Paste, NPR, Vulture and Esquire.
Sound & Fury marked Simpson’s fourth full-length studio effort after High Top Mountain (2013), Metamodern Sounds in Country Music (2014) and A Sailor’s Guide to Earth (2016). Metamodern earned the singer/songwriter his first GRAMMY nomination by way of Best Americana Album. A Sailor’s Guide to Earth received a GRAMMY nomination for Album of the Year and went on to win that year’s GRAMMY Award for Best Country Album.
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