Diplo has released a new song under his country music persona Thomas Wesley. The song is called “Use Me (Brutal Hearts)” and features the singer, songwriter, and actress Dove Cameron and the iconic country singer Sturgill Simpson, under the new title Johnny Blue Skies.

Alongside this new song, a music video has been released starring Sean Penn, portraying the Johnny Blue Skies character. In the video, Diplo enters a bar while Cameron sings “Use Me” onstage, accompanied by dancers. The song is woven in with shots of audience members and dancers in the bar as disco lights circle the room. After a few verses, Penn as Blue Skies joins the song, performing out the rest as he and Cameron switch spots throughout the video and sing together.

Watch the music video below:

According to a press release, to prepare for his new Thomas Wesley project, Diplo shared, “I went back to my father’s house in Florida and I spent six months learnin guitar, gettin in touch with nature, working his boat when the shrimp were running on full moons at the trailer park…I tried on a lot of cowboy hats. I rode a lot of motorcycles and horses basically reflected on my whole life and career and connection with this music…there was a lot. It all started in the swamps I was raised in.” He concluded by saying, “This is the greatest single piece of work I’ve ever done, I can promise you that.”

Diplo announced his project, Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley: Chapter 2 – Swamp Savant, earlier this April, set to release on April 28.

Diplo will be performing at the HARD Summer Music Festival this August. Details here.

Photo credit: Mehreen Rizvi