Taken from their forthcoming Superwolves album (reviewed here), Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy share their video for ‘Resist the Urge’ made by legendary skateboarder Kevin “Spanky” Long and photographer/skateboarder Atiba Jefferson and features Spanky skating through a Bonny-Sweeneyscape in his inimitable style.
“Spanky and Atiba’s video rules. We try to make the listener feel insanely at home in a musical space. Atiba and Spanky have made us feel like we own a share of the skateable world,” says Bonny (aka Will Oldham).
“Resist the Urge” was recorded at the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville by Sean Sullivan and David “Fergie” Ferguson. Sez Bonny: “We got David Ferguson out from behind the board to play double-bass on this one. It needed the lift that only a Ferg could deliver.”
We are told that Matt Sweeney, Atiba Jefferson and David Ferguson share a birthday, making this visual/musical event astrologically undeniable. Can’t disagree with that. David Weir notes in his review: “Sweeney’s unique brand of genius and sensitivity as a player compliments Oldham’s songcraft beautifully.” That’s undeniable as well. Enjoy.
Words on the video:
“I always wanted to see a full video part with just one skater, and once I got asked to work on a video for this record, I knew that Kevin ‘Spanky’ Long was perfect – his way of cutting out, resizing, moving and manipulating photos and videos is amazing, but also he is an amazing pro skater. I asked a lot of Spanky: I wanted him to star, direct, edit, film and do all of the artwork! It was a tall ask but I know his love for Matt and Will would shine thru. This video was made in the pandemic so it was just me and him going out and shooting together. We shot around LA for 14 days over 4 months. It was great to work so closely with Spanky’s vision but still have him in front of the camera. This collaboration of directing together was great because we are 2 different generations of skateboarders, but both coming from the pro skater’s perspective.” – Atiba
“This was just a great excuse to make a skate video with a best friend for my favorite band. I ran the high def footage and super8 film into my iPhone where I painstakingly cut frame-by-frame, with relatively low-fi digital tools, to execute the stop-motion animation and digital collage elements. It was, in the end, the only way to achieve this look we were after. And we weaved in the layers of sea and sky to meet the big themes in ‘Resist the Urge.’ COVID restrictions made things tricky to get Matt and Will in there, but we revel in limitations.” – Kevin “Spanky” Long
“Superwolves,” out on Digital & Streaming on April 30, 2021 and LP/CS/CD on June 18, 2021 from Drag City/Palace Records and Domino.
Preorder the album here: http://ffm.to/superwolves