Watch IDLES’ video for new single ‘Car Crash’
The single is from the band's upcoming fourth album 'Crawler'
By Emma Kelly
IDLES have released the video for ‘Car Crash’, the second single from upcoming album ‘Crawler’.
The new video was created by Matthew Cusick, who has been compiling car chase and crash scenes from movies since 2001.
‘Car Crash’ is set to clips of car crashes from 20th century movies, including the 1995 film ‘Heat’, dash-cam footage and driver’s ed films, edited together by the band’s guitarist Lee Kiernan.
Cusick said that his project now has “what it was always missing… a killer soundtrack”.
‘Car Crash’ was inspired by IDLES frontman Joe Talbot’s own experience of a near-death car accident.
He said: “It’s the horrific, comedown hangover – waking up in the morning and realising the smashes, like, what the fuck am I doing with my life?”
Talbot previously told The Guardian that he was high when he crashed his car, saying: “A car crash is a violent image and we’ve always used violence – whether it’s the violence of joy, the violence of love or the violence of grief – as a part of our vocabulary as musicians. It’s important that I make sure people realise the unglamorous, violent nature of the cycle of alcoholism or drug abuse.”
Mark Bowen, IDLES guitarist and co-producer on the song, said that they wanted ‘Car Crash’ to be “as violent as possible to reflect that event”.
He said: “I really wanted it to be this sonic touchstone. We recorded the drums beforehand and put them on a vinyl acetate. Whenever you replay an acetate, because it is kind of like a liquid, it degrades every time. It touches on things being transient and momentary — even a single drum hit. It’s like a memory, when the moment has passed and you deal with the repercussions over and over again, and they morph and change into something else.
“It’s one of the first times on an IDLES song where we used proper effects on the vocals — it was Joe going through my pedal board, so you get both clarity and degradation.”
IDLES are set to release their fourth album ‘Crawler’ on November 12, which follows their number one album ‘Ultra Mono’ released last September.
To mark the release of the record, Talbot will be holding ‘In Conversation’ Q&A sessions in Leicester, Sheffield and London later this month.
According to a press release, the frontman will be “taking the opportunity to sit down and discuss the record in greater detail at a short series of intimate Q&A sessions”, hosted by Creation Records founder Alan McGee.
The ‘In Conversation’ sessions will be held at the Y Theatre in Leicester on November 19 and The Foundry in Sheffield the following night, before a matinee and evening show will be held at London’s Sebright Arms on December 4.