Idles have released the music video for their violent new single Car Crash, lifted from their forthcoming album Crawler, which is set to arrive on November 12 via Partisan.
The video features stitched-together footage of turbulent car collisions from old movies, filmed from the perspective of passengers sitting inside out-of-control vehicles. Undoubtedly, viewers are bound to feel a little motion sick, so let this be a warning – watch it on an empty stomach.
Created by Matthew Cusick and edited by guitarist Lee Kiernan, the collection of footage used in the video was compiled by Cusick across many years since 2001 as a hobby. Now, he says, his project has “what it was always missing… a killer soundtrack”.
The song itself was inspired by frontman Joe Talbot's traumatic experience of being involved in a near-fatal car accident. In a press release, Talbot explained, “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?”
Mark Bowen, guitarist and co-producer on the upcoming album Crawler, added: “We wanted it to be as violent as possible to reflect that event. 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.”
Recently, Joe Talbot announced that he will be speaking at a run of Q&A evenings across the UK this year, titled In Conversation With Joe Talbot.
The events, hosted by Creation Records head Alan McGee, will see the frontman speaking with fans in a Q&A format across multiple dates from November through to December.
Tickets for the Q&A shows are available to purchase now. Watch Car Crash below:
