Video: Andrew Bird, ‘Sisyphus’

Kevin Bronson on February 6th, 2019

0

Andrew Bird is a remarkable songwriter who can play a multitude of instruments, loop them live and sing. He’s released 10 albums and collaborated on a bunch of others. He is one heck of a whistler. He has a sense of adventure.

But he’s no fool. For some of the scenes in the video for his new single “Sisyphus,” Bird had a stunt double. “We shot this video after a storm system moved through Los Angeles and there was a strange mist wisping through the mountains,” the 45-year-old songwriter says. “I had an acute panic attack as I was standing on the edge of a thousand-foot precipice wearing this giant head mounted on a baseball helmet. The more extreme shots were handled by my stunt double, pro climber Sterling Taylor.”

Both the song and video are evidence that metaphors from mythology are still apt. “It’s about being addicted to your own suffering and the moral consequences of letting the rock roll,” Bird says of the song from his forthcoming album, the cheekily titled “My Finest Work Yet,” due March 22. The album, produced by Paul Butler, was made at Barefoot Recordings in L.A.

The frisky “Sisyphus” modernizes the tale of the Greek king whom Zeus punishes for trying to cheat death. And there is the whistling.

“I wanted the whistle melody to be this glorious, wind-in-your-hair rock ’n’ roll moment like a scene from ‘Easy Rider,’ thus the Dennis Hopper wig,” Bird says. “The idea was to have a whole spin class on a flatbed truck, but I think this captures that sense of futility.”

And puts the rock in rock ’n’ roll.

||| Watch: the video for “Sisyphus”