Cool, New Song: Bonnie "Prince" Billy "Wild Is The Will" (Susanna cover) For #NationalSchoolWalkout: Plus Interview With Billy 0n Susanna and Living In the Age of Trump & Parkland

Very powerful video! "The will of the woman with a heroic heart..." I thought of Heather Heyer, who died at Charlottesville (see bottom of page), I thought of Emma Gonzalez and the brave kids protesting gun violence today, April 20, 2018... and the kids who died that day in Parkland and all those other days... and Pussy Riot... and #MeToo and #TimesUp... and Sophie Scholl (below) of the White Rose group, executed for opposing Hitlerism...

Stream or Buy "Wild Is The Will" here...

Bonnie "Prince" Billy covers a Susanna (Norwegian singer Susanna Wallumrød) song "Wild Is The Will", accompanied by a new video. Billy covered an entire Susanna album (Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos, Billy's version is Wolf Of The Cosmos) in sequence in its entirety last year.

For me, it was one of the most striking albums of the year.

I questioned Billy about how the album seemed to address the stark divisions in our country currently. Billy responded:

"You've asked some of the very questions the record is intended to raise...." 

The conversation continued...

Why use footage from Charlottesville in the video "People Living"? Because it works.  We were mixing the record in mid-August.  During the mix for "People Living", the song was fucking me hard in a brand new way.  I asked Dan Koretzky from Drag City if he could find someone to pull footage from C-Ville to juxtapose with our jammer.  He found David Andalman and Andalman in turn hit it further and firmer than I had imagined possible.  And because for many people it's gone.  Charlottesville is history.  We can throw out a reminder that it hasn't gone anywhere, for those eager to move on. Would you care to comment on the current divisions in our country? There seems to be so much division today: rural vs. urban, North vs. South, The "Coastal Elites" vs. "Fly-Over" Country, etc. Rural places like Kentucky offer hateful public figures like Jim Bunning (who I saw pitch for The Phillies as a kid), his successor Rand Paul, and anti-gay clerk Kim Davis. On the other hand, there are plenty of Progressives from rural areas, such as Johnny Cash and Steve Earle. Even Kentucky's premiere artistic family, The Everly Brothers, were a house divided, with Don supporting people like McGovern and Bobby Kennedy, while Phil supported the likes of Goldwater and Nixon. What can artists do to heal these wounds? I'm trying to figure out if this is possible.  I am doubtful that any artist can heal the wounds you speak of. Why an album that is entirely covers of songs from someone else's album?  Because you hadn't listened enough to SONATA MIX DWARF COSMOS. What does Susanna mean to you as an artist? There's something in SONATA MIX DWARF COSMOS, and in Susanna's work with Morten Qvenild on the Magical Orchestra records LIST OF LIGHTS AND BUOYS and 3, that is close to the heart of what I recognize to be among the more compelling and valuable possibilities of recorded music.  The music's power leaves the artist and gets to the audience with very little interference.      Heather Heyer killed in Charlottesville, Virginia by a Neo-Nazi protester, August 12, 2017 Who is God and where is God  and what is he doing for you? Is it easy to pretend? Is it hard to look back at you? What is real and what is good for all of us? How can it be? That your convictions are gonna be valid to me... How can it be? People living on the outside Living on the wrong side Living on the outside Living on the wrong side What is true and who is true  and where is the truth now for you? Is it hard to confess to yourself? Is it easy to view? Who are wrong in your eyes and what will do to satisfy? How can it be that you want us to simplify? How can it be? People living on the outside Living on the wrong side Living on the outside Living on the wrong side... Susanna's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Who By Fire" cover (2015): An old favorite from Bonnie "Prince" Billy, "There Is No God" (2011): Two Bonnie "Prince" Billy videos I shot in Felton, California in 2015. His cover of The Everly Brothers' "It's All Over" and his own "Quail And Dumplings": Bonnie "Prince" Billy joined Johnny Cash at the end of this 2000 recording of Billy's breakthrough song from 1999 "I See A Darkness": Susanna's original version of "Lilly" (2007): Susanna and Bonnie "Prince" Billy together in concert in 2010: