The National have sent fans into a frenzy today, with the surprise announcement of their new album I Am Easy To Find. On top of that, they’ve also released a new single ‘You Had Your Soul With You’ for us to sink our teeth into.
But they’ve also given fans a special treat in offering a 24 minute short film, also named I Am Easy To Find, directed by Mike Mills, who has Oscar-nominated 20th Century Women to his credit. It will also star Alicia Vikander, who won an Oscar for her role in The Danish Girl.
In a press release, the band detailed the importance of the relationship between the album and the phone.
“The former is not the video for the latter; the latter is not the soundtrack to the former,” the statement reads.
“The two projects are, as Mills calls them, ‘Playfully hostile siblings that love to steal from each other’—they share music and words and DNA and impulses and a vision about what it means to be human in 2019, but don’t necessarily need one another. The movie was composed like a piece of music; the music was assembled like a film, by a film director. The frontman and natural focal point was deliberately and dramatically sidestaged in favour of a variety of female voices” – Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan to name a few – “nearly all of whom have long been in the group’s orbit. It is unlike anything either artist has ever attempted and also totally in line with how they’ve created for much of their careers.”
I Am Easy To Find (the album) is out on Friday, 17th May. Further details about the film are yet to be announced.
Listen to ‘You Had Your Soul With You’ and watch the trailer for the film below.
