Ben Lee Channels His Inner “Heavy Metal” Headbanger In New This One’s for The Old Headz Music Video (Weirder Together)
Ben Lee dressed like Alice Cooper in The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (SOURCE: Ben Lee)
Since we last covered Ben Lee’s music here on The Witzard, the self-proclaimed “Australian Musician/National Treasure,” has since revealed many more additional and essential details concerning his upcoming album, which previously birthed the single, “Lovers.” Late last week, Lee shared the album title, This One’s for The Old Headz, album release date, September 20, 2024, producer, Justin Stanley (Beck, Snoop Dogg, Mark Ronson,) additional players, drummer Jon Wurster (The Mountain Goats, BobMouldBand, Test Pattern) and bassist Jason Narducy (Superchunk, Her Head’s On Fire, Verbow,) album cover details and specifics, and revealed the 10-song track list complete with track titles. Amidst all this flurry of news, Lee dropped the digital links and music video for This One’s for The Old Headz’s second single, “Heavy Metal,” which Lee himself has already deemed “The Greatest Music Video I’ve Ever Made.” We’ve heard an advance of the whole album, which we can assure you, is a fantastic listen from end to end, but even after our first listen, we just knew “Heavy Metal” (one of our personal favorites) weould almost HAVE to be a single! We’ll just let Ben Lee take it away from here… The text below is taken from Ben Lee and his wife, Ione Skye’s joint Substack newsletter together as Weirder Together. We strongly suggest subscribing to the Weirder Together Substack newsletter, as it appears it will be the best place to stay informed regarding all this This One’s for The Old Headz (and Ben Lee) moving forward!
Today marks the release of my new single “Heavy Metal,” from my upcoming album, This One’s for The Old Headz. It comes into the world accompanied by a video directed by my old pal, Nash Edgerton, that is truly a work of art. Why don’t I just show it to you and, then, tell you the story behind it… hahaha I love that so much. OK, now, some backstory! The video is pretty much a shot-for-shot re-creation of the seminal Penelope Spheeris music documentary, The Decline of Western Civillization Part II: The Metal Years, which you can watch for FREE on YouTube. We tried to be as true to the period and vibe as possible, even shooting the video on film, which is a pretty rare thing these days. I’d forgotten that the limitations of film force you to make decisions on the go; not shooting forever to assemble to final product in [post-production]. Much like the whole album, which was recorded to tape over three days with the greatest rhythm section on the planet (Jon Wurster & Jason Narducy,) we were [focused], streamlined, and committed. Now, for the paid [subscribers], here is the “Heavy Metal” demo I did for the band to learn the song before we recorded, as well as LOTS of behind-the-scenes photos from the video shoot day… ENJOY!
- Ben Lee (for Weirder Together with Ben Lee & Ione Skye)
Ben Lee on the set of his “heavy Metal” music video shoot and This One’s for The Old Headz album cover (SOURCE: Ben Lee/X)
