‘Amerikan Lyfe’ is one of two new singles from folktronica artist Particle Kid. This song features Willie Nelson on guitar and vocals (Particle Kid is Willie’s son, Micah Nelson). “Who can define an Amerikan Lyfe?” is the repeated refrain of the chorus over a bed of sleepy drums, insistent guitar and burbling synths. Occasionally Willie’s famed guitar Trigger can be heard cutting through the hazy track with blasts of his signature licks. The video is a collage of found footage from the mid-Twentieth century that provides snippets of life in the U.S. both in big cities and on the wide-open plains of the West.
‘Amerikan Lyfe’ and its companion single, ‘All One Day (Shadow of the Sun)’. are from the upcoming double album ‘Time Capsule’ which will be delivered to fans in an actual time capsule made of a material called hempcrete. Inside each limited-edition time capsule will be a thumb drive including the record, videos, printed album artwork, industrial hemp seeds which Micah cultivated himself, and a physical ticket to a Particle Kid concert in 20 years.
Reflecting on the song Particle Kid said, “We were sorta quarantined in the studio for a bit. The version of ‘Amerikan Lyfe’ that’s on the album is the first and only take we did during that session. Shit was hitting the fan all around us in the world and there was an increasing existential anxiety about everything, so there was an odd comfort in being not only stuck in a recording studio and able to focus on making new music as a sort of temporary escape from it all. But it was especially very cathartic/therapeutic to have a reason to collectively scream ‘LIFE! LIFE! LIFE!’ over and over again as loudly as possible… It was also very cool that my dad wanted to play Trigger and sing on it. It’s a notably weirder song arrangement than he’s used to and I could tell he had a lot of fun doing it. His laugh at the end was something that I immediately knew had to be the last sound we hear to end the album. It sums the whole thing up. Having these great memories with folks I love to help offset such darkness during what was an otherwise very stressful time is… a true gift.”
Particle Kid will be on the road in the U.S. in April and May in support of the ‘Time Capsule’ release opening for The Flaming Lips.
