With the weight of the world feeling like an increasingly heavy burden, just imagine what it would be like to experience zero gravity and float away, drifting above all the noise below. That’s the premise behind the new song from Sounding Arrow, the solo project of Scott Kinnebrew (Truth and Salvage Co.). Kinnebrew’s words are fond but final: “Step from the wind into infinity // I’ll never see this world again // I’ve really dug your hospitality // And you will always be my friend // My love for you is divine, little earth, // But I’ll never walk your shores again.” Musically, ‘Zero Gravity’ is a shimmering, cosmic song with lush layers and Kinnebrew’s echoing vocal floating above into the heavens alongside languorous drifts of guitar.
Directed by Doug Frerichs, the video reinforces the song’s theme, finishing with Kinnebrew drifting through space and looking down on civilisation below and finally the image of the Earth seen through his rear-view mirror. Filmed in various places around Southern California, including the San Fernando Valley, 6th and Broadway in DTLA, Frogtown, Calabasas, the inventive video is artfully put together, blending good humour, imagination and musical performance.
Over the years, Kinnebrew has shared a stage with the likes of The Black Crowes, The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers, Sturgill Simpson, Dawes, Lissie and Levon Helm. With his former band, Truth & Salvage Co., he released two records while touring relentlessly, including going to Iraq to perform for U.S. troops in 2009. Check this out – cosmic brilliance – and find out more in the Q & A below.
What inspired you to write ‘Zero Graivity’?
Well, I must confess that I’ve had this song in the quiver for a while now, for 10 years, actually. It was towards the end of 2015 when NASA announced that they were holding auditions for a space team on an expedition to Mars. The headlines kind of floored me as I was used to science-fiction stories like this, but not the real deal! Of course, I started thinking about what type of person it would take to sign up to leave Earth forever, what it would mean to leave Earth forever, and quickly came up with a narrative for a song.
The song is about a townie, a regular old Joe, that was selected (“I got cast in a brand-new series”) to be a spaceman on a reality TV show. He speaks of how he will deeply miss Earth, but he was chosen to be a spaceman and a spaceman he must be. I cheapened the auditions to be for a TV show instead of NASA.
I had recently just gotten off a 7-year tour with my band Truth & Salvage, and I was deep within the trenches of Band PTSD. I couldn’t listen to any popular music without blowing my top. Instead, I listened to the local classical radio station, that and NPR, almost exclusively. (It was Kendrick Lamar who eventually broke this musical depression.) I don’t know what classical song I “ripped” the chords from, but indeed the verse sounds very classical. And it’s the origin of ‘Zero Gravity’.
How did you visualise the video, and what did you want it to convey?
I always wanted to make a video for the song, and in my grand imagination, I imagined it having all the bells and whistles. Like having a real spaceship set, and special effects like floating in zero gravity. You know, space stuff.
I wanted the video to convey the earnestness and commitment this guy had to leaving Earth forever. I wanted the viewer to feel the takeoff, and the instant separation from home, and the peace and total isolation as a result. I also wanted it to be ridiculous.
My good friend and the director of the video, (and camera op, and editor) Doug Frerichs and I wracked our brains for how to get the feel of blast off, and it was he who came up with the idea of paying homage to the ’84 cult classic “Repo Man,” and to have our hero (me!) blast off in a glowing green sedan. And since “Repo Man” and the music from “Repo Man” is in the top 5 of biggest influences in my life, I instantly was totally down.
Having worked in the film industry, and having dressed space sets before, I knew just the place to rent a convincing spacesuit in LA. Plane tickets were cheap. It made sense to fly out to LA, see some old friends (I moved away in 2020), and shoot the video.
It was pretty hysterical walking around Los Angeles in a spacesuit. Like, people really thought I was a spaceman. You would think that every Angeleno would know that if they saw a guy walking around in a spacesuit, it was for a film or some gimmick, but people were pretty shocked.
We were up in the hills of Calabasas, and these teenagers walked up smelling like weed, and one asked, “Man! Are you like a real astronaut?” Me, thinking he must know I’m not joked back, “Yeah, Kid.” He responded, “Dude, my mom works at Caltech! She is going to flip, what’s your name?”
“Buzz.”
“Cooooool! Where are you going?”
“This is my last day on Earth, and I shall never return again.”
“Man, that is soooo coool, So nice to meet you.”
I wanted to be like, “Kid… your mom is going to be disappointed.”
