The endlessly prolific Bonnie "Prince" Billy (aka Will Oldham), who is due to play the Dawson City Music Festival and Guelph, ON's Hillside Festival with Dawn McCarthy this July, tells Exclaim! that he and collaborator Emmett Kelly have recently recorded a couple of new songs as Bonnie "Prince" Billy & the Cairo Gang for an upcoming film.
"There was an Australian surf movie called Morning of the Earth, that's sort of a classic in the surf movie history," Oldham explains. "A great surfer, surf filmmaker, and musician named Andrew Kidman has been approached to make something like a sequel, follow-up, or re-envisioning of it. It's such a unique piece that Andrew has so much reverence for, he's being very careful about what it is he's making.
"One of the big things about it was that it was full of interesting music that people had never heard before so Andrew asked us to cover one of the original songs and then also write a new song. So, we did that and, because there's no what way to tell how long Andrew's gonna take to finish his movie, we thought maybe we'd put out a 7-inch or something like that."
There's no word yet on if/when and how this single will be released (safe bets include "some time" and "on Drag City"), but Oldham says that the original song is entitled "We Love Our Hole" and the other side features the Cairo Gang's version of Terry Hannigan's "I'll Be Alright."
Aside from that, Oldham says he's hoping to spend the next couple of years working closer to home and may scale back his touring.
"I know that it would be a quickly tapped vein to only tour, say, five blocks around my house, but that's what I'm talking about; to try and make stronger what we have, rather than trying to create newer channels."
Catch Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie "Prince" Billy on tour this summer, while you still can.
Tour dates:
5/31 Malmö, Sweden - Kulturbolaget
6/1 Copenhagen, Denmark - Den Grå Hal, Christiania
7/17 Palmer, AK - Vagabond Blues
7/18 Anchorage, AK - Tap Root
7/20-21 Dawson, YT - Dawson City Music Festival
7/25 Detroit, MI - Trinosophes
7/26 Guelph, ON - Hillside Festival
7/28 Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival
7/29 New York, NY - Town Hall
7/30 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
7/31 Washington, DC - Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
8/2 Columbus, OH - Wexner Center for the Arts
8/3 Newport, KY - The Southgate House Revival
"There was an Australian surf movie called Morning of the Earth, that's sort of a classic in the surf movie history," Oldham explains. "A great surfer, surf filmmaker, and musician named Andrew Kidman has been approached to make something like a sequel, follow-up, or re-envisioning of it. It's such a unique piece that Andrew has so much reverence for, he's being very careful about what it is he's making.
"One of the big things about it was that it was full of interesting music that people had never heard before so Andrew asked us to cover one of the original songs and then also write a new song. So, we did that and, because there's no what way to tell how long Andrew's gonna take to finish his movie, we thought maybe we'd put out a 7-inch or something like that."
There's no word yet on if/when and how this single will be released (safe bets include "some time" and "on Drag City"), but Oldham says that the original song is entitled "We Love Our Hole" and the other side features the Cairo Gang's version of Terry Hannigan's "I'll Be Alright."
Aside from that, Oldham says he's hoping to spend the next couple of years working closer to home and may scale back his touring.
"I know that it would be a quickly tapped vein to only tour, say, five blocks around my house, but that's what I'm talking about; to try and make stronger what we have, rather than trying to create newer channels."
Catch Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie "Prince" Billy on tour this summer, while you still can.
Tour dates:
5/31 Malmö, Sweden - Kulturbolaget
6/1 Copenhagen, Denmark - Den Grå Hal, Christiania
7/17 Palmer, AK - Vagabond Blues
7/18 Anchorage, AK - Tap Root
7/20-21 Dawson, YT - Dawson City Music Festival
7/25 Detroit, MI - Trinosophes
7/26 Guelph, ON - Hillside Festival
7/28 Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival
7/29 New York, NY - Town Hall
7/30 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
7/31 Washington, DC - Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
8/2 Columbus, OH - Wexner Center for the Arts
8/3 Newport, KY - The Southgate House Revival
