Sturgill Simpson Announces New Album and Film

GRAMMY Award winner Sturgill Simpson has announced early details for “SOUND & FURY,” the title of both his much-anticipated, new album arriving this fall via Elektra Records AND the original Japanese anime film he created with some of the biggest names in its genre simultaneously being released by Netflix.  The first trailer for “SOUND & FURY,” including film footage and music from the forthcoming album, was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend during a panel featuring Simpson and two of the filmmakers, writer/director Jumpei Mizusaki and character designer Takashi Okazaki.  Watch HERE.  Further details – including the release date for the album and Netflix film – will be announced soon.

Simpson comments, “We went in without any preconceived notions and came out with a really sleazy, steamy rock n roll record.  It’s definitely my most psychedelic.  And also my heaviest.  I had this idea that it’d be really cool to animate some of these songs, and we ended up with a futuristic, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, samurai film.”

“SOUND & FURY,” the album, was produced by Simpson and marks his first, full length release since 2016’s acclaimed “A Sailor’s Guide To Earth,” which won “Best Country Album” and was nominated for “Album of the Year” at the 59th GRAMMY Awards.  Merging American rock music and Japanese animation in a revolutionary new way, “SOUND & FURY,” the film, is set entirely to music from the full album, with a different anime segment for each individual song.  Produced and based on a story by Simpson entitled “Sound & Fury,” the film was written and directed by Jumpei Mizusaki, founder of renowned CG animation studio Kamikaze Douga and director for the animated film,“Batman Ninja.”  Takashi Okazaki, creator of Japanese manga series “Afro Samurai,” served as the film’s character designer.  Additional directors include Masaru Matsumoto of Grayscale Arts (“Starship Troopers:  Traitors of Mars”), Michael Arias (“The Animatrix”), Henry Thurlow and Arthell Isom of D’Art Shtajio, and Koji Morimoto (“Akira”).  Shunsuke Ochiai is co-executive producer.

Last month, Simpson unveiled a brand new track “The Dead Don’t Die,” the original theme song for the acclaimed film of the same name, written and directed by Jim Jarmusch.   The track marked his first new music in over three years, following Simpson’s self-produced, GRAMMY® Award-winning, third album, “A Sailor’s Guide To Earth” which garnered rave reviews from The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Pitchfork, Salon, Billboard, The Atlantic, Paste, SPIN, American Songwriter among many others.  Simpson brought his electrifying live show to the small screen with nationally televised performances on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” “Conan,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” and, most memorably, on “Saturday Night Live” and the 59th GRAMMY Awards telecast.