Tim Heidecker Releases New Single, “Nothing”
Fear of Death out September 25 on Spacebomb Records
Tim Heidecker, the Los Angeles-based actor, comedian, producer, musician and podcast host, has released a new single/visualiser, “Nothing,” from his forthcoming album, Fear of Death, out September 25 on Spacebomb Records. While its recently released title track is an upbeat take on avoiding potentially fatal choices, “Nothing” comes to terms with it. “Nothing” was co-written with Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering. Overdramatic piano, their voices blend: “Nothing, that’s what it amounts to, they say // A black void waiting down the road for us one day.” “Nothing” was created during a recording session that he calls “one of the more spiritual and emotional moments of my creative life.”
“I wanted to write a religious-sounding song about agnosticism,” says Heidecker. “I wrote it a little poppier/jauntier, but working with Natalie and Drew (Erickson), we smoothed it out into something more haunting and (in my opinion ) beautiful. We crammed the session into the end of an overdub day/night, just the three of us doing it live with Natalie adding those incredible angel harmonies over the bridge. Drew and (Jonathan) Rado later added all sorts of goodness to it. The second verse is a very literal description of my experience at the SXSW premiere of Us. I’m pretty proud of this one in general. I hope it delivers some goosebumps.”
Fear of Death is Heidecker’s biggest sounding album yet, featuring an all-star band comprised of Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering, Drew Erickson (Jonathan Wilson, Dawes), The Lemon Twigs’ Brian and Michael D’Addario, Jonathan Rado, and string arrangements by Spacebomb’s Trey Pollard (Foxygen, Bedouine, The Waterboys, Natalie Prass). Throughout, Heidecker’s sound is fleshed out with winding guitar, slow-building percussion, gentle keys, and a 14-piece string ensemble. Tracks range from a bluesy and smokey nod to J.J. Cale, an uptempo ode to country living, to a sad close that began as a Bernie Taupin/Elton John-style writing experiment.
This is an earnest departure from comedy and a collection of songs that centres around Serious Topics – a discouraging future, abandoning life in the city, and the inevitability of death. And although this is serious music about serious topics, Heidecker says. “I hope my observations and meditations on death, the afterlife, the future, while at times a little dark and grim, offer a little comfort and catharsis for some people.”