Watch Phish Guitarist Trey Anastasio’s Hypnotic New Animated Video
After a busy summer spent gigging with both the Grateful Dead and Phish — including a three-day Magnaball run in late August — Trey Anastasio releases a new solo album, Paper Wheels, on October 30th. We’re premiering the first video from the record, an animated clip for “Lever Boy.” The video was directed by George A. Loucas and features kaleidoscopic imagery inspired by the elaborate die-cut packaging that will house Paper Wheels‘ deluxe vinyl edition, created by Varnish Studio and available now for preorder. The visuals are a perfect complement to the song’s dreamy psych-meets-prog feel.
Paper Wheels was recorded at Anastasio’s Vermont studio, the Barn, and co-produced by his longtime collaborator Bryce Goggin. The album features writing contributions from fellow Anastasio mainstays Tom Marshall and Steve “The Dude of Life” Pollak, and the backing of the Trey Anastasio Band (often known as TAB), which includes drummer Russ Lawton, bassist Tony Markellis, and keyboardist Ray Paczkowski, as well as a horn section including trombonist-vocalist Natalie Cressman, multi-instrumentalist James Casey and trumpeter-vocalist Jennifer Hartswick.
“After a few tours, a band’s chemistry starts to come together and things start to click,” Anastasio told Rolling Stone in a statement. “I wanted to capture that feeling on this album, so basically we walked into the barn and just played. What you’re hearing on ‘Lever Boy’ is the sound of a band playing live, together in a room, with very little isolation — with a couple of simple layers added, very quickly. The album was tracked in about two days, and we rarely did more than one or two takes of each song.”
TAB kicks off a fall tour in support of Paper Wheels on October 16th at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre.