Billy Strings has released a video for the song “Guitar Peace”, from the musician’s 2019 album Home.
The video finds Strings, real name William Apostol, in the studio as he tracks the instrumental “Guitar Peace”. The overwhelming majority of the video, like many of Strings’ visual accompaniments to his music, is a simple shot of him playing the guitar in real time with the song. The occasional flair of some lines of animation, almost like strings themselves, accent his focused playing. As Strings traverses up and down the fretboard, a time lapse effect on his hands make them appear to multiply, and if you close your eyes and listen, you might just believe he actually does have three hands.
Along with the video’s premiere in Acoustic Guitar, Strings talked about the circumstances that brought about the song. After a long day of recording Home back in January 2019, Strings relaxed by watching Martin Scorsese‘s George Harrison: Living in the Material World, and was struck by frequent-Harrison collaborator Ravi Shankar‘s spiritual connection to his music. So, the next day, Strings came into the studio, inspired by Shankar’s presence in the film.
“I told our engineer [Glenn Brown] just to leave the tape rolling,” Strings said. “Then I put the guitar in a weird tuning, smoked a bunch of weed, and got into the zone…I don’t even know what I was thinking; I just wanted to play from my soul, make something up on the spot, and find weird things that worked. It was a total experiment,”
Watch the video for “Guitar Peace” below.
Billy Strings – “Guitar Peace”
[Video: Billy Strings]
Along with the video, Acoustic Guitar published a transcription of “Guitar Peace” for anyone brave enough to attempt the intricately intimate piece.
Like most every other musician, Strings has been forced to postpone a good number of tour dates as a result of the spread of the novel coronavirus. His next performance is slated for May 8th in Richmond, VA at Friday Cheers. For more information head to his website.