Technically, Jonny Greenwood already wrote a proper score for Jonathan Ames’ book You Were Never Really Here when he abetted Lynn Ramsay’s 2017 film adaptation, but that didn’t stop songwriter Rebecca Schiffman from providing her own musical interpretation. After reading the novel for a combination bookclub/songwriter’s workshop, Schiffman channeled facets of its story into the lyrics for what would become her latest single, “The Mercenary.” “I had already been performing the song solo for a while, and [had] written that sitcom-like chorus guitar riff,” she explains of the track, which is set to appear on her forthcoming full-length Before the Future. “The reggae feel was not introduced until the studio—I can’t remember exactly how it came about, but I would guess it was Luke and the rhythm section experimenting.”
That Luke is Luke Temple, who currently performs as Art Feynman and who previous led the band Here We Go Magic. Temple was just one of several peers invited to produce songs on the album, alongside SASAMI, Deerhoof’s Chris Cohen, and Tim Carr from Perfume Genius’ band. “We started the recording by live tracking the band at Altamira Sound in Alhambra with Rob Shelton engineering. Luke put on a beat on his triton synth for everyone to play along to—Kosta Galanopoulos on drums, Doug Stuart on bass, and Steve Marion on guitar. Steve played a certain melody with a certain guitar sound that I loved. It reminded me of Scritti Politti’s ‘Cupid & Psyche 85,’ which is one of my all-time favorite albums.”
In the same way Schiffman’s calming composition has little in common with Greenwood’s tense score, the music video she created for “The Mercenary” is far from the Hollywood-level production design and narrative coherence of Ramsay’s film—although equally artful. “This is my first time making one of my own music videos,” the songwriter admits. “It’s a collage of iPhone selfie footage of me singing, heavily cropped and edited scenes from the movie, and stock footage.”
Check it out below, and pre-order Before the Future here ahead of its July 25 release.
