As upstanding and concerned citizens (though not necessarily of the American persuasion) The Stanfield’s have taken aim at Trump with their video for “Afraid Of The World”, the first single from their upcoming album, Limboland.
“There are a few people who are surprised that we suddenly became ‘political’, which is both hilarious and perplexing to me,” says The Stanfields’ frontman Jon Landry.
Recently there’s been much debate on whether or not rock and role should be politicized at all. Following the Grammy Award’s decision not to televise the Rock category this year, commenters took to the internet to criticize the award show, but many speculated that Rock had lost its teeth in terms of relevancy, and failed to keep pace with genres like Hip Hop. The felt that Rock simply couldn’t rest of the laurels of Hobbits and Vikings.
Landry’s take on the situation is more moderated one, but as a rocker who has produced a political charged song, in a world that is becoming increasingly political, he finds himself knee-deep in it one way or another.
“I guess it depends on what you think the role of the artist is. I write about what I see and how it makes me feel. Certain elements of it struck a chord with me. Of course, you can only take what the Grammys present with a grain of salt. I’m not even sure that Hip Hop is overtly political, it’s just that it’s the soundtrack for a section of our society who are subject to different set of unfair rules.
I think Rock music was very much the same for sexually oppressed white kids once upon a time, and now it’s generally for white dudes who live in the suburbs who collect vinyl, drink craft beer and such. Like me. So I guess I see the point – I don’t necessarily believe that rock music needs to become topical and political – it’s just that it’s not speaking to very many people who are dealing with societal level struggles.
I’m just gonna do what I do and say what I say. If someone doesn’t like it, they can tune us out and keep their head down at the pub if it makes them happy. Follow your bliss right? For me personally, Trump is the ultimate personification of the things I’ve always wrote about.
You don’t become President of the United States without having a damn good idea of what you are doing and who you are speaking to. Our folly continues to be that underestimate him and dismiss him as a clown – yet somehow this fuckin’ guy went from hocking steaks to having his finger on the button.”
The Stanfield’s newest album, Limboland, is out on March 23rd, 2018.