True Detective theme writers The Handsome Family premiere video for new song 'Gold' - exclusive

Rennie Sparks says 'Gold' is about the 'meanness' of the American west

The Handsome Family's new album Unseen is out on 16 September (Brandon Soder)

The Handsome Family are proud to present the beautifully surreal video for their new single “Gold”.

Cult husband and wife duo Rennie and Brett Sparks rose to fame in 2015 after Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey picked their track “Far From Any Road” as the theme to hit HBO TV show True Detective.

“Gold”, released on 15 July ahead of their tenth studio album Unseen, is a modern classic murder ballad set against a backdrop of “wide empty streets, the air shaking with heat”. It paints intense images of a protagonist with snake tattoos, a ski mask and gunshot wounds and is the beginning of the album’s journey, taking listeners deep into one of the band’s favourite places: the unknown.

Take a look at the video here:

Rennie gave us some further insight into what the song really means: “It’s about the ‘meanness’ of the American west, specifically our hometown of Albuquerque, NM. The sun sets for hours here and in that golden glow you can believe that good things are waiting for you around the next bend, over the next hill, past the next gas station. Keep driving. Keep shopping. Don’t think.

“The video footage we used is from two sources: public domain footage of a night rodeo in Gallup, New Mexico (probably from the 1960s) and video Brett and I shot with our iPhone out the window, driving up and down old Route 66, Central Avenue—the closest major street to the house where we live.

“I feel such utter sadness shimmering from the bright beckoning signs we drive past here, an aching hollowness to this collective American dream built in a bowl of sand and fire. Sometimes it’s lonely beyond words here. The streets are wide and the parking lots never fill and every day there is incredibly violent crime for little reason. Ah, but past the edge of town, past that black expanse— there’s always another town down the road, a place where you can start again.”

Unseen is described as a “unique mix of country instrumentation and intriguing surrealist lyricism”. It explores the unseen stories, people and places of the American west and shines a light on the obscure and forgotten. Many tracks fix around the idea that light that emanates from things we can’t see - behind “The Red Door,” in the empty hands of blackjack losers (“The Silver Light”) and amidst desert bones bleaching in the sun (“King of Dust”).

“As a songwriter you have to be willing to disappear and let your songs outshine you in order to embrace points of view bigger than your own,” says Rennie. “It was great that a song written about ants in my driveway (‘Far From Any Road”) became a song about cops in Louisiana. That’s the best any songwriter can hope for.”

Unseen is released on Loose on 16 September.