Fleet Foxes have contributed a new original song, “A Sky Like I’ve Never Seen,” to the upcoming documentary Wildcat, which hits theaters on Dec. 21 and Amazon’s Prime Video on Dec. 30. The track sports vocal and guitar work from Brazilian musician Tim Bernardes, and has already been nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award for best original song (documentary film).
Wildcat is centered around a young veteran named Harry Turner, who travels to the Amazon and unexpectedly meets a woman overseeing a wildlife rescue center. Turner eventually begins to take care of a baby ocelot, transforming his trip into an “adventure of love, discovery, and healing.” The film was directed by Melissa Lesh and Trevor Beck Frost.
“I was inspired by how the film employed unconventional means to arrive at something universally moving, and was struck by all the collisions inherent in the film’s conceit — between species, between hemispheres, between individuals, between the psychological and the natural,” says Fleet Foxes leader Robin Pecknold. “In hotel rooms and in borrowed studios, on time stolen from a world tour, I put this song together. It was an honor to be asked to make a song that could serve as an end-cap to this unique and affecting story and to collaborate with Tim again.”
In other Fleet Foxes news, the group has set a Nov. 15 release date through Tin House for Wading in Waist-High Water: The Lyrics of Fleet Foxes. The book features lyrics from 55 songs as well as reminiscences from Pecknold about their creation. Novelist Brandon Taylor (Real Life, Filthy Animals) penned the introduction, while Pecknold wrote the afterword.
For Fleet Foxes, 2022 was their busiest year of touring since 2018, with more than 40 shows across Europe and North America. The group’s most recent album, 2020’s Shore, was nominated for the best alternative music album at this year’s Grammys. Pecknold also made a surprising guest appearance on the Post Malone song “Love/Hate Letter to Alcohol,” and joined him to perform it on the May 14 episode of Saturday Night Live.
