Swedish rock legends Europe have released a video for their epic album track Turn To Dust. The song is also being released as a 7" single to mark this year's Record Store Day.
"This song idea has been brewing for over ten years”, says singer Joey Tempest. “When recording our latest album, Walk The Earth, in Abbey Road Studios, the inspiration finally kicked in to finish it.
"Originally an idea and labour of love of our keyboards player Mic Michaeli, the video was meant to touch on emotions and observations related to the Life and Death of your near and dear ones, the circle of life if you will, but it turned out to be much more than that as it follows the dramatic journey of the character taken from the artwork on our album cover.
"Working with Craig Hooper and his animation team was a real pleasure, and after seeing their work on Deep Purple’s The Surprising, we knew we were dealing with true visionaries. We’re very proud of the result, especially since it’s our first ever animated video.”
"A video like this is a very difficult thing to get right," adds Hooper. "The song is layered with emotion and meaning and to capture that in images is tricky to say the least. The band decided the only way to do the song justice was through animation, where images are limited only by your imagination and together we roughed out a treatment.
"It wasn’t until the final frame was finished that we saw we had produced something special, something that I hope does a good enough job of representing such an amazing and heartfelt song. That’s up to viewers to decide."
Europe have three Japanese dates at the end of this month, before returning to mainland Europe for a series of summer shows.
Europe tour dates
Apr 26: Kawasaki Club Citta, JP
Apr 27: Kawasaki Club Citta, JP
Apr 28: Kawasaki Club Citta, JP
Jun 08: Alsoors Open Road Festival, HU
Jun 14: Fuengirola Rock The Coast Festival, ES
Jun 29: Karjaa Raasepori Festival, FI
Jul 02: Berlin Zitadelle, DE
Jul 07: Barcelona Rock Fest, ES
Jul 12: Pietarsaari Open Air, FI
Jul 13: Tampere Sauna Open Air, FI
Jul 26: Liberec Benátská, CZ
Aug 02: Klam Clam Castle, AT
Aug 03: Brienze Brienzersee Festival CH
Aug 04: Lokeren Lokerse Festival, BE
Aug 06: Schaffhausen Stars In Town, CH
Aug 31: Trélazé Festival Estival De Trélazé, Parc Du Vissoir, FR
