Slash has joined forces with Canadian survival expert, environmentalist and filmmaker Les Stroud to raise awareness of environmental degradation. Their joint single, One Giant Farm, features Slash's signature guitar work while also drawing attention to the destruction of marine life.
The video is not for the faint-hearted, as it doesn’t shy away from showing the realities of marine life slaughter. “The video we produced for ‘One Giant Farm’ is hard to watch,” Stroud remarks. “It brought my editor to tears, and I have friends who still can’t watch it.” However, Slash was adamant about only getting involved if the video was publicly published.
“Slash told me during the recording of his solo that the whole reason he was there was based on me going through with showing this video to the world,” Stroud says. “If I didn’t show the video, he wouldn’t contribute his solo.”
The six-minute track goes through several moods and tempos, with Slash setting the mood with a whale-like guitar tone courtesy of volume swells. When the drums kick in, Slash adds a somber, quasi-Spanish guitar-style texture before launching into an overdriven crescendo that compliments the emotion-fueled lyrics.
For this track, Slash worked with producer Mike Clink, whose history with the Guns N' Roses guitarist goes back to Appetite for Destruction.
In a recent interview with Guitar World, Clink spoke about what it's like to work with Slash again and his superb work ethic. “Slash is more focused than ever and knows exactly what he wants to do. He’s also more in the pocket, which is a blues thing.
“Usually I have to tell guitarists to hold back. They get excited and want to push, but I rarely had to bring that to Slash’s attention. He’s so fluid these days, his left hand makes it look seamless.”
One Giant Farm is part of Les Stroud's eco-focused album Mother Earth, released in 2019, which also features Steve Vai and saxophonist/vocalist Mindi Abair.
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