Premiere: Sean Watkins’ ‘What To Fear’ track takes on TV news

The extremes to which TV newscasts go to lure viewers with scare tactics are at the core of the new video for roots musician Sean Watkins’ song “What to Fear,” the title track from his forthcoming solo album due Friday.

Pop & Hiss is premiering the video, directed by Dominique Arciero, which opens with an image of a TV screen and a news report showing a flashlight in the middle of the street, over the headline “Suspicious Flashlight.”

The video then cuts between shots of Watkins performing next to a campfire in the woods and other screen images with sensationalistic non-stories, the kind usually trumpeted during sweeps periods, including “Ebola: The Isis of Biological Agents?” and “PB&J Sandwiches: Are They Racist?”

“We’re gonna tell you what to fear/There’s just so much,” he sings in the theme statement of the haunting song that slowly builds from his own solo acoustic guitar backing to a full accompaniment with bass, drums and keyboards. “There’s no one in this dark world you can trust/Except for us.”

Explains Watkins: “Once you become aware of the fear-mongering tactics used by most TV news/’news’ in America, it at once becomes infuriating and hilarious. They know that fear causes the human brain to skip logic and reasoning and go straight to ‘Uh oh, how do I keep myself alive?’ mode, which is good for them, ‘cause it keeps eyeballs on the TV through the ads. It’s something I find disgusting and fascinating.

“I’ve noticed this since I was a kid,” he said, “but it’s gotten much worse lately. I made this song the title track because it feels particularly relevant right now politically. Peppered into the video are some examples of the more lighthearted/ridiculous news headlines, but the more serious ones (which I didn’t include) and the general act of systematically spreading fear by telling viewers what to be afraid of in exchange for ad money is harming us as Americans greatly. The crazy thing is, we actually pay to be made fearful.”

Watkins has been keeping something of a crazy schedule himself.

After the release in 2014 of his first solo album in a decade, “All I Do Is Lie,” he and his fellow members of avant-bluegrass trio Nickel Creek (Sara Watkins and mandolinist Chris Thile) put out a new Nickel Creek album and toured.

Then he and Sara and their Americana music world pals released “The Watkins Family Hour” album and took that formerly static show on the road for a few months last year.

He’s accompanied on the new album by the Bee Keepers trio, plus bassist Matt Chamberlin and drummer Mike Elizondo, and also has brought along Watkins Family Hour core band members including his sister and keyboardist Benmont Tench from Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, and bassist Sebastian Steinberg for guest spots on different tracks.

Watkins will be doing a record release show for “What To Fear” on March 26 at Largo at the Coronet, the club where he and Sara have been holding their monthly Watkins Family Hour residency shows since 2002.

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