English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran shifts gears from pop to rock with Drive, a new high-energy anthem for Brad Pitt’s upcoming film F1. The music video was dropped by the singer on Friday ahead of the June 27 release of the film.
The song, described by Sheeran as a “proper rock song”, sees him churning out electrifying riffs as compared to his signature mellow strums.
Sharing the story behind the making of the song, the 34-year-old singer wrote, “I got asked to do a song for the @f1movie . I knew that I wanted to make a proper rock song for it, a proper driving song. Something you’d wanna turn up to the fullest whilst driving.”
The F1 song is produced by John Mayer and Blake Slatkin. Mayer has supported Sheeran on the guitar sequence of the song, which also features Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl on drums, Pino Palladino on bass, Rami Jaffee on keyboards, and Slatkin on additional keyboards and drum programming.
“Pure dream team for the genre of rock, and I really feel what we created fits the scene in the movie so well. I LOVE making songs for movies, ever since I did I See Fire for The Hobbit. It really lets me as a movie fan, behind the curtain, help create the perfect song for a scene in a movie,” he added.
“Movies and art are the only hobbies outside of music I really have, and I love my time at the f1 whenever I get to go play there. So this was like a match made in heaven. I'm so honoured to work with such great musicians on it, and hope you guys love the end result,” the Perfect singer signed off.
F1 follows the journey of redemption for Pitt's character, Sonny Hayes, as he returns to the racing tracks after a troubled past.
Slated to hit theatres globally on June 27, F1 also stars Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Kim Bodnia and Javier Bardem. Kosinski has directed the film from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger. It is executive produced by Daniel Lupi.