Though Swiss Army Man may be best known for the fact that it features the flatulent-yet-functional corpse of Harry Potter himself, the filmmakers are highlighting the film’s unique soundtrack, with the song “Montage” getting the a cappella treatment from singers across the nation.
Andy Hull and Robert McDowell of Atlanta rock band Manchester Orchestra performed the original version of “Montage,” which features vocals from stars Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe.
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Hull explained to Billboard how “Montage” came together: “Last January, I received an email from our good friends, the directing duo Daniels [Kwan and Scheinert]. We had met and fallen in love while working together on our music video for ‘Simple Math.’ They asked if I was interested in writing some songs for a full-length feature they had been working on. I was obviously thrilled at the opportunity and so they sent me the script. It was the craziest story I had ever read and I knew that only these two insanely talented individuals could pull off something this ambitious. I immediately wrote and recorded a song with Robert and sent it to them. There was also one other thing we had to keep in mind. The Daniels didn’t want any real instruments in the movie. Only voices. The idea was that Paul and Daniel’s character would create their own score in their minds.
“What we aimed for was something really beautiful that can evoke emotions without having to always use lyrics or any traditional instrumentation,” he continued. “It’s an up and down journey that parallels the travels and conversations of these two characters.”
Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe introduce the new a cappella version below, titled “All We Ever Needed Was an A Capella Montage of ‘Montage,'” wherein singers take on lyrics such as “pop-popcorn” and “Now we killed a raccoon/ We are using your body like it’s a machine gun,” mirroring the strange events of a film on survival and friendship.