Heath Ledger’s spirit rocks on in the music video world.
Nineteen months after Heath Ledger’s sudden passing, his directorial debut of Modest Mouse’s music video for “King Rat” has been released online at WeAreTheMasses.com. The song is a bonus track from their 2007 album, “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.”
The animated indie collaboration concludes with a dedication to Ledger that reads, “This began with our friend, a great defender of life, and was completed in his spirit.”
While Ledger began the project in 2007, the music video had not yet been completed at the time of his death on Jan. 22, 2008. The partner company, Enter The Masses, completed the work on the project.
In 2007, Modest Mouse frontman Issac Brock spoke to VH1 about how his partnership with Ledger started.
“Heath and I have a mutual friend and when we were in Australia, some of us in the band went out on a boat with him and his family and friends and talked about the idea,” he said. “The idea sort of dropped, but then he just sent me an e-mail saying that he wanted to do it.”
The video raises awareness of the commercial, illegal whale hunts conducted off the coast of Australia.
All proceeds from the U.S. iTunes store during the music video’s first month of release will go to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to marine life preservation.