André 3000 has released a new short film inspired by and set to the music of 7 Piano Sketches, his 2025 EP. The 12-minute video was written by André 3000 and Graham Mason, with the latter serving as its director. In the film, the musician walks across New York City with a life-sized piano strapped to his back and a notebook of sketches in his hand while he runs into a number of characters along the route. It’s available to watch now, exclusively on Mubi.
In coordination with the short film’s release, André 3000 sat down with Mubi for an interview in which he discusses being inspired by ants to carry the piano, how the fabricated instrument was built, and why they chose to shoot in New York City. When asked what he finds inspiring about ants in particular, he answered, “How they communicate and relate to each other: their togetherness, the way they work toward a goal. It’s just intriguing to watch them. I’ll sit and watch hours of YouTube videos and nature documentaries about ants. There’s something so cool about the way they work; they’re the biggest workers on the planet. I’ve always felt like humans could learn a lot from ants.”
André 3000 also revealed that he’s still looking for acting projects, following his roles in Claire Denis’ High Life, Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, and Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up. “At the moment, I’m trying to figure out how I can find a way to do something different with it,” he told Mubi. “There’s a famous actor—I won’t name him—and every time he sees me, he’s like, ‘You remember that conversation we had? Have you found that new style of acting yet? I’m still looking!’ If you watch cinema, it moves through different styles of performance: In the ’40s and ’50s, they had this really serious kind of acting. Then in the ’60s and ’70s, it was very free. What is the style for now? I’m looking for that new style, but I don’t know if I’ll find it at my age. Maybe the youth will, because they’ve grown up with cameras in their faces and YouTube and everything. But I’m always looking for something new to challenge myself with; I’ve got some things to figure out.”
7 Piano Sketches is André 3000’s first new music since releasing 2023’s New Blue Sun. That flute-focused record was the Outkast rapper’s debut solo LP and earned him three Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year. The 2024 short film Moving Day, directed by Dexter Navy, documented the making of New Blue Sun and included a previously unreleased track from those recording sessions.
