TORONTO -- Beneath all the whimsy in Neil Young's trippy new dystopian Western "Paradox" lies a serious message about a "crisis" facing the music industry, says the Canadian rock great.
Actress Daryl Hannah wrote and directed the surreal Netflix film, in which prospectors looking for old technology jam on guitars and ruminate on the importance of music and "the seeds of life" in the Rocky Mountains.
Young plays the mysterious Man in the Black Hat alongside a cast that includes Willie Nelson and his sons Lukas Nelson and Micah Nelson from the band Promise of the Real.
"I think that we're in the midst of an incredible crisis for the arts and for music in particular. The seeds represent that in a way that is a good metaphor," Young said in a phone interview from New York.
"We don't like (genetically modified organism) seeds, we like pure seeds, and we don't like GMO music, we like pure music. And all music that comes out today has been GMO'd to death -- it comes out totally bastardized and compromised. You get about five per cent of a digital copy of what the music was.
"So 99 per cent of the people, or maybe almost 100 per cent of the people on the planet -- that's what they hear, and that's because of the record companies and the tech giants. They've both been irresponsible with the art of recorded sound."
The "Heart of Gold" singer-songwriter said he's trying to be an example for others by providing "the best-sounding streaming service in the world" at NeilYoungArchives.com, which contains high-quality audio from his storied musical career.
Other streaming services are able to do the same but don't because record companies "insist on charging a ridiculous amount of money for the high-res files," he added.
"As a record company, why would you not put your best foot forward? I don't understand it. So I call out on all the record companies to lower the price of high-res and to lower the price of everything so that it's all one price," said Young, who was born in Toronto and grew up in Omemee, Ont., and Winnipeg.
"The record companies, they make ... a small fraction of one per cent of their profits from high-res. So why would they charge so much for high-res? They can't sell it at that price and it's only for elitists, yet that used to be what everybody heard.
"When music was alive, everybody heard that. Now, no one hears it and music is dead. It has no sound, there's no audio.... That's why people are not moved by music like they used to be moved by it."
Promise of the Real has collaborated with Young on albums, including last year's "The Visitor" and 2015's "The Monsanto Years," which criticizes a major producer of genetically modified crops.
"They are all very passionate about those issues and natural farming practices and the importance of protecting the very foundations that we depend upon, that all life depends upon, or keeping the integrity of seed and diversity and also of water," said Hannah, who is in a relationship with Young.
Young, 72, is also passionate these days about the privacy issues plaguing Facebook. While his musical archive website can currently be entered by logging on to a Facebook or Google account, that's going to change, he said.
"We're researching ways to disconnect from Facebook as a portal. If users have to use it to get in and that's what they want, we'll let them in. But once they get to us, there's no more tracking."
Hannah, whose latest acting projects include the series "Sense8," shot most of "Paradox" on a whim over three days after meeting Young and the band in the Rockies as they practised for a tour. She wrote the script, bought the props and outfits, and cast some of her female relatives.
The "Kill Bill" and "Splash" star hopes viewers will see the film's fantastical elements as more of a dream.
"I really hope people will let it just wash over them and then I think they'll get the best hit out of it," she said.
This is Hannah's first feature-length film as a director, although she stressed it doesn't represent her filmmaking style.
She previously helmed short films and also shot, directed and did the stage design for Young's intimate concert at Omemee's Coronation Hall in December.
"He showed me all of the bridges he used to look at turtles over and where his house was an all that stuff," Hannah said.
"We went to the laundromat, we did my laundry, did her laundry, and then we walked down to the Hall," added Young.
"Then we went to the old mill where I used to be when I was a kid, showed her my house. We walked around. It was a fun."
