Inside the ‘absurdist’ ‘concept album’ that is ‘Atlanta’ Season 3

The last time a new episode of “Atlanta” aired was in May 2018. Among the key collaborators in crafting its incredibly bold and free storytelling — taking time out for an episode where Paper Boi gets lost in the woods or Darius meets the gloriously weird one-off character Teddy Perkins — is director Hiro Murai, who transitioned from a successful career directing music videos to working in television and was recently nominated for a DGA Award for his work on HBO Max’s series “Station Eleven.” A few days before a screening of the Season 3 premiere closed the South By Southwest Film Festival, Murai got on the phone from his home in L.A.’s Silver Lake neighborhood to talk — as much as he could — about what to expect from the upcoming seasons. There’s something specifically very fish-outta-water about touring Europe, ‘cause obviously all the cultural things, but you are also bringing American Black music to a different land, so the story naturally bent that way. I would say it’s a little more like maximalist or absurdist than what’s been baseline “Atlanta.” From “Atlanta,” but then also the “This Is America” video or “Guava Island” project, you seem to have such a strong collaboration with Donald — the two of you really seem to understand each other and work well together. Season 3, I think it’s a kind of a concept album — we’re trying a lot of different things, and I think you’ll see some wild swings.