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Pink Floyd have reformed to release a new protest song for Ukraine. The track, titled ‘Hey Hey, Rise Up’ was inspired by Andriy Khlyvnyuk, who is a Ukrainian musician and singer best-known for fronting the group Boombox. The Pink Floyd reunion includes David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney, but does not feature Roger Waters. This is the first new original music that they have recorded together as a band since 1994’s The Division Bell.
David Gilmour had previously gigged with Khlyvnyuk a few years ago, and saw an Instagram video where the singer was armed in Kyiv’s main square and singing a protest song, The Red Viburnum In The Meadow. The song was written in World War I and has been revived in recent weeks.
Gilmour immediately saw the potential to create something, explaining his reaction to the video:
“I saw this incredible video on Instagram, where he stands in a square in Kyiv with this beautiful gold-domed church and sings in the silence of a city with no traffic or background noise because of the war. It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.”
Gilmour contacted Khlyvnyuk to discuss the track, only to find that the Ukrainian musician was in hospital injured from the conflict. Khlyvnyuk was well enough to agree to the track’s release, and the two collaborated over the phone.
In the track’s announcement, Gilmour expressed his many emotions at the situation, saying:
“We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world’s major powers”.
The video for Hey Hey Rise Up was filmed by acclaimed director Mat Whitecross and shot on the same day as the track was recorded. Speaking about the process, David Gilmour said:
“We recorded the track and video in our barn where we did all our Von Trapped Family live streams during lockdown. It’s the same room that we did the ‘Barn Jams’ in with Rick Wright back in 2007. Janina Pedan made the set in a day and we had Andriy singing on the screen while we played, so the four of us had a vocalist, albeit not one who was physically present with us”.
The artwork for the track features a painting of the national flower of Ukraine, the sunflower, by the Cuban artist, Yosan Leon. The cover of the single is a direct reference to the woman who was seen around the world giving sunflower seeds to Russian soldiers and telling them to carry them in their pockets so that when they die, sunflowers will grow.
Speaking about the track Gilmour says:
“I hope it will receive wide support and publicity. We want to raise funds for humanitarian charities and raise morale. We want to express our support for Ukraine and, in that way, show that most of the world thinks that it is totally wrong for a superpower to invade the independent democratic country that Ukraine has become”.
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Michelle is a musician and composer from the UK. She has performed across the UK and Europe and is passionate about arts education and opportunities for women and girls.
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