Pink Floyd is releasing their first new original music in 28 years in an effort to support the people of Ukraine.
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“Hey Hey Rise Up” is the first new original song Pink Floyd has recorded together since their 1994 album Division Bell as all proceeds from the single will go towards the Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief Fund.
David Gilmour and Nick Mason are joined on the track by longtime Pink Floyd bass player Guy Pratt and keyboardist Nitin Sawhney. The song also features vocals from Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the Ukrainian band Boombox.
The song was recorded on March 30 and uses Khlyvnyuk’s vocals from an Instagram video of him singing in Kyiv’s Sofiyskaya Square. In the video, Khlyvnyuk sings “The Red Viburnum in The Meadow,” which is a Ukrainian protest song that was written during World War I. The last line of the track inspired the new Pink Floyd song as it translates to “Hey Hey rise up and rejoice.”
“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,” Gilmour said in a statement.
“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.”
Gilmour also detailed how he got to know Khlyvnyuk and his band Boombox. “In 2015, I played a show at Koko in London in support of the Belarus Free Theatre, whose members have been imprisoned. Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian band, Boombox, were also on the bill,” he said.
“They were supposed to do their own set, but their singer Andriy had visa problems, so the rest of the band backed me for my set - we played Wish You Were Here for Andriy that night. Recently I read that Andriy had left his American tour with Boombox, had gone back to Ukraine, and joined up with the Territorial Defense. Then 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.”
"Hey Hey Rise Up" arrives tonight at midnight, and you can find it here.
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