Announced on Thursday Pink Floydthat they will release their first new song since 1994 on Friday night. Title: “Hey, hey, rise up!” The vocals are a sample from an Instagram video of Ukrainian rock star Andriy Khlyvnyuk, the band’s lead singer BoomBox. Guitarist David Gilmour knew the band from a benefit concert for the Free Theater of Belarus in London in 2015. Back then they played Pink Floyd songs together.
Khlyvnyuk broke off his tour of America in March and joined Ukraine’s National Police, which provides humanitarian aid and carries out armed patrols during the war. In said video Khlyvnyuk is seen in combat gear with an assault rifle in front of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. He takes a quick look around, then sings a cappella the patriotic song “Oi u luzi chervona kalyna” (The Red Snowball in the Meadow), composed in 1914 in honor of the Ukrainian riflemen who fought alongside Austria-Hungary.
Gilmour called Khlyvnyuk on Tuesday. He had just collected bodies
Gilmour was so touched by this video that he went into the studio with Floyd drummer Nick Mason, bassist Guy Pratt and producer Nitin Sawhney. The newspaper Guardians He said: “I have a pretty big platform that Pink Floyd have been working on over the years. It’s really really hard and frustrating to see this completely insane, unjust attack by a major power on an independent, peaceful, democratic nation. The Frustration to see that and think ‘what the hell can I do?’ is kind of unbearable.”
Then last Tuesday, Gilmour spoke to Khlyvnyuk on the phone and told the Guardian: “He said he had the most hellish day imaginable collecting bodies of Ukrainians and Ukrainian children and helping with the clean-up. That’s where our little problems become so pathetic and tiny compared to what he does.” Gilmour sent him the finished song anyway. And he was glad he liked it. All proceeds are to be donated to humanitarian causes in Ukraine.