Pink Floyd Share First New Song In 28 Years “Hey Hey Rise Up” To Support Ukrain

Tomorrow, Friday, April 8, Pink Floyd will release new music in support of Ukrainians entitled “Hey Hey Rise Up.” This is the first new original music that they have recorded together as a band since 1994’s The Division Bell. David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Pink Floyd bass player Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney lay down brass percussions and reverent awes next to the vocals of Boombox singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk from his Instagram post singing the Ukrainian song “The Red Viburnum In The Meadow.”

Acclaimed director Matt Whitecross filmed the crew the same day they recorded the track in the same barn Von Trapped Family did their live streams during lockdown. It’s a creative flip but even more-so impactful with visuals of Ukrainian flags waiving, soldiers marching and of course Khlyvnyuk belting those heart-felt lyrics. Even if you cant understand the words, the powerful delivery says it all.

Gilmour, who has a Ukrainian daughter-in-law and grandchildren says: “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”.

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 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.”

It’s not the first time Pink Floyd’s been outspoken on the Russian attacks and Ukrainian unrest. Last month they, along with many other artists, took a small but symbolic stand by removing their music from streaming platforms in Russia. According to mxdwn, the band wrote on twitter “To stand with the world in strongly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the works of Pink Floyd, from 1987 onwards, and all of David Gilmour’s solo recordings are being removed from all digital music providers in Russia and Belarus from today.”