With the global lockdown still in full effect for most countries, Belle And Sebastian have launched a new collaborative project that has allowed their fans to contribute to their new material.
The new two-part series 'Protecting The Hive' collates lyrics contributed by fans at the band's invitation, about their thoughts and feelings while in self isolation, and funnels them to collaborative music works. The first is an audio-visual piece narrated alternately by the band's Stuart Murdoch and friend of the group Alessandra Lupo, accompanied by a striking visual by Kenny MacLeod of an aerial view of a deserted sunlit Glasgow during this period.
Speaking about their latest venture, Murdoch added, “Ok, I’ve got an idea. I come up with lots of tunes but the band aren’t around just now, and I rely on them to turn them into pop. How about we make a tune together using remote technology? Send me a few sentences or a paragraph, I’ll try to funnel those words into a song, then I’ll record an acoustic version of it and bounce it back to you. Then it’s up to you to do what you want to do with it! You have GarageBand, Zoom, whatever. A collaboration. Someone might be good with tech. Someone might want to sing it. Can you put a rhythm to it? Someone add some organ, some flute! At this point it’s out of my hands.” The parts of the song will be made available to download on Friday.
Check out the first part of 'Protecting The Hive' in the player below.
