Guitarist and singer David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason, bassist Guy Pratt and composer Nitin Sawhney have teamed up to create “Hey Hey Rise Up” to support the UN Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine. According to the Guardian, Gilmour was inspired by Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk from the band BoomBox. In February, Khlyvnyuk left the rock band to fight in Ukraine against Russia, while the BoomBox toured the United States. Gilmour saw a video on the musician’s military equipment Instagram singing a protest song in Kiev’s Sofiyskaya Square and then he was inspired to do something about it. “I thought: this is very magical and maybe I can do something about it,” Gilmour told the Guardian. “I have a great platform that [Pink Floyd] have worked all these years. It is really difficult and frustrating to see this extremely crazy, unjust attack by a great power on an independent, peaceful, democratic nation. “The frustration of seeing this and thinking ‘what the fk can I do?’ it’s a bit unbearable. “ So Gilmour, who has a Ukrainian bride and grandchildren who are half Ukrainian, took out that frustration and made something productive out of it. 1/3 Tonight at midnight, Pink Floyd will release a new song, “Hey Hey Rise Up”, featuring David Gilmour and Nick Mason accompanied by Guy Pratt & Nitin Sawhney, with a great vocal by Andriy Khlyvnyuk Ukrainian band Boombox. Listen / download at https://t.co/i1l92D3AYU – Pink Floyd (@pinkfloyd) April 7, 2022 The band gathered and recorded the song and a music video, in which Mason plays drums that have a painting by Ukrainian artist Maria Primachenko. Waters, who left the group in 1985, reportedly did not return for reunion. However, the song includes Khlyvnyuk’s voice from the video that inspired Gilmour in the beginning. Gilmour reached Khlyvnyu, who was treated for injuries sustained in the collision. “The next time I saw him, he was in the hospital with a gunshot wound,” Gilmour told the Guardian. “He showed me this tiny quarter-inch piece of shrapnel that was embedded in his cheek. He had kept it in a plastic bag “. Along with the new song, Pink Floyd also recently announced that they have removed all their music from Russian and Belarusian digital music providers. Gilmour hopes that the song, released on Friday, can serve an important purpose for the people of Ukraine. “I would not do it with many more things,” Gilmour said, “but it is so vital, vital that people understand what is going on there and do what they can to change that.”
