Under The Radar (UTR) reports that Belle & Sebastian, one of the more inventive pop/rock bands of the last few decades, have decided to come up with a music cycle based on the fan lyrics “on their thoughts and feelings about being quarantined at home alone.”
The cycle is called Protecting the Hive, and the first release in the series “is narrated by bandleader Stuart Murdoch and friend Alessandra Lupo, which is set to an aerial view of Glasgow in its current lockdown state, shot by Kenny MacLeod.“
The band adds that the next installment in the series “is a work-in-progress demo recording based on the same written contributions, which the band is set to share as audio files, encouraging fans to experiment with and record their own versions of the song at home.” That release will be available on Friday, April 24.
To engage the fans, Murdoch sent them the following message: “Ok, I’ve got an idea. I come up with lots of tunes but the band isn’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.”
UTR adds that Murdoch also hosts a live meditation session every week which can be watched on their Facebook page.
