Pink Floyd are back with their first new music since 1994's Division Bell. Unfortunately for fans the song, "Hey Hey Rise Up" sees David Gilmour and Nick Mason still playing without Roger Waters. It's also the band's first track without keyboardist Richard Wright, who died in September 2008.
"Hey Hey Rise Up" was written just last week, on March 30, and its proceeds will benefit Ukraine in its continued war against Russia.
“I hope it will receive wide support and publicity,” Gilmour said in a statement. “We want to raise funds for humanitarian charities, and raise morale. We want to 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.”
The track also features long-time Pink Floyd bassist Guy Pratt, keyboardist Nitin Sawhney, and Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the Ukrainian band Boombox.
Gilmour met Khlyvnyuk at a benefit show in London back in 2015. “Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian band, Boombox, were also on the bill, he explained. “They were supposed to do their own set, but their singer Andriy had visa problems, so the rest of the band backed me for my set – we played ‘Wish You Were Here’ for Andriy that night."
"Recently I read that Andriy had left his American tour with Boombox, had gone back to Ukraine, and joined up with the Territorial Defense. Then I saw this incredible video on Instagram, where he stands in a square in Kyiv with this beautiful gold-domed church and sings in the silence of a city with no traffic or background noise because of the war," he added. "It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.”
Listen to "Hey Hey Rise Up" above.