Scottish pop band Belle & Sebastian have long used social media to collaborate with their fans. (Frontman Stuart Murdoch held a digital open call for his 2014 film God Help the Girl, and to promote their 2011 album Belle and Sebastian Write About Love, they asked fans online to do exactly that — write about love — and the winner got a song written about them.) So, it's no surprise that Murdoch has turned to Twitter to bring people together during this period of self-isolation.
Fans were asked to send Murdoch "a few sentences or a paragraph" on how they were feeling during the quarantine. Today, he launched the results of the project, titled Protecting the Hive, where he and Alessandra Lupo narrate these messages over a tranquil instrumental and scenes of a deserted Glasgow provided by Kenny MacLeod. It's a beautiful piece that reminds us that we're not alone, and that many are feeling the same way right now.
Part two will launch this Friday, April 24th, this time sans music, to encourage followers to create their own. “You have GarageBand, Zoom, whatever. A collaboration,” Murdoch writes. “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.”
Murdoch is also using social media to help ease the anxiety of fans by leading meditations via the band's Facebook page.
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