Earth Day 2022: Brian Eno, Michael Stipe, Coldplay To Release New Music
Earth Day 2022 is to be marked by approximately 100 artists releasing material via Bandcamp, including Brian Eno and Michael Stipe, Coldplay, Anna Calvi, Declan McKenna, Murkage Dave and The Weather Station, among many others. Bandcamp have pledged to drop its usual 15% cut to 10& with the proceeds being distributed among causes at the forefront of the climate crisis.
Brian Eno told The Guardian, ““Lots of people are becoming aware that we can’t just talk about the problem – we have to do something about it in our own practice.”
Eno also revealed a new collaboration for Earth Day, “I’ve just finished a piece this morning with Michael Stipe,” says Eno, revealing an exclusive collaboration with the former REM singer called Future If Future. “This will be the first time I’ve worked with him, though I did sing with him once on Saturday Night Live or something like that,” smiles the 73-year-old, in his west London recording studio. “I’m very pleased with the way it’s gone. It’s a very good song, a very Stipe song. Beautiful lyrics, extraordinary piece.”
Eno has also produced new material for the day with Hot Chip, featuring Savages drummer Fay Milton.
“We’ve been trying to say to people, ‘Look, if you want to find a simple way of joining the climate struggle, this might be the answer,’” Eno went on. “We’re a shortcut to a lot of things that otherwise might be fairly hard to do.”
Coldplay’s efforts to cut down the carbon emissions of their shows was highlighted by Eno, ““Their [contribution] is really important. They’ve taken the matter very seriously and committed a lot of resources to it. They’re at the front of this in terms of saying, ‘We still want to play to people, so what do we do?’ Coldplay have been very conscientious and intelligent.”