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Apr 21, 2020 By Lily Guthrie Belle and Sebastian

Belle and Sebastian are layering music with lyrics from fans on their thoughts and feelings about being quarantined at home alone to create a conspired artwork they are calling Protecting the Hive. The first release from this 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. Watch it below.

The next installment “is a work-in-progress demo recording based on the same written contributions, which the band are set to share as audio files, encouraging fans to experiment with and record their own versions of the song at home,” and it can be downloaded and streamed this Friday, April 24.

It all stemmed from a message Murdoch sent out to fans: “Ok, I’ve got an idea. I come up with lots of tunes but the band aren’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.”

Murdoch also hosts a live meditation session every week which can be watched on their Facebook page.

In late 2017 and early 2018 Belle and Sebastian released three interconnected EPs via Matador, all titled How to Solve Your Human Problems. How to Solve Your Human Problems Part 1 came out in December 2017, Part 2 came out in January 2018, and Part 3 came out in February 2018. Then all three EPs were collected in a vinyl box set and CD compilation that also came out in February 2018.

Read our interview with Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch on How to Solve Your Human Problems.

In 2019 the band also provided the score for the indie film Days of the Bagnold Summer.

Read our interview with Stuart Murdoch on the soundtrack to Days of the Bagnold Summer.

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