Marking the arrival of the flower moon – the first of two full moons in May – Peter Gabriel has today released the next song from his forthcoming album oi. Listen to “Won’t Stand Down (Bright-Side Mix)” below:
“It’s really a song to encourage some sort of activism,” says Gabriel. “I had originally thought about trying to create some music for The Elders.org, who are an extraordinary group of people. Their currency is not based on military power, economic power or political power, but just the moral authority they have from having lived extraordinary, selfless lives. That’s something which I wanted to talk about, write about and encourage, because it’s pretty dark out there in lots of places and I think we need people who can just nudge both us and our leaders and keep alive some basic values of justice, compassion and democracy – a hope that can help us start envisioning a just, peaceful and fairer world.
“I think people generally respond much better to positive pictures of what’s coming than they do when they are bombarded and scared by negative ones. We are much more likely to engage if we feel hope. Right now, we don’t see so many positive visions of the future, at least they’re not being projected so strongly as the negative, so I think it’s really important that we start looking for visions to which we can aspire and looking for people who can provide that.
“I have always been a fan of Marvin Gaye and there was a Cuban element to his song ‘Sexual Healing’ that I loved and was exploring – it was something in the way that it allowed the rhythm to move that I liked, and I tried to bring an element of that to this song, while allowing it to evolve into something different. I think it’s a good band performance in the sense that it’s not built up over a lot of time with many different layers, so it feels more alive and, with this song more than any others on the record, I wanted to have real, live emotion in it.”
The artwork for “Won’t Stand Down” comes from Shirin Neshat, and her work Faith. “I’ve been aware of Shirin Neshat since her ’90s ‘Women of Allah’ series,” says Gabriel. “Shirin is from Iran, although she might well call it Persia. Now she lives in New York. This image is very beautiful, powerful and political. Two sets of hands that, to me, represent the need to protect – to protect a positive future for our kids. That’s what I get from the image, though Shirin may well have a very different intent.
“By using Shirin’s work here people may ask whether this song is connected to what is happening now in Iran and although it wasn’t written in reference to the bombing – it was written before that attack – I think it is a real condemnation of humanity that we have not found a way to settle disputes without bombing, destroying and murdering each other. We should be well beyond that by now.”
Tchad Blake’s Dark-Side Mix of “Won’t Stand Down” will be released later in the month, on the second new moon. Further details on the release plans for the full album will follow soon.