What makes a great protest or community song? Is it the message, the melody, or the way it brings people together?
Throughout history, movements for change have been powered by song—We Shall Overcome, This Land Is Your Land, Blowin’ in the Wind. These weren’t just soundtracks to activism; they were tools of resistance, uniting voices in streets, marches, and gatherings. But in today’s fractured world, where are the universal anthems? And how do we write them?
With renewed interest in the legacy of protest music—sparked in part by the new Bob Dylan biopic—we have to ask whether we’re on the verge of a new era of communal singing. Could the next great protest song emerge not from a recording studio, but from the voices of a crowd, around a campfire, in the streets?
With this background narrative in mind, I set about writing songs for the first time in spring 2024 after meeting and talking with Gitika Partington. I'd just heard her 'All The Bees' album that she did with Kirsty McGee and I immediately thought that I would love to work with her in putting together some ideas I had for new community-led songs, which might work around the campfire but also in the recording studio.
Gitika ended up leading some stirring community singing sessions at last August's Campout and it was thrilling to hear the new songs 'This Is The Fire', "If I Had a Voice' and 'Bubble of Love' in this social context.
On another level, this project has enabled me to find my own voice, both as a songwriter and a singer, encouraged greatly in the early days by Gitika. I feel as if I have found new levels of self-expression which have been bottled top for years. Music has always been a passion but being able to see my own songs emerge in a context of community connection and social change gives me the inspiration to be doing more work in this direction.
As Brian Eno infamously said "Singing together is the key to world peace". There is an indefinable quality to the buzz we can all feel when i glorious song with others, each playing our part but creating harmony together. It's a great starting point in imagining the changes we need to be making to find hope and inspiration through connection and through finding our voices, individually and collectively.
Interestingly, during the songwriting course that I attended online in January that was led by Eno, he surprised and delighted me one week when he set his homework task as writing a song of revolution. A song that asks the question 'What future do I want for the world?'
These songs don’t always need to be a rally cry or a protest song, but universal songs of aspiration, of love and connection, Above all of hope…
Protest music comes from the heart and the times we live in . It’s a visceral response. But equally, the spirit of ‘Kumbaya’ needs to be reclaimed, taken back from the cynics. It’s needn't be mocked to be starting from a position of utopia,.. dreaming a new world into being through song.
So, it will be an album of community songs, rooted in a hymnal folk tradition that will hopefully work in a variety of settings - the campfire, the community hall, the school or even the football terraces.
Here's a video outlining the original inspiration for the project and introducing co-producer Matt Coldrick. I will post further updates around the process of making this album as it takes shape.