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While his return to Earth is expected in a few days, NASA astronaut Drew Feustel has released a song and video that summarizes his experience in space.
To help write and record "All Around the World," which was released on Sunday, Queen's University graduate, Dr. Feustel, turned to his close friend Gord Sinclair of The Tragically Hip.
"He's been there for six months and wanted to make an artistic statement about it," Sinclair said over the phone.
The two men, who met years ago when Hip fan Feustel offered the group a tour of NASA's Houston facilities, first discussed the idea of collaborating on a song at the beginning of the year, before Feustel is projected into space. for the third time.
"We have just started a dialogue about his experiences and reflected on his clearly unique view of the planet," Sinclair said. "And you get a very deep sense of the fragility of our place of residence and the way we all float in space."
While Feustel, who ends Wednesday as commander of Expedition 56 on the International Space Station, plays the guitar and sings, he is not a songwriter, Sinclair said. That's why he turned to Tragically Hip's bassist.
"In summary, I decided to use the ISS as a metaphor for our life on Earth, which we discussed with him," Sinclair said.
"And it was essentially that. You bounce the lyrical ideas. I did not take a lot of time to find the song and the melody and start hammering the lyrics. "
Feustel told Sinclair that astronauts in the space program made no political difference.
"[It’s] As the chorus says, the concept of this spirit of international cooperation, brotherhood and love, to say it in a word that exists on the space station for these guys, is metaphorically all around us, "said Sinclair.
"I imagine that when we talk about it, we address George Harrison's problem as an astronaut," he continued. "It's a cliché, but you'd like to think that's all we really need."
Sinclair recorded a preliminary version of the song just after Feustel left Kazakhstan in March.
"I made the music and sang an approximate version that I sent to him. He basically started playing it on guitar during his free time, "said Sinclair. "He is a good singer and a good player, and he recorded it on his laptop while he was alone in the dome. [of the ISS]. "
He returned the recording to Sinclair and producer James McKenty, who designed and recorded it. The accompanying video was produced by Kingston's Make Hay Media group using footage provided by Feustel and NASA.
Mr. Feustel, who has dual citizenship, is not the first astronaut to record a song and record a video clip as he climbed 400 kilometers from Earth. Canadian Chris Hadfield did it with David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in 2013.
"What Chris did was really, really cool, but Drew thought himself looking out the window as he gravitated around the planet," Sinclair observed.
"It had been there several times already and it had affected it in a very deep and artistic way. And I think that the men and women of the space program have a very strong and important voice in terms of advocacy for the planet and, again, according to their point of view. "
Sinclair believes that "All around the world" has "an artistic and ecological weight."
"And, again, when you have a friend who asks you to help in a project, you say," Great. If they ever need a bass player, "he says with a laugh," maybe I'll get the job.
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