The Scooches issue an urgent call to action in their gently powerful new single and video Stop This Climate Change — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
Released just in time for Earth Day on April 22, Stop This Climate Change — a preview of their upcoming third album Lift Me Up — is a poetic and uplifting track fraught with cataclysmic imagery of fire, ice, flooding, and the desire for change. Singer Betina Hershey wrote the song about our interpersonal relationships with each other, but also with Mother Earth — because collectively, the human race must stop denying climate change.
“Our goal for this song is to inspire people to roll up their sleeves and take action,” she says. “The purple hands on our album cover symbolize the magic that comes with hard work! We recycle, compost, use compostable garbage bags, and bike or walk whenever we can. We can’t afford to deny our impact on the Earth. Let’s come together and truly believe we can create positive change.”
Featuring a stately co-lead vocal by the gifted Miles Griffith, and spiritually elevated musicianship by multi-instrumentalist Nick Russo (aka Banjo Mickaru), the excursion concludes with a thought-provoking spoken-word section by Brooklyn rapper Rashaan I.A. Salaam (aka Ra$h Ca$h), while a hypnotic Indian-influenced outro propelled by Aditya Phatak (tabla), Mamadou Ba (bass), and Harvey Wirht (drums) carries strength to the promised land. The uplifting vocals, harmonies, rhythms, instruments, and visceral message combine into a bold, and jubilant, declaration of unity that insists climate change is not irreversible and together, we can, and will, make a difference. To that end, a portion of the single’s proceeds will benefit the Sierra Club, the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the U.S.
Led by Hershey and Russo, the N.Y.C. outfit — fka Western Scooches — feature standout musicians from New York, Senegal, Suriname, Mexico and Sapelo Island. Over the course of seven years and two albums, 2016’s Very Next Thing and 2018’s Get Us Out Of Fearland, the acclaimed group have performed throughout the U.S. The members have performed with artists such as Paul McCartney, Jon Batiste, Paul Simon, Samir Chatterjee, Deep Singh, Zeb Bangash, Harry Belafonte, Julia Roberts and Wynton Marsalis, and have appeared in Enchanted, Mona Lisa Smile, Away We Go and PBS Masterpiece’s The Chaperone.
Watch the video for Stop This Climate Change above, check out more from The Scooches below, and join the good fight at their website, Facebook and Instagram.
