The times we live in have sparked plenty of reactions from the music community and the latest artist to offer a reflection on these troubled times is New York singer and activist DANIELLE PONDER who, in collaboration with Aussie band KARATE BOOGALOO, has just released the moody, shifting single ‘Look Around’.
It seems that Ms Ponder was working in Australia in January and teamed up with the Melbourne based group to write a song about the fires that were raging in the country but as the work evolved the pandemic struck and then the whole Black Lives Matter movement was mobilised. Danielle says: “Fires were raging through Australia and smoke covered the sky. It felt like all of our human sins had gotten the best of us and we were paying a price. I didn’t know that when I arrived back home in the US, the world would only get darker. I feel like my past self wrote this song for my future self knowing what was to come.”
The broody, building, soulful ‘Look Around’ is indeed an apposite if haunting reflection on the times we live in. It’s available now and a proportion of sales profits will be donated to the Equal Justice Initiative in the USA and Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance in Australia.
