By Trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack have released a new short film looking at the music industry’s impact on climate change. Narrated by the band’s Robert Del Naja (aka 3D), the eight-minute film is produced by Anthony Tombling Jr.
Massive Attack partnered with Manchester University’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research to look into ways of offsetting their carbon footprint generated by touring. Now they are taking steps to implement what they have learnt. The band had a low-carbon show ready to roll in Liverpool, UK, before the global pandemic hit.
“As well as the havoc the pandemic reeks across our lives, there’s also opportunity within that enforced hiatus to reflect and to change,” says Del Naja. “We came to the realisation that our industry couldn’t or wouldn’t move fast enough for live music to play its part in rapid decarbonisation. So we opted to design that change ourselves, to put together the identities and the circumstances to push for it and show that it’s possible.”
Sustainability
The film includes interviews with collaborators who helped Massive Attack put the show together. Liverpool’s Director of Culture Claire McColgan and green energy industrialist Dale Vince contribute, along with the Tyndall Centre’s Carly McLachlan. It suggests new and sustainable ways artists could tour in the future. The film also posits that the trend for drive-in gigs will remain once the worst of the pandemic is over.
Back in July, Massive Attack released their three-track audio-visual EP Eutopia.
You can watch their mini doc on climate change below. And if you want to learn more about climate change check out the Tyndall Centre’s podcast series.
