‘No Music On A Dead Planet’ Is Now Spinning In Australia

Kevin Parker, The Avalanches, Budjerah, Courtney Barnett and Cody Simpson are among the 40-plus homegrown artists who’ve pledged support for” No Music On A Dead Planet,” the Australian leg of which is now live.

Timed to launch ahead of Earth Day on Friday (April 22), the domestic campaign will spin alongside international activity, the objective of which is to unite music fans and focus the voices of young Australians and to place climate action on the agenda ahead of the federal election.

“Midnight Oil is proud to be counted with the Australian musicians shouting loud about the present catastrophe of climate change – the most urgent campaign we’ve ever got behind,” comments the Oils’ drummer Rob Hirst.

Green Music Australia is supporting the campaign, which was launched several years ago by U.K.-based not-for-profit partner Music Declares Emergency, with the ambition of “harnessing the influence and reach of artists and fans to bring this conversation fully into the mainstream and encouraging a global response on a global issue.”

Midnight Oil

To date, the international campaign has been supported by the likes of Billie Eilish, The Foals, Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton, Imogen Heap and Sam Fender.

“No Music on a Dead Planet is a call for unity and human connection, to come together to face the climate and ecological emergency. The planet is not ours to plunder, we are simply custodians for a time,” comments Green Music Australia CEO, Berish Bilander, in a statement.

“Artists and music lovers united are a powerful force. If enough of us get together to demand change, our messages will reverberate at the ballot box and beyond.”

The May 21 federal election is seen an opportune moment to push the climate crisis into the hearts and minds of politicians as they make election promises of their own, and beat the drum on their policies.

Participating artists, mindful of the floods that have wrecked the east coast in recent months, and the bushfires that came before, are calling on parliament to commit to strong and bipartisan action on climate change and for young people to enrol to vote, and make it count.

Montaigne

This is “a clutch period for getting people to use their civic power for the good of the planet and others,” comments Montaigne (aka Jessica Cerro).

“Hopefully with a slew of extreme weather events under our belt, we can bring awareness to and encourage our audiences to vote for a progressive government that looks after its people and the planet.”

The “No Music On A Dead Planet” slogan is already among us. The Living End wore a t-shirt onstage at Bluesfest last weekend, and punters in the tees were spotted in the crowd.

Ella Hooper has spread the word on her socials and other artists will come on board in the days ahead, a spokesperson tells TMN.

As part of the campaign, some artists will have conversations with fans at gigs and online, others will declare their songs “endangered” and yank them from their sets until parliament takes action.

Hooper has pledged to retire a song that she plays at almost every  gig, “Daily Detritus.” “Everyone is at risk on a planet that is in distress,” she writes.

Visit the Green Music Australia website for more.