Young Fathers had one of their songs played in an advert during this year’s Super Bowl, and will now be donating the fee to an immigration charity and to War Child.
The track in question was their song ‘Pals’, which they released last year as part of the soundtrack to 28 Years Later, and the advert it featured on was for OpenAI.
Now, the trio have confirmed that they will be donating a cut of the fee to two different charities. The first is The Immigrant Rapid Response Fund in Minnesota, which they explain provides “resources (legal services & emergency basics such as food, housing, transportation and healthcare) to all immigrant communities, including those who have been recently targeted by ICE”.
The second is War Child, which is a non-profit that supports youth affected by war and conflict, and aims to provide “urgently needed food and hygiene items, as well as essential mental health support as they look towards recovery and a more hopeful future”.
As well as sharing links to both charities’ websites, Young Fathers also shared why they made the decision to donate the money.
“As the USA is increasingly under attack from fascism we stand with those who are being kidnapped, murdered and tortured by ICE thugs,” they said. “As well as those who work with children trapped inside war zones in places like Gaza, Sudan, Congo, Yemen and Ukraine.”
The Mercury-winning trio are also doing more to support War Child, as they have been confirmed as part of the indie all-star new War Child charity album ‘Help(2)’.
The record comes more than 30 years after the original Brian Eno-led 1995 ‘Help’ album, which featured Oasis, Blur, Radiohead, Orbital, Portishead, Massive Attack, Suede, Sinéad O’Connor, Manic Street Preachers, The Boo Radleys and more.
Produced and stewarded by James Ford, the first taster of the album has been shared in the form of ‘Opening Night’ – the first new music from Arctic Monkeys since 2022.
It will also feature Anna Calvi, Arlo Parks, Arooj Aftab, Bat For Lashes, Beabadoobee, Beck, Portishead‘s Beth Gibbons, Big Thief, Black Country, New Road, Cameron Winter, Blur’s Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon, Depeche Mode, Dove Ellis, Wolf Alice‘s Ellie Rowsell, English Teacher, Ezra Collective, Foals, Fontaines D.C. and frontman Grian Chatten, Greentea Peng, Kae Tempest, King Krule, Nilüfer Yanya, Olivia Rodrigo, Pulp, Sampha, The Last Dinner Party, Wet Leg, and The Smiths‘ icon Johnny Marr.
‘Help(2)’ will be released on Friday March 6 via War Child Records and is available for pre-order here.
As for the aforementioned song ‘Pals’, which featured in the AI ad, the song was written by Young Fathers as part of the soundtrack to 28 Years Later.
Released last year, it marked the long-awaited follow-up to Boyle’s iconic zombie thriller 28 Days Later, which was released back in 2002. A sequel 28 Weeks Later followed in 2007 without much involvement from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland.
The latter two spoke to NME about Young Fathers last year, and explained why they were chosen to help make the soundtrack.
“They use vocal harmonies as well as these beats and it just seemed like a wonderful idea to give them this horror film and see what they made of it,” Boyle said. “If you’re a Young Fathers’ fan, you’ll say ‘yes that’s them’ [when you hear the soundtrack]. But they also wrote this tune ‘Remember’ for this big scene at The Bone Temple and that will definitely surprise people.
“It’s a very beautiful song and I just love them. They’re a real inspiration.”
The post With “the USA increasingly under attack from fascism”, Young Fathers donate ‘Pals’ Super Bowl ad fee to immigration charity and War Child appeared first on NME.
