Peter Gabriel

Who Are We
Talking To?

The latest song from o\i, released on October 26 at the full moon, a month before the album itself on November 27. Gabriel calls it a plea for activism: climate change, AI and pandemics cannot be solved by any one country, so people have to think of themselves as global citizens and act together in large enough numbers. The message comes on a danceable platter – funk and soul in the line of Marvin Gaye, Fela Kuti and Curtis Mayfield, with Leo Nocentelli on guitar and the Soweto Gospel Choir. Mike Elizondo’s Dark-Side Mix came first; the Bright-Side Mix follows at the next new moon.

Written and produced by Peter Gabriel. Abe Rounds (drums, percussion), Tony Levin (bass), Mike Elizondo (bass, synth bass; synths on the Dark-Side Mix), Leo Nocentelli, David Rhodes and Katie May (electric guitar), Josh Shpak (trumpet, trombone), Evan Smith (saxophone), Don E (synths), Soweto Gospel Choir (musical director and arranger Diniloxolo Ndlakuse); Peter Gabriel (synth bass, synths, synth brass, percussion, vocals). Recorded at Real World Studios, Bath, The Beehive, London, Match Point Studio, New Orleans, Phantom Studios, Gallatin, Tennessee, and SABC, South Africa; mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios. Dark-Side Mix by Mike Elizondo (assistant Alex Wilders); Bright-Side Mix by Mark “Spike” Stent. Single artwork: Juan Genovés, Bloques, 2011. Sources: petergabriel.com, Peter Gabriel on YouTube. Photograph: an aerial view of marchers in the shadow of the Washington Monument at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963, by Marion S. Trikosko, Library of Congress, ppmsca.37227 (public domain). Wikimedia Commons.