Suffolk-born songstress Kerry Ellis has released a new upbeat collaboration with good friend and Queen guitarist Brian May - and it’s a song designed to banish all feelings of Covid angst.
The song – Panic Attack 2021 – was recorded and put together remotely as the pair were unable to get together in a studio and even managed to cobble together a video which was shot on their iphones.
Kerry and Brian debuted the song on Sunday as part of a live streamed performance for Rise Up With The Arts’ Global Charity Livestream ‘Variety’ show. The studio recorded version of the song is now available to download or stream.
“Panic Attack 2021 is the antidote to Covid Anxiety! The smiles are part of the package. The louder you turn it up the better it works," says Brian May.
The song is a rewritten version of the pair’s song ‘It's Gonna Be All Right’ which can be found on their Golden Days album. The original song, written by Brian May, about his own personal anxieties long before lockdown.
Brian said: “At the close of 2020 there was a feeling that perhaps saying goodbye to that year would bring relief from the pandemic and a new era of hope would now begin. Sadly, following a very muted and restricted celebration of Christmas, the New Year dawned with the realisation that the mankind’s struggle was probably going to get worse before it got better.
"Kerry and I realised that The Panic Attack song now potentially had a whole new meaning to literally millions of people around the world."
As Brian laid down the music tracks in his home studio, Kerry attached a microphone to her laptop and turned her kitchen into a recording studio. Thanks to 'remote' technology Brian received Kerry’s vocal and was able to incorporate it and layer it over the top of the guitar tracks he had been adding.
For Kerry this turned out to be an exciting and unexpected way of working. “I am beyond excited to kick off this year with a song full of hope.
“Putting Panic Attack 2021 together during a lockdown has had its challenges, but that has also been the beauty of it."
Watch the video here
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