My new remix single – ‘Vanishing of Bees (Set Me Free Remix)’ – released on UN World Bee Day May 20th, 2023.
With a new music video too!

This is the 3rd release of ‘Vanishing of Bees’ and the 2nd remix of the song by Atlas to Earth. When I originally wrote the song back in 2019, I was deep into my grief about the climate catastrophe. I wanted to capture my love of the world around me through the eyes of the child in the song while allowing my grief and fear and anger to bubble up to the surface.

Fast forward 4 years later, like many of us, I’ve experienced first hand the terror of the climate catastrophe. I live in Victoria, BC, Canada and in the summer of 2021, there was what’s called a heat dome that locked in temperatures of close to 40 degrees Celsius for about a week’s time. In this part of the world, not many of us have air conditioning (because we’ve never needed it). We rarely experience summer temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius here. It was terrifying, there was no where to go and many people died who couldn’t get out or cool down.
Around that time, I think I experienced peak grief and started to shut down a bit and feel hopeless about the state of the world. I felt exhausted and like no one wanted to see the reality of what was happening to our beautiful home.

So, this new remix from Atlas to Earth is the remedy I needed to the climate grief I’ve been experiencing. I need hope, we all do. I need to believe that hearts can be moved and that minds can change. Love is a powerful elixir. The fact that A2E focused on the refrain ‘Set me free’ is brilliant!

Here’s what A2E had to say about this remix…

In trying to make it stand out from the first remix, I focused on a different part of the lyrics, “Set me free”. I think it takes on a different perspective, maybe about the grander issue behind the bee problem, seeking freedom from social/climate issues. The pre chorus almost like a march for freedom and the chorus opening up like a passionate dance for freedom. Though it doesn’t concretely incorporate the topic of bees, I think it’s a cool display of how a song can become an entirely new piece and offer a new perspective.

Remixed and produced by Atlas to Earth
Original vocal – Recorded by Sheldon Zaharko (Zed Productions) at Vancouver’s Warehouse Studios, June 2019.
Instrumentation – Atlas to Earth
Mastered by Stephen Pettyjohn, Ethereal Mastering
Single cover – Laforest Creative