CHANTS BY GIANT PANDA GUERILLA DUB SQUAD FT. CLINTON FEARON

The writing of “Chants” began one month before the band toured with Fearon in 2018. The song was originally written for bass player James Searl’s son, as a reminder to remember the power of music when facing times of trouble. The roots of the unmistakable sound of the track comes from the involvement of Dela Botri, who has been a close contact, collaborator, and teacher to Searl for over twenty years. Two of the earliest foundational songs in the Panda songbook (“Burkina Faso” and “Missing You More”) were directly influenced by Searl working with Botri at the time, and Panda has always wanted to get back to making music with the Ghanaian master. His instrument, the atenteben, is a Ghanaian bamboo flute, and it adds the distinctive musical hook heard throughout the song. The presence of these two musical elders certainly shows the collaborative nature of both the single and the rest of the album. A forthcoming music video also captures a similar vibe embodying the beautiful reality of travel and musical collaboration, as it was filmed in Istanbul, Turkey; Accra, Ghana; Seattle, Washington; as well as at many Panda shows along the way.