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Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer present a Bushfire Recovery Event Videos

Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer Present:

A Bushfire Recovery Event
With Special Guests

Missy Higgins & Fred Leone
At Forum Melbourne on March 8.

All profits go to:
Firesticks Alliance; an Indigenous led network re-invigorating and teaching cultural land burning and management
and
Seed Mob; a movement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people working for climate justice with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

US musician, author and activist Amanda Palmer has announced Forty-Five Degrees: A Bushfire Charity Flash Record set for release on Friday, February 21. Recorded in just five days, the album is an immediate response to the ongoing bushfire crisis plaguing Australia with all proceeds going to Firesticks Alliance; an Indigenous led network re-invigorating and teaching cultural burning and land management.

Forty-Five Degrees: A Bushfire Charity Record came together at a dizzying pace between tour dates at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne with the help of Missy Higgins, Montaigne (singing on “Truganini”), Clare Bowditch (singing on “Black Smoke”) and Fred Leone (playing didjeridoo on “Solid Rock”) who dropped everything to be in the studio and lend their talents to the effort. The album also sees Amanda reunite with Brian Viglione of The Dresden Dolls who plays drums across several tracks and long-time Palmer-and-Higgins collaborator Jherek Bischoff providing guitar and both electric and upright bass. The album was helmed by local engineer Anna Laverty and produced by Amanda with Ross Cockle on mastering duties. The artwork was created specifically for the project by newly-minted Australian citizen Sarah Beetson.

The first single lifted from the release is a stirring cover of "Midnight Oil’s hit "Beds Are Burning" featuring Missy Higgins taking the lead vocal under Palmer’s signature punk rock piano pounding.

Currently on an extensive tour of Australia with her critically acclaimed theatre show There Will Be No Intermission, Palmer has witnessed the urgency of the climate crisis in real time as bushfires ravaged communities all round the nation and wanted to contribute to the relief effort as soon as possible.  

"I'm an American, and an American who loves Australia deeply. Neil (Gaiman, my husband) and I landed in Melbourne in advance of my current tour a few days before Christmas, just when the fires really began to rage," explains Amanda. "During my last trip to Australia in 2017, I started reading more deeply about Indigenous land rights and Australia's unique problems with the climate crisis. I thought I knew things, but I had no idea how much deeper and darker the story ran. This devastating round of bushfires simply cannot be untangled from the spiralling knock-on effects of colonialism and climate ignorance.

"If Australia is the canary in the dark climate coal-mine, I hope a bunch of artists making a response record like this, so fast and with such generosity, can provide a little crack of light."