There are plenty of songs about activism, but not as many capture the emotional resilience that inspires it. That’s pretty much the point of “All Heart,” a potent new collaboration between Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter BETS (a.k.a. Betsy Hershey) and artist/producer van Bosch. Its indie-pop layers lending cohesion to an eerie dreamscape, the song came along as Hershey was co-directing Just Look Up, a documentary that follows the nascent Climate Defiance activist group. The movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June.
“We were just so inspired by the sheer bravery of these activists,” says van Bosch and Hershey, who immersed herself in the group with co-director Emma Wall. “It’s deeply moving how they manage to stay so soft and keep their hearts open in the middle of everything. Seeing people put themselves on the line like that gives us so much hope, and we wanted the music to mirror that exact feeling.”
In lieu of a conventional studio, Hershey and van Bosch recorded “All Heart” after hours in an East Village art gallery, allowing the surroundings—and their longstanding creative partnership—to guide the performance.
“Most of our sessions are really just us hanging out and talking about what’s worrying us or keeping us up at night,” says van Bosch and Hershey, the latter of whom is currently putting the finishing touches on a forthcoming LP. “There was no pressure. It was simply a space filled with creativity, so the whole process felt incredibly natural. The song came straight out of that shared shorthand between us.”
We’re proud to premiere BETS & van Bosh’s “All Heart.”
—Hobart Rowland
