Indie pop star Jack River pens We Are The Youth to give young activists ‘the song they deserve’

Social injustice activists and the Black Lives Matter movement have all inspired Jack River’s new protest anthem penned for Australia’s youth.

As indie pop artist Jack River prepared to walk on stage to perform to the biggest crowd of her career, she realised she didn’t have the right song for the occasion.

The musician, festival promoter and activist, known as Holly Rankin off stage, was about to play to 80,000 students and parents assembled in Sydney’s Domain for the Global Climate Strike in September 2019.

“I realised I didn’t have the song to play them that they deserved for this time and how they were feeling,” she said.

Jack River wanted to write a song to bottle the mood of the youth protest movement. Picture: Supplied.

As the Black Lives Matter movement grew last year and the courageous voices of Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins ignited a national conversation about women’s safety and sexual assault, Rankin knew the time was right for her new single We Are The Youth.

“I was feeling like I’m not doing my job as a songwriter if I’m not stepping up and writing about this and I can’t do my job as a human if I don’t write about the climate crisis,” she said.

“And it is really, really hard to put social themes into a pop song. It can’t be anything other than a pop song if it wants to reach as many people as it can.”

Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame were inspirations for the Jack River song. Picture: Twitter

We Are The Youth, a title she has had in the back of her mind for several years, bottles the mood of a generation frustrated by the inaction of governments on climate and social injustice.

Rankin channelled the inspiration of protest song heroes from Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil, and more recently Indigenous artist and actor Briggs, whose anthems continue to soundtrack our social conscience.

“The way you gaslight hopeful teens, The way you’re stealing all their dreams, You’re making riches in your sleep, You’re acting like it’s yours to keep, I’m tired, I’m tired of silence, I’m sick, I’m sick of violence,” she sings.

American poet Amanda Gorman features in the We Are The Youth video. Picture: AFP.

The song’s video, directed and edited by Indigenous filmmaker Marlikka Perdrisat, focuses on the new generation of young, and mostly female, activists including Tame, Higgins and teen climate strike organiser Jean Hinchcliffe.

International young leaders including American poet Amanda Gorman, who captured world attention with her oration at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, and Indigenous Canadian clean water campaign Autumn Peltier, also feature in the video.

The climate stripes graph artwork. Picture: Supplied.

“This song is about all of the things that my generation are unhappy with and are attempting to change,” Rankin said.

“The video shines a light Grace and Britney Higgins’ and (Melbourne climate activist) Anjali Sharma, who are getting their hands dirty and actually attempting to change the system and working perhaps a lot harder than some of our federal leaders.

“I feel like young people are taking the reins where federal leaders are slacking off and it’s pretty remarkable.”

The We Are The Youth cover art is modelled on the “climate stripes” graph created by scientist Ed Hawkins to illustrate global temperature warming trends.

Originally published as Indie pop star Jack River pens We Are The Youth to give young activists ‘the song they deserve’