The first song ever written and recorded in space comes from a collaboration between astronaut Chris Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies singer Ed Robertson.
The singer and astronaut performed a live recording of the song, titled “I.S.S (Is Somebody Singing)”, from radically different locations. Hadfield was located aboard the International Space Station while Robertson was earthbound at CBC Music’s studio in Toronto.
The Canadian Press reports that the talented duo are longtime friends and thought the song would be a fun project.
After writing the first verse Robertson wanted to add some specific scientific elements to the second. The singer asked Hadfield for some technical information and received a pleasant surprise:
“Instead, he created a really poetic, laced-with-technical-info second verse. I was like: ‘Dude, you’re the astronaut. I’m supposed to be the songwriter.’ But it was an awesome surprise.”
Taking part in the first song to be written and recorded in space was an ideal project for Robertson. The melding of music and science is a subject of interest for the Barenaked Ladies singer:
“It’s a natural, easy collaboration. I think science and music share a sense of wonder, and a sense of reaching and striving for something. And I think there’s an awful lot of parallels between the two that could be further explored.”
According to The Daily Mail , the technical aspects of the live recording are pretty impressive. During the live satellite broadcast Commander Chris Hadfield sang and played guitar from a space station hurtling through space at 17,500 miles per hour.
Hadfield’s collaboration with Robertson appears to have encouraged the astronaut’s musical side. Now that he’s recorded the first song in space, Hadfield plans to record a full album of songs he’s written while aboard the International Space Station .