The Libertines’ John Hassall forms new duo The Orchid Room with Annekei

The Libertines‘ bassist John Hassall has formed new duo The Orchid Room with Danish singer Annekei. Check out their new video for ‘Be The Light’ on NME first below.

• MORE: Watch The Libertines show us around their new Margate Hotel, The Albion Rooms

Following on from The Libs’ man’s other side project work with Yeti and The April Rainers, Hassall is back with more new music, with ‘Be The Light’ described as “an uplifting, inspirational song for our time”.

Hassall has been living in Denmark for over a decade and met singer songwriter Annekei through their local SGI-Buddhist group in Aarhus – where the track was produced by GRNMO.

“The song is an encouragement to everyone I could only meet on the phone or computer screen,” said Hassall. “I wanted to remind them that we could overcome all the distance, emotional turmoil and problems that have been caused by COVID-19. As long as we can stick it out and support each other.”

Annekei has also lived in New York for many years, where she worked with a number of artists including Grammy-winning jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour.

The Libertines meanwhile, will be embarking on a lengthy UK tour this December and are still at work on their long-awaited fourth album.

“It’s been going well, but it’s been difficult with COVID,” Carl Barat told NME last year. “We started writing here, and that was going really well but John is in Denmark and Pete [Doherty] is in France. It’s been a fucker to travel. We’re just waiting to get back on it, really. We’re all writing and it’s all positive. We’re just waiting to get back and lay stuff down, it’s just a matter of when. It would be nice if we could do it here. That would make a lot of sense. We’ve never been readier. We just need to get together and do it.”

In 2020, bandmate Pete Doherty told NME that the band’s fourth album featured “freestyle rap” and had a diversity of styles akin to The Clash’s divisive ‘Sandinista‘.

“It started off as ‘Sandinista’, and the reason we said that was so that everyone could bring everything in without anyone controlling it, then at the end we’d choose the best ones,” Barat responded. “I don’t know if it was very representative soundwise, but then we’ve all got different influences and we’re trying to bring it all together. It’s a bit of an odyssey every time we make a Libertines record.”

With Doherty now “mostly clean” and enjoying cheese toasties, the band have also busied themselves with the running of their hotel and studio The Albion Rooms in Margate.

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