While he’s scheduled return to Earth in just a few days, NASA astronaut Drew Feustel has released a song and video that encapsulate his experience in space.

To help write and record “All Around the World,” which was released Sunday, Queen’s University grad Feustel turned to close friend Gord Sinclair of The Tragically Hip.

“He’s been up there for six months and wanted to make an artistic statement about it,” Sinclair said over the phone.

The pair — who met years ago when Hip fan Feustel offered the band a tour of NASA’s Houston facilities during a tour stop — first discussed the idea of collaborating on a song at the beginning of the year, before Feustel was scheduled to lift off into space for a third time.

“We just started a dialogue about what, exactly, his experiences were, and reflecting on his obviously unique perspective on the planet,” Sinclair explained. “And you get a really profound sense of the fragility of where we live, and how we’re all floating around in space.”

While Feustel, who wraps up his stint as commander of Expedition 56 at the International Space Station on Wednesday, plays guitar and sings, he isn’t a songwriter, Sinclair said. That’s why he turned to The Tragically Hip’s bassist.

“The long and short of it is I decided to use the ISS as a metaphor for our life here on Earth, which is really what he and I discussed,” Sinclair said.

“And that was basically it. You’re bouncing lyrical ideas back and forth. It didn’t take me very long to come up with the song and the melody and start hammering out the lyrics.”

Political differences don’t exist among the astronauts in the space program, Feustel told Sinclair.

“[It’s] the concept of, as the chorus says, that spirit of international co-operation and brotherhood, and love, to put it into one word that exists on the space station for these guys, is metaphorically all around us,” Sinclair said.

“I guess when we were talking about it, it’s our take on the George Harrison-as-astronaut type of thing,” he continued. “It’s cliche, but you’d like to think that’s all we really do need.”

Sinclair recorded a preliminary version of the song just after Feustel blasted off from Kazakhstan in March.

“I did the music and sang a rough version of it and sent it up to him, and he basically, in his spare time, started practising it on the guitar,” Sinclair said. “He’s a good singer and a good player, and he recorded it into his laptop when he was alone up in the cupola [of the ISS].”

He sent the recording back to Sinclair and producer James McKenty, who engineered and recorded it. The accompanying video, meanwhile, was created by Kingston’s Make Hay Media using footage provided by Feustel and NASA.

Feustel, who is a dual citizen, isn’t the first astronaut to record a song and shoot a music video while orbiting 400 kilometres above Earth. Canadian Chris Hadfield did so with David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in 2013.

“What Chris did was really, really cool, but Drew had his own thoughts about looking out the windows while orbiting the planet,” Sinclair observed.

“He’s been up there a number of times before and it affected him in a very profound and artistic kind of way. And I think the men and women of the space program have a really strong and important voice in terms of advocacy for the planet and, again, based on what their perspective is.”

Sinclair believes “All Around the World” has “some heft to me artistically and ecologically.”

“And, again, when you have a buddy going into outer space who asks you to give him a hand with a project, you’re like, ‘Awesome.’ If they ever need a bass player,” he laughed, “maybe I’ll get the gig.”

phendra@postmedia.com

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