  Billy Talent |
Billy Talent, k-os, Avril Lavigne and The Waking Eyes are the Canadian artists contributing John Lennon covers to raise funds for human rights organization Amnesty International.
The recordings are part of Art For Amnesty's youth-oriented worldwide music campaign that begins in January, 2006.
Yoko Ono donated the rights to her late husband's solo tracks to Amnesty International in 2002 for the Imagine campaign, which asked children around the world to sing the 1971 peace classic. Lennon was murdered 25 years ago this Dec. 8.
This new initiative, top international artists reinterpreting the former Beatles' solo work, will be released as downloads and via mobile phone packages through Amnesty's website. There is no word yet on if a physical album will be distributed.
"They asked us what song we wanted to do and the first one that came to my mind was 'Cold Turkey' because it's an awesome song," says Billy Talent guitarist Ian D'Sa. "It's more of a rock song out of the whole John Lennon collection."
D'sa says the deadline is at the end of December to get the song in. The band recently cut the music track at The Warehouse Studios in Vancouver. "We sped it up quite a bit because it's kind of a slow rock song so we made it pretty fast," says D'Sa. Singer Ben Kowalewicz will record the vocals in Toronto at EMI Music Publishing's in-house studio.
Nettwerk Management's Shauna Gold confirms that Lavigne covered the moving gem "Imagine." Chris Smith Management's Rose Slanic confirms that k-os recorded "Jealous Guy" and Coalition Entertainment's Eric Lawrence confirms that The Waking Eyes did a version of "Instant Karma."
Other contributors include Sum 41 (which still hasn't recorded or finalized its choice of Lennon song), the U.K.'s Duran Duran, and America's Deftones and Black Eyed Peas.
Ireland's Vanessa Moss, project manager for Art For Amnesty's Make Some Noise, says more details about the project will emerge "in due course."
Amnesty International is the world's largest organization fighting for human rights, and is independent from government, corporate and national interests. It is predominantly funded largely by its 1.8 million members in 162 countries and has helped free more than 40,000 people who were unjustly imprisoned the past 40 years.
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