The courage of the people of Ukraine inspired Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason to release their first new song as Pink Floyd since 1994: “We want to spread this message of peace, and we want to raise the morale of the people who are defending their homeland”

A few days after Russia invaded Ukraine, singer-turned-soldier Andriy Khlyvnyuk posted video of himself belting “The Red Viburnum in the Meadow” — a folk song about the country’s strength in the face of adversity — to Instagram. The vocalist, who fronts the Kyiv group Boombox, had hoped to be playing gigs in the U.S. last month. But when he heard Russia had invaded his homeland, he returned to defend it. At the outbreak of the war, he told Rolling Stone he felt it was his duty to stick up for Ukraine for the sake of the world. “[The West] needs us as the shield to protect it all,” he said.

In the video, he’s wearing fatigues and clinging to a submachine gun as he serenades the empty streets: “Our glorious Ukraine shall hey, hey, rise up and rejoice.”

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour watched the clip with awe. “My daughter-in-law, who actually is Ukrainian, sent it to me and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s fantastic,’” Gilmour tells Rolling Stone. “It just struck me that here we are, with our name [Pink Floyd] and this platform, and we could use it more. That piece of singing immediately got me thinking of turning it into something.” So he sequestered himself in his studio, figured out the chords that would support Khlyvnyuk’s powerful vocals, and wrote what became “Hey, Hey, Rise Up” — the first new Pink Floyd recording in nearly 30 years.

“I thought this could be something that we use our platform for, for enormous good,” Gilmour says. So I called [Pink Floyd drummer] Nick [Mason] up and said, ‘Did you want to be a part of it?’ And he said, ‘Yes, great.’” Last week, the pair, along with bassist Guy Pratt and keyboardist Nitin Sawhney, recorded the song, which sticks to the traditional melodies of the folk song (notwithstanding a few emotive guitar solos) at Gilmour’s home studio with a projection of Khlyvnyuk’s original video. It was the first time Gilmour and Mason had recorded a new Pink Floyd song since the sessions for 1994’s The Division Bell.

Gilmour had closed the book on Pink Floyd after 2014’s The Endless River, which he and Mason had built from recordings made during the Division Bell sessions. But with “Hey, Hey, Rise Up,” he changed his mind. Pink Floyd rushed to release the song quickly to raise awareness for the civilians suffering in Ukraine and to raise money for humanitarian relief in the country.

“I hope the song does some good,” Gilmour tells Rolling Stone, explaining why he decided to resurrect Pink Floyd. “I hope we achieve something with it.”