A VICAR and a town councillor believe they have become the first musicians in the world to write and release a debut single using sounds inspired by a brain scan.
Rev’d Matthew Simpkins, of Lexden, and Manningtree Town Council representative Ben Brown have just unveiled Spooling under the moniker Pissabed Prophet.
The embryonic stages of the pop single were conceived when Matthew – who has stage four skin cancer – had his brain inspected by an MRI scanner.
During the examination at Colchester Hospital the musician attempted to combat his boredom by mentally harmonising over the deafening operating noise of the machine.
Determined to create something special out of his fleeting moment of inspiration, he sampled the thunderous MRI sounds to use as a backing track for the duo’s track.
Matt and Ben – who is also a member of Dingus Khan – soon set about layering the melody and instrumental arrangements of the single before finalising the release.
Matt, aged 44, said: “It was very claustrophobic in the scanning machine; but when the amazing noises started, I felt as though I was in a strange night club.
“The choice was to have a panic attack, or to imagine how I’d write a song over the noises.”
Matt, who is the priest-in-charge at The Parish Church of St Leonard, in Lexden, had first been diagnosed the rare acral lentiginous melanoma in 2019.
After enduring scans and treatments and initially being given the all-clear, the cancer returned in late 2021 resulting in a year of immunotherapy and five biopsies.
Both the married father-of-two and Ben now hope Spooling, put out by Antigen Records, will help to calm the fears of those experiencing a scan for the first time.
Speaking previously to BBC News he said: "It would be great if people who are feeling nervous about a scan might hear the track.
“Maybe it will be a bit less scary when you see a hairy vicar sing a song about it. I hope [people] find it and enjoy it."
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Pissabed Prophet, an old East Anglian dialect term for ‘dandelion’ will headline Colchester Arts Centre on July 6.
Spooling, which has been visually reimagined as a psychedelic and surrealistic music video by multimedia artist and performer John Callaghan, is out now.
To find out more visit antigenrecords.com.
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