“Look into her eyes, you can see the fire. Her desire to fly higher and higher. She’s a rocket girl,” goes the chorus of “Rocket Girl – Malala’s Song,” a newly released song from local band Yesterday’s Future.
Inspired by the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted by the Taliban for speaking out against the terrorist group’s efforts to stop girls from going to school, Rob Lamp of MetroWest wrote the lyrics of this indie pop song after reading the book, “I Am Malala.”
Check out the music video here
Lamp, along with fellow band members Alan Reitman and McKinney Griffen, turned these lyrics into an indie pop-rock song that is not only an uplifting tune but also supports girls education. All proceeds from the song will be donated to the Malala Fund, a nonprofit that seeks to “enable girls to complete 12 years of safe, quality education.”
People can go to iTunes and Amazon to download the song, which appears on the band’s eponymous album.
Malala Yousafzai was just 15 years old when a Taliban gunman shot her in the head in October 2012 while she was commuting home from school in Pakistan. The Taliban, an extremist insurgent group that arose in the Middle East in the ’90s, had previously issued a death threat against Malala because she had publicly spoken out against the group’s attempts to stop girls from going to school. Malala recovered from her gunshot wound and despite the Taliban’s threats has remained an advocate for education.
Lamp says what he saw in Malala was courage. “What I admire about her: In the face of these threats, she never abandoned her values or faith,” he says.
Lamp is the “yesterday” part of “Yesterday’s Future.” He’s a classic rock fan who wanted to be Ringo Starr when he was a kid, he says. The “future” part of the band comes from guitarist Reitman and lead singer Griffen, who give the song its rock-pop sound. Reitman also produced the song, including adding in new drums and bass guitar to polish up the rough draft Lamp had put together.
“The song is very story-oriented,” he says. “Once we heard the whole thing together, we were like ‘this creates a cool story.’”
Then Griffen came in to sing his parts. “He did add his own flair to it,” Reitman says.
Lamp has a 2-year-old granddaughter who likes to listen to the song. “I call her my rocket girl,” he says. “I just tell her, ‘be my rocket girl. Don’t be afraid to do something.’”
You can catch the band live at Yellow Dog Eats, located in Windermere, on Dec. 5 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.