American band Real Estate have addressed the usage of one of their songs in a recent documentary discussing flat-Earthers.
Over the last decade or so, the concept of the Earth being flat has gained inexplicable and widespread support. With the Flat Earth Society boasting supporters all around the globe, some high-profile names have gotten behind the cause, including rapper B.o.B., whose support has been ridiculed on websites such as Reddit.
In late 2018, Daniel J. Clark’s documentary Behind The Curve was released. Described as a “journey to the centre of the Flat Earth movement,” the film explores the conspiracy theory, and has a closer look at the people who believe such a concept.
However, as Pitchfork notes, the documentary also happens to use a snippet of Real Estate’s 2014 track, ‘Horizons’, something which the band claim they never signed off on.
Haven’t seen the movie yet. Found out about our song being in it last night from a friend, and while I do think it’s a pretty funny recontextualization to use our song Horizon in a doc about flat earthers, no one in the band approved it.
— Real Estate, band (@realestateband) February 23, 2019
Responding to a request on Twitter in regards to their feelings on the matter, Real Estate explained that they were completely unaware of the track’s usage until now.
“Haven’t seen the movie yet,” the band began. “Found out about our song being in it last night from a friend, and while I do think it’s a pretty funny recontextualization to use our song ‘Horizon’ in a doc about flat earthers, no one in the band approved it.”
While the film’s credits note that the band’s publishing company, Domino Publishing, had licensed the track, the official Behind The Curve Twitter account also reached out to the band to relay a similar message, noting that they were “sorry for any confusion and are happy to discuss further”.
However, it seems as though Real Estate harbour no ill will towards the producers of the documentary, explaining on Twitter that they were “looking into it on [their] end”.
Though it seems like Real Estate are taking the whole thing in their stride, we have to admit, producers likely couldn’t have picked a better song for inclusion in the documentary.
Check out a trailer for Behind The Curve:
