With their brand new LP, Inshalla, due out at the end of May, Fremantle trio Eskimo Joe have revealed that the death of fellow Perth artist Heath Ledger provided the inspiration behind the band’s rocking new single, “Foreign Land”.

According to singer and songwriter Kav Temperley, the “Black Fingernails, Red Wine” trio were in New York, attending an all-Australian showcase, when they got the news that the 28-year-old actor had died of an accidental overdose. Temperley revealed he was walking around the streets of Soho (where Ledger lived) just hours before the actor’s death.

“We were in New York, this big foreign city, and I felt this immense loneliness of this kid from my home town dying by himself there,” Temperley says of the song, which includes the lyrics, “I smell the blood of an Australian”.

“Foreign Land” is released today.