Johnny Marr has teamed up with Best Coast, Tom Vek and Mona for a new side project.

The former Smiths man has pulled three acts in to record new songs from objects which inspired him for Ray-Banโ€™s โ€˜Raw Soundsโ€™ project.

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The axeman wrote a poem, took a conceptual photo in his hometown of Manchester, pulled a favourite quote from famous German philosopher Friedrich von Schiller, recorded a piece of music, and presented an old map of New York Cityโ€™s Lower East Side to the acts.

He told Spin magazine: โ€œI just looked around my studio and life and took the parts of my world that are of interest to me, and then rolled with it.โ€

Marr added: โ€œIt sounded confusing to me at first but it turned out to be amazing and it resulted in some excellent new music.โ€

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Speaking about the Best Coast track entitled โ€˜In Your Sleepโ€™, the guitarist, who recently admitted meeting up with his old bandmates from The Smiths, said he chose Bethany Cosentinoโ€˜s band because he loved โ€œgood pop songs wrapped up in a garage sound.โ€ She added: โ€œI was inspired by Johnnyโ€™s photo, the man and woman looking at each other through vintage cameras, because my brain goes straight to romance.โ€

Other new tracks included in the project were Tom Vekโ€˜s โ€˜Film Your Own Televisionโ€™, Monaโ€˜s โ€˜Jerichoโ€™ and Au Revoir Simoneโ€˜s โ€˜How Longโ€™.

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