acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Skye Wallace unveils their highly anticipated new album, The Act of Living, available now via Tiny Kingdom. Produced alongside Hawksley Workman, The Act of Living finds Skye fully embracing the grungy, unbridled enthusiasm of their live performances, as they invite listeners on a journey of near-death experiences, dream worlds, loss, and rebirth. Stream The Act of Living HERE.
The album arrives alongside a striking horror-themed music video for title track “The Act of Living”, which follows a blood covered Skye on a brutal murder spree. The song itself makes a poignant introduction to the album’s exploration of life, death, and transformation. Ethereal harmonies, shimmering synths and Wallace’s unmistakable vocals find Skye contemplating mortality with refreshing positivity; a sense of curiosity, and peace. Skye jokes, “I’m sorry to my band for killing them, but honestly they killed me first.”
“‘The Act of Living’ short motion picture is a collaboration between me and Blind Luck Pictures,” continues Skye. “We met at a festival in 2023 I was playing and they were filming, and the hang was incredible. We soon got to talking about their love of horror in their own creative work, which, combined with the 70s horror aesthetic I was already integrating into my unfinished album about death, left us no choice but to work together on something out of this world. This music video is maybe the coolest thing in the world, and I love being undead.”
With nods to Mitski, Laura Jane Grace, and The Knife, Wallace’s fifth studio LP blends heavy, grungy jams with tender, acoustic moments, all tied together by her unflinching lyricism. The Act of Living is all at once energizing, grinding, brittle, and electric; a sonic journey examining death and the ways it pushes life ever forward.
“I was always extremely afraid of death, couldn’t look it in the eye,” Skye explains. “I’d be up at night when I was 5 or 6 years old worried sick that my mom and dad would die in a car accident, or that the return of the bubonic plague was more or less imminent. A few years ago, I was present for the death of my grandfather, with whom I was very close. But instead of the dreadful moment I was expecting, it was intimate, beautiful even.”
“I feel forever tethered to him because of it and have felt the fear start to melt away since. I’ve been reconciling my relationship with death and it’s ever-presence in life and I started writing songs about it – a song about that moment with my grandfather, a song about a near-death experience with my mom, the death of my own anxiety, rebirth, renewal. The result is a brute-force beast of emotion and sonic exploration, made all the more special by my collaboration in production and writing with Hawksley Workman, someone I’ve looked up to my entire life.”
