Today, Canadian rockers, We Are The City, have released a new single, “RIP.” Give it a spin here. The single is now available across streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, and more. “RIP” is the third single off and title track of the trio’s forthcoming, fifth, studio album, RIP, which is slated to be released on January 24, 2020, via Tooth & Nail Records.
Lead vocalist, Cayne McKenzie, shares, “The song was written, mostly, before Kyle Tubbs died. A sad song about feeling like he was fading a childhood best friend, I was mourning our friendship. 4 months later he died from a fentanyl overdose, January 26th 2018. I re-recorded the vocal and improvised new lyrics a few days after I found out.”
In support of the forthcoming album, We Are The City have opened a creative arts + events space in Downtown Vancouver (568 E Broadway) for the month of January. Decked out with copper walls, the pop-up is serving as a community-focused, free and open-to-the-public space. We Are The City will be rehearsing for their upcoming European tour, showing their films Violent + Ash, and giving patrons early RIP listening sessions. The band just announced a few We Are The City-focused events, including two sold out shows on January 30 + 31. For more information, please visit http://www.wearethecity.ca/rip
“This is a store where nothing is for sale. This is a free and open space for any artist, passerby or person needing a place to belong. Free internet. Free coffee. Cheap drinks. A month-long concert series curated by We Are The City with all proceeds going right back to the artists playing. This has been a dream of ours, to pour whatever resources we have into a tangible space for our fans to experience over multiple weeks. This is for our immediate community, to encourage our city blocks, our neighborhoods, our internet communities. A thank you. An offering,” the band shares.
Singer-keyboardist Cayne McKenzie, drummer Andrew Huculiak and guitarist David Menzel started We Are The City way back when they were teenagers, and in the decade-plus since then, they’ve used the project as an outlet for their wildest creative whims. They’ve unveiled masked alter-egos (2011’s High School EP), created an album with an accompanying Norwegian-language feature film (2013’s Violent), and staged a live stream of their recording sessions (2015’s Above Club). Now, with the joys and occasional tragedies of adulthood having fully set in, they’ve taken on their latest challenge: absolute, unflinching sincerity.
RIP is their fifth full-length, acting as the prog-pop counterpoint to last year’s experimental AT NIGHT. The Vancouver-based trio created this latest LP by returning to the basement of Cayne’s family home in Kelowna, where they first formed the band. “We went back to where it started, and that was pretty potent,” reflects Andy. “There a few times on the record where Cayne’s almost crying when he sings, and I just don’t know if you could get that in a studio in the same way. It was really capturing an honest and true feeling of where we’re at right now.”
RIP is out January 24, 2020 via Tooth & Nail Records. For more information, please visit: http://www.wearethecity.ca/.
RIP Track Listing
1. Killer B-Side Music
2. Song in My Head
3. Night Guest
4. Obviously
5. You’re so Clean
6. You Can’t Blame Me, But You Can Blame Yourself
7. God & Man
8. Saint Peter
9. Me + Me
10. Children’s Hospital Ambience
11. I’m Not Yours Anymore
12.RIP
