Hailey MacIsaac shoulders a heavy emotional burden in her latest single Lumber — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
An immersive and ominous sonic sojourn from start to finish, the song walks the listener through a dark landscape of troubled thinking and coping with heartache. Not bad for a track written in less than an hour.
“Lumber came very easily and quickly for me, which is usually how I know I’ve got something different and special,” the Toronto singer-songwriter says. “I think the song was essentially done in 45 minutes. I conceptualized a relationship story based on a pre-titled beat that just stuck. I didn’t feel the need to change it. Soon a track called Lumber was turned into a story about a struggling party in a relationship carrying too much mental weight, and not wanting the metaphoric lumber, weight, and struggle to bleed into the relationship.”
The recording came together just as easily, she says. “I teamed up with my now, first friend and collaborator in Toronto, Trevor James Anderson. His ears are clever. Clever Trevor. We recorded the full vocal comp, I think, out of three full takes.”
Originally from Prince Edward Island, MacIsaac has been carving out a place for herself in the Toronto scene. She has won multiple awards over her career, the most recent being Electronic Recording of the Year for her 2020 single Down2U. Her album In A Dark Room received three nominations in different categories in 2019. Known for adventuring beyond the bounds of genre, MacIsaac’s pop is infused with elements of pop-punk, rock, rap, and more. Creating a dark, granular, and boisterous sound, MacIsaac uses mainstream techniques to craft her complex work in a way that is fresh to the independent pop scene.
Check out Lumber above, hear more from Hailey MacIsaac below, and follow her on Instagram.
