Wise Child recently released their album Idle Hands and Jaya was kind enough to give us a track by track walk us through.

1. This Rut: This intro just makes me smile. I had just gotten back from a trip to Vietnam and was feeling blue. This song is such a great release for those lost feelings. Man, music is good for that.

2. Two of Us: This is one of my absolute favourites on the album and to play live. It is a sweet little time capsule for me, that brings me back to such a specific time and feeling that I am so thankful for.

3. Diminish: This was the final and one of the hardest songs to write on the album. I just couldn’t finish writing it in time, but we knew it had to be on the album! The day came for me to record my vocals on it, and it was still only half written, when our rhythm guitarist Randy came in and had written this beautiful verse for me that perfectly captured what I had been feeling. I don’t know he did it, but 30 minutes later it was recorded!

4. Hurricane: is about my muse that moved to Toronto, sometimes I found myself wishing I had moved with her.

5. Monday is a song I wrote about this time I did acid on a Monday (am I allowed to say this?) the world felt a bit sad and melancholic for a few days after that, naturally…

6. Pretty Boy: The quirkiest of all of the songs on the album. This song has lots of backwards phrasing that could make your head spin. Written about how awkward highschool can be.

7. Idle Hands: This is the shortest and hardest driving song on the album. It’s a little ball of energy. This song actually completely unfolded from a conversation I was having with a friend who was telling me about how he had been wasting his time and that idle hands are the devils playthings. I had never heard that saying, so I wrote it down in this ongoing list of interesting words and phrases and song ideas I keep. But really everything fell into place with this song after that.

8. Wraiths: was written and recorded by lead guitarist Roger Eldridge… he’s joined by Kathryn Calder of The New Pornographers on keys. We felt it was a bit different than most of the other tracks, but was too beautiful and unique to leave out!

9. Big Lights: This song almost didn’t make the album but we kept coming back to it. Our producer Colin Stewart (New Pornographers, Dan Mangan) helped us tease out some new creative directions, musically and we spent some time reworking the vibe in the week before recording. Lyrically, the song emerged from a break-up and explores heartbreak and vengeful feelings. We think the emotional pull of these pretty common themes is mirrored in the songs flow in an interesting way. The song is a bit heavier and less playful than the rest of the album; there are other songs with similarly heavy lyrical content but they are juxtaposed by bouncier more shimmering guitar riffs.

10. Ex’s Tears: This song lyrically is both literal and figurative depending on who I feel like it being about. I had two very different experiences in my life converging, that led to this song. The end is one of the most epic and satisfying musical experiences for me. In the outro if you listen for it you can hear our drummer Brendan slapping his drumstick on his leg to keep time. I love it.