Steady Holiday has shared a new song and music video for “Can’t Find A Way,” the lead single from her upcoming fourth album Newfound Oxygen. You also have a chance to see her at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater on Saturday, Nov. 12 in support of Field Trips For LA Youth.
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As the project of the exceptionally talented Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Dre Babinski, two of the inevitable hallmarks of Steady Holiday’s music are its eviscerating intimacy and heartbreaking beauty. It’s what made last year’s Take the Corners Gently so mesmeric, whether wrapped in lush instrumentals, synthy rock, or dreamily melancholic ballads.
With “Can’t Find A Way,” Babinski doesn’t hold back the flood that gushes sadly from the song’s minimalist production. Between a quietly rolling piano medley — cut into by the grumbling strings, resolute snares, and other swelling intonations — Steady Holiday sits in the song’s heartbreak with admirable tenacity. Except this isn’t your typical break-up song. Instead, with her gauzy vocals in tow, Babinski tracks the mental drudgery of realizing you’re just not in love with the person who loves you.
Absent any real context, “Can’t Find A Way” struggles purely with the emotional void such epiphany can create. Especially when it’s clear she still feels something (“This isn’t black and white / It’s safe to say that I would die for you”) but that something isn’t enough to keep them together.
The music video for “Can’t Find A Way,” directed by Isaac Ravishankara, offers up those feelings of confusion in a pretty visually stunning way. As the video starts Babinski appears in a kitchen, filling up a glass of water before coming to sit at the table, with the point of view creating the illusion you’re the one she’s having this conversation with. But as the song continues everything starts to shift — spinning sideways in tandem with the emotionally disorienting effect of the song’s message. The glass of water slips and smashes into the floor along with sheet music, while jackets and curtains start to hang at an odd angle.
It’s a beautiful illustration of how the message at the center of “Can’t Find A Way” can send both people reeling. Babinski might be the one with the revelation but it’s both their worlds being turned upside down. Like much of Steady Holiday’s music, even amidst such tragedy and heartache, she still tries to foster some redeeming empathy. The splitting of two people who tried their absolute hardest to make things work shouldn’t end in a vehement or mean-spirited crash and burn — such moments are hard enough as it is. Instead, Steady Holiday pleads tenderly for kindhearted honesty.
“I wanted to make a video that was far less literal than the song itself, but externalized the same emotional core – that the world as I know it is suddenly disoriented,” Babinski said. “We brought to life the scene from the single’s artwork with fishing wire, blowdryers, and a platform that shifted to a 45-degree angle that the camera and table/chair was mounted to. I had to hold on for dear life.”
Newfound Oxygen the new album from Steady Holiday is out on February 17.
See her at the Bob Baker Theater in Los Angeles on November 12.
Visit Steady Holiday on their website, Twitter, and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Words by Steven Ward
Watch the music video for “Can’t Find A Way” the new single from Steady Holiday below!
