TOPS' new single "Witching Hour" is a song about "reckoning"

"Witching Hour" is the second single to be lifted from I Feel Alive, after last month's title-track "I Feel Alive".

Vocalist Jane Penny says of the new single, ""Witching Hour" is a song about reckoning. David [Carriere - guitarist] wrote the chorus of the song, and when he showed it to me I gravitated towards the idea of a witching hour as a time of night for unconscious thoughts and uncomfortable visions. The pressure to be feminine has twisted my experience of my own sensuality in this nightmarish way, and I wanted to articulate that by conjuring the nefarious ways that trauma emerges in dreams. There's a sense of reprisal in witchcraft, of retribution as a means of expression, and I wanted to explore that side of feminine power."

TOPS' forthcoming record will be their first since 2017's Sugar at the Gate album. They recorded the album in a basement studio in Montreal, recording for the first time with keyboardist Marta Cikojevic who joined the live band in 2017.

Penny says of recording with Cikojevic, "From the first time we practiced with her it was clear that we were in sync musically, and we found ourselves improvising together at the first rehearsal. Having Marta manning the keys allowed me to reach for my flute, and gave me the chance to integrate my flute playing with the writing process, using it as an expressive instrument rather than more production element which it has been in the past."

Penny adds, "We'd spent a lot of time apart, not working on new stuff or touring, just living life, all in different cities. When we went to make I Feel Alive we all had a good sense of what we were trying to do and a renewed energy towards playing together. The goal was to get in a room together and play, not holding anything back."

Guitarist David Carriere says, "It was a quick process. We would work all day writing a song and then demo them the same evening, relying on our natural chemistry as a band to let the songs come into their own."