Active Child Announces New Album In Another Life, Shares Single “Weightless”

Friday, R&B multi-instrumentalist Patrick Grossi of Active Child announced his third studio album In Another Life, his first full-length since 2015’s Mercy. Grossi took to sharing the album’s first single “Weightless” with an accompanying video that is set to be the first of a two-part narrative series. The video is directed by Andy Hines, known for his work on videos for Lizzo’s “Tempo” and and Logic’s “1-800-273-8255.”

“Time and its passage has been something of an obsession with me, and it remains the underlying source of curiosity for both this album specifically and my new music,” Grossi explains. “My father said to me recently that in his mind he has been 35 years old for the past 30 years. This really struck me, but it also made complete sense. No matter what point in our lives we are in, we are constantly co-existing with our previous selves and memories. This video is really me coming to terms with that reality, the impossibility of complete detachment from past memories, past failures, past lives.”

The video grapples with the circuity of time, with Grossi donning wigs, prosthetics and heavy special effects makeup to portray himself at different ages. Coupled with his signature warbling, heart-rending voice, the video is a melancholy examination of change and passages through life. Grossi acknowledges that having a child of his own influences his own look back: “After becoming a father, I found myself looking back on my own childhood, and then at my parents and their childhood and so on,” he says. “I was intrigued by this cycle of life and family. It was comforting to know I was on the cusp of my own cycle but also daunting looking back knowing that one day that circle would complete and another one would start. In that way it’s as much about life as it is about death and that unknown space between the two.”

The album features co-production from Andrew Sarlo, who last year assisted with Bon Iver’s i,i and Big Thief’s U.F.O.F. Regular R.E.M. and Beck session drummer Joey Waronker will also contribute percussion. In Another Life is set for release on April 10 via Sony Music. Check out the video for “Weightless” and a 2012 Active Child session from the Paste archives below, and find more information on the album further down.

In Another Life Album Art:

In Another Life Tracklist:
01. In Another Life
02. All Eyes on You
03. Set Me Free
04. Color Me
05. Gaze Will Cast a Shadow
06. Spirit Buoy
07. Weightless
08. Brighter Day
09. Painted Staircase
10. Cruel World