Skydiggers: My City Is Gone

By Kerry Doole

Skydiggers - My City Is Gone (Latent Recordings): Veteran Toronto roots-rockers Skydiggers have just released a new EP,  Hide Your Light, featuring the new single and video, My City Is Gone. The 6-song EP is the first of two to be released in 2023 on Latent Recordings, culminating in the official release of both EPs as a full collection digitally and on vinyl this fall.

My City is Gone is co-written by original members and driving forces Andy Maize and Josh Finlayson, who-co-produced the EP with Joby Baker, who recorded it at his  Baker Studios, Victoria, Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) mixed this track.

The song is a lament to the greed-induced changes to the landscape of Toronto, the band's home. You can feel the pain in Maize's voice as he sings "Towers block the sun that used to shine on everyone; now our city is gone." Bold and brassy horns (from Daniel Lapp) and poignant strings (played by Richard Moody and arranged by Lapp) punctuate the point skilfully. The result may not sound like typical Skydiggers material, but it showcases the group's willingness to stretch out and explore, even after 15 albums.

The EP was created over a three-month span in 2022 at Baker Studios, and it features stylistically eclectic material. In a label press release, Maize notes that “Recording on Vancouver Island was a chance to isolate from some of the world’s concerns and just focus on creating again. I think the record went to a different place musically than if we just converged in a studio down the street. Hide Your Light is filled with songs about love, loss, hope and the need to make this world, our world, a better place."

Hide Your Light reaffirms Skydiggers as a national music treasure with an extensive and consistently high-quality discography matched by a few peers. Long may they dig!
 
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Publicity: Beth Cavanagh, What's The Story?