Austra aka Katie Austra Stelmanis has announced her fourth album, HiRUDiN. Set for release on May 1st, HiRUDiN is both a bold acknowledgement of such patterns of behaviour and a testament to the power of breaking them.
Having previously shared ‘Risk It‘ from the forthcoming record, now Austra shares new single ‘Anywayz‘. The album’s opening track, Stelmanis says of ‘Anywayz’: “It explores the fear associated with leaving someone, and the terrifying realization that without them in your life, the rest of the world will continue unscathed as if nothing has changed.”
The director of the video for ‘Anywayz’ (and also the video for ‘Risk It’), Jasmin Mozaffari (‘Firecrackers’) adds: “I wanted the video to feel as dramatic and chaotic as heartbreak can be, bringing this fear into fruition. The concept focuses on Katie as a heightened version of herself, sequestered inside a barren mansion that resembles a cage of her own spiralling thoughts. She resists moving on, yet as time persists and the outside world thrives, it eventually forces itself upon her.”
Katie Austra Stelmanis has been better known by her middle name for three albums, ten years, and countless tours. She wrote, produced, and performed all her own records, occasionally sharing the spotlight with a band to tour live. From the outside, things were going really well for a while: she built a devoted fan base and sold out shows all around the world. However, on the inside, Stelmanis was beginning to feel stagnant and uninspired. “I was losing faith in my own ideas,”she explains. Without realising it, she’d got caught up in a toxic relationship that was tearing her apart.
It wasn’t until Stelmanis was ready to face her insecurities that she was able to see a way forward: “My creative and personal relationships were heavily intertwined, and I knew the only answer was to part ways with all of the people and comforts that I’d known for the better part of a decade and start again.”
“While Austra’s third album, Future Politics, was concerned with the external power structures that shape society, HiRUDiN points inward. It traces a deeply personal journey towards regeneration, dealing with the fallout of toxic relationships, queer shame, and insecurity along the way.”
May live dates
5th – Longboat Hall, Toronto
7th – The Sultan Room, New York – Sold out
12th – Hoxton Hall, London – Sold out
13th – Le Badaboum, Paris – Sold out
14th – Mil.Leni Festival, Barcelona
16th – Mallorca Live Festival, Palma de Mallorca
18th – Theater Im Delphi, Berlin – Sold out
20th – Niebo, Warsaw
21st – WUK, Vienna
22nd – Tomavistas Festival, Madrid
Tickets
Photo credit: Virginie Khateeb
