Wyldest announces her new album The Universe Is Loading – out November 14 via Hand In Hive. Alongside the announcement, she releases haunting and euphoric new single ‘After The Ending’.
Following last month’s delicate meditation on familial estrangement (‘All It Would Take Is A Phone Call’), new single ‘After The Ending’ finds Wyldest confronting the fragility of the human body, and exploring love and bonds that transcend space and time, all amidst a haze of celestial indie-rock.
With its nods to simulation theory, ancient medicine, and the quiet terror of losing control, the song was written shortly after Wyldest received an endometriosis diagnosis. Opening with a reference to ‘trephining’ (an ancient practice of drilling holes in the skull to release evil spirits), it continues through sci-fi metaphors before arriving at its pivotal bridge refrain: “I’ll look for you, if you seek me out there too… / In our past lives… I’d wait for you / If the time was on our side, We’re passing tides for the moment…”
Speaking more on the release of the new single, Wyldest said: “‘After the Ending’ is a post-apocalyptic pop song, about sustaining love from one existence to the next; “The moment, we lost it / so I’ll find you, after the ending”. It was written with space and time in mind – a scenario whereby a relationship can’t exist in the present reality, perhaps due to life circumstances, timing, or something more extreme, like separation by death – and the promise of finding each other in a different existence where they can be there together.
“It’s very much influenced by surrealist films like ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, ‘Big Fish’ and ‘The Matrix’ – where the protagonists break earthly, physical laws, cross through parallel universes or simulations to save or be with someone they love. Ultimately the song is about working through adversity to find love, and to fight to keep it alive.”
The self-directed video for ‘After The Ending’ was filmed across the Thames Estuary, the quiet backstreets of southern Portugal, and the mountains of Zillertal, Austria. Blurring the line between digital futures and gothic pasts – a recurring tension throughout the new album – the video weaves together a visual narrative of portals and alternate realities, echoing the song’s themes of transformation and connection across time.
The Universe Is Loading:
- Wax Museum
- After The Ending
- All It Would Take Is A Phone Call
- Tongue Tied
- Old Flame
- Enough For Me
- Collide
- Foolish World
- The Whole World Cries
- Foxglove Will Grow
