Young artist / songwriter Haley Blais has shared her introspective new single, “Rob the Original”. The track fully captures her powerful voice and knack for melodic detail against a clever shuffle of pop and drifty, folk feels. Haley reveals “Rob the Original was inspired by a close friend of mine who has dealt with depression and various mental health issues their entire life, and recollections of how it feels as though an alien completely takes over your body. The title coincidentally derives from the Wikipedia page about E.T. the Extra Terrestrial.” 

Vancouver-based breakout artist Haley Blais expertly puts into song so much of what humans are feeling. For years now, Haley has turned out song after song of defiant scream-into-your-pillow bedroom pop anthems, recorded in her actual bedroom. She’s organically grown an online community and reputation for her self-deprecating, self-loving balladry sung out in operatic crescendos. This summer finally sees the release of her debut full-length album, Below the Salt on August 25 via Tiny Kingdom Music. 

Following in the footsteps of Haley’s successful 2018 EP Let Yourself Go, the classically trained vocalist finds her signature sound maturing into her own distinct voice on Below the Salt. Featuring production from indie favorites Tennis (Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley) and fellow Vancouver artist Louise Burns, the record bursts out of the gate in a flurry of drums and keys, soaring synths have replaced ukulele noodling, and confidence has replaced doubt as Haley belts out rock and roll confessionals by way of Jenny Lewis, Karen Carpenter or Hayley Williams.

Her lyrics riff on the joys and banalities of the everyday, on the need to break apart and away from an uninspiring life, on radical acceptance, and manifesting a world where you feel proud of yourself and who you’re surrounded by. Below the Salt is a coming of age story that recognizes that there is no real ‘coming of age.’ There are hundreds of instances of recognition and of learning. What do we do when we find them? Well according to Haley, we take them with us.