Emerging Toronto-based artist Rachel Bobbitt shares “What About The Kids,” the outstanding new single from her recently announced upcoming EP The Ceiling Could Collapse, out July 15th on Fantasy Records. “‘What About The Kids’ is about navigating familial loss,” says Bobbitt. “Sometimes, in traumatic situations, parents naturally want to shield their children from the ugliness of the world. While this is a completely understandable reaction, it can create a feeling of isolation within the family. There’s truly no right or wrong way to grieve, the only thing we can try to do is grieve together.”

The Ceiling Could Collapse, which Bobbitt co-produced with Justice Der and was mixed by GRAMMY-nominee Jorge Elbrecht, was a long time coming. Bobbitt made a name for herself on Vine as a teenager, uploading covers of pop hits and all-time classics to the now-defunct social media site. As her profile rose, Bobbitt found herself overwhelmed rather than inspired. “It was exciting to be doing what I loved, but it was difficult to be observed by that many people at that age where I simultaneously wanted to just shut myself in,” she says. “I’m grateful it ended when it did, because it gave me time to step back and think about what I wanted to create for myself.” She soon found herself at a jazz program, before leaving it during the pandemic to focus on her own music. 

The EP centers on the cycles of life and how we find meaning in extremes: pain, joy, wonder, love.  “Every woman I’ve ever talked to is in some amount of pain almost all the time,” she says. “That could be physical pain, emotional pain, familial pain, but it’s there in cycles.” In addition to music, Bobbitt draws those same feelings from horror films—and actually pulled the title to this EP while reading the script to 2018’s Hereditary. A deleted scene offered a revelation: “We need to accept that we can’t have our minds fixated on all these things that could happen, and we need to move on—but also the ceiling could just collapse,” Bobbitt says and laughs. More than unpredictability, it’s the endless repetition of life that suggests both things are true, that there’s no reason to worry and something terrible is about to happen. The ceiling collapse may be inescapable, but once it’s gone, there’s just more room for the sunrise to peek through.

Photo Courtesy: Paige Paton