Montreal Indie Rock Project, Child Actress, Reconciles with Death on Triumphant Song, “Fruit Flies”
For Rena Kozak, writing music is a compulsion which is brought to life through her musical project, Child Actress. It’s a cathartic swell that offers a sanctuary to the overbearing nature of our emotions, crafting a liminal space where the feelings we can’t explain are expressed with limitless reverie. “Fruit Flies” is the first single from forthcoming EP, Just Fine Never Better, anticipated on September 27th.
“Fruit Flies” came to her three years after her partner died in his sleep next to her. It was during this phase when she felt like a widow but was beginning to experience an evolution in her philosophies around life and death – reconciling what it could mean to be dead but to still be able to have power, energy, maybe even awareness – considering the ways that her partner still seemed to have so much power, energy, and interaction with her.
Kozak’s mind was also toying with the concept of reincarnation – she had trapped some fruit flies on some sticky tape in her kitchen and as she watched them wiggle and become more entrapped, she found herself wondering who they might have been in their lives before this and who they would be next, and did they know what they were now?
“The song is about the most deeply painful process I could’ve ever imagined myself having to undertake, and about the elaborate form of spirituality I found myself using to cope, and yet the sound of the finished product feels triumphant and almost euphoric,” explains songwriter Rena Kozak. “For such a dark concept to result in something so full of light is a unique result.”
Child Actress has been a staple of the Canadian music scene for years. While Calgary was her initial foundation, her move to Montreal in 2017 solidified her work not just as a performer and songwriter, but as a sought-out producer and mixing engineer.
Her 2023 LP, Ancestor Worship, is the result of unimaginable grief over a decade and the psychedelic experiences that can stem from such pain. The 2024 EP, Just Fine Never Better, will offer four remaining songs from that period of her life, including “Fruit Flies,” as a metaphorical end to that phase of artistic output before she moves forward.
