Skye Wallace’s latest single, “Ice Tea,” arrives at a moment of quiet urgency, tracing a creative and personal reckoning. Out now via Tiny Kingdom Music, the track marks a return to Wallace’s hybrid of jagged rock and introspective folk, delivered with the kind of emotional clarity that has come to define her recent work.
Co-produced with longtime collaborator Hawksley Workman, “Ice Tea” threads Wallace’s introspective songwriting through raw, textured instrumentation, with contributions from Ryan Dahle on guitar and Rachael Cardiello on viola. The track leans on a melodic structure borrowed from Aldous Harding’s “Old Peel”—Harding is formally credited—serving as both a nod to folk traditions and a springboard for Wallace’s own lyrical excavation. “It was like old folk singers repurposing melodies with their own newly written words,” Wallace explained. “It was my homage to the song that reawakened my creative self.”
The video, edited and directed by Wallace with cinematography by Teagan Johnson, is dedicated to artist, poet, and disability activist jes sachse, a longtime collaborator who passed away shortly before its release. sachse’s tap-based movement piece is prominently featured throughout, adding an emotionally charged, physical counterpoint to the track’s internal tension. “Ice Tea” becomes both an artistic offering and a quiet act of mourning.
Watch the video below:
At its core, the single is a meditation on autonomy, motherhood, and the constraints of creative life. In a statement accompanying the release, Wallace speaks candidly about the pressure to choose between art and parenthood: “Music life is hard to sustain, especially at the emerging level… I started to feel resentful, like music was taking away another life I longed for. Eventually, I realized the only way forward was to integrate both loves.”
“Ice Tea” builds on the sonic palette of The Act of Living, Wallace’s 2022 album that saw her embrace the grit of her live shows while exploring themes of loss, transformation, and resilience. That album, too, was co-produced by Workman and solidified Wallace’s evolution from folk upstart to fiercely independent voice within Canadian music.
Wallace will perform a short run of Ontario dates this summer, including Meadows Festival in Fergus on May 31 and Four Winds Music Fest on July 11.
Photo – Tajia Grey-Horiz
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