ACTIVE CHILD Announces New LP, 'IN ANOTHER LIFE,' Out 4/10

Photo: Ricardo Castano

After making his Sony Music Masterworks debut last year, ACTIVE CHILD today announces the release of his forthcoming album In Another Life, out April 10th.  Available for preorder, In Another Life marks singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Patrick Gross’s first full-length in five years, ushering in a new chapter in the artist’s already critically-acclaimed career.  

Making its debut alongside today’s preorder is a new single and video from Active Child for “Weightless”. Co-produced by ANDREW SARLO (Bon Iver, Big Thief, Empress Of) and featuring JOEY WARONKER (Beck, Elliott Smith, R.E.M.) on drums, “Weightless” figures as one of the album’s most fervently emotional tracks, detailing what Active Child characterizes as “the desperation to detach from the past.” 

Enlisting the help of GRAMMY-nominated director ANDY HINES (Kanye West, Lizzo, Logic), Active Child pairs “Weightless” with a cinematic new visual, the first half of a larger two-part narrative exploring the overarching concept behind the new album. Spending more than six hours in makeup and combining layers of prosthetics, wigs, airbrushing and adhesives, the video finds Active Child in various moments throughout his life, from early adulthood into old age, as he grapples with inevitable truths of life.  

“Time and its passage has been something of an obsession with me, and it remains the underlying source of curiosity for both this album specifically and my new music,” explains Grossi of the inspiration behind his video.  “My father said to me recently that in his mind he has been 35 years old for the past 30 years. This really struck me, but it also made complete sense.  No matter what point in our lives we are in, we are constantly co-existing with our previous selves and memories.  This video is really me coming to terms with that reality, the impossibility of complete detachment from past memories, past failures, past lives.”

With its passionate plea, “Weightless” is indicative of In Another Life’s overarching narrative, what Active Child describes as a “reflection on the circular passage of time.”  In part a response to the personal changes in his own life and becoming a father, the ten-track collection is an examination of life, death and the various evolutions that happen between the two.  Mirroring the thematic exploration is the music itself, which embodies both the evolution inherent in Active Child’s decade’s worth of work thus far while marking its latest incarnation.  Embracing a wider swath of influences and engineering his own vocals to amplify the power of his voice, the result is an album that exhibits every layer of the Active Child’s life and career, as he reconciles the personal and artistic evolutions that have culminated in this moment.