premiere: Maybe Babs – Doorstep

We've been big fans of Babette Hayward's electronic pop project Vogue Dots for the better part of a decade now, so we're very psyched to unveil her gorgeous, gently unfurling folk song "Doorstep", her solo debut as Maybe Babs, out today on Outside Smoke, an independent flexi-disc singles club based in Montréal. Hayward's new bio states, "Formerly of ‘Vogue Dots’, formerly of ‘Babette Hayward’ and always of singing Sarah McLachlan covers (ed. note: I knew it!), Maybe Babs writes songs 'about never being wanted by anyone'", and this first transmission really drives home all of the yearning and dreamy melancholy that heartbreaking sentiment entails in softly devastating fashion. Listen below via the Ffi Lewis-directed VHS-recorded video, "filmed on the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq Peoples, also known as Ghost Island, Canada". First, though, Babs tells us about the song:

"This is a song of two parts. A few years back, I started to piece together memories of turning up on friends' doorsteps, confused because what I thought was one thing, was actually another. The realization that I’d wasted my time pining after people that never wanted me back. My m.o. was to turn up with an elaborate or very specific gift in order to win the heart of my conquest. Some of these items include: a bonsai tree, an air mattress and a very expensive glass teapot. Only after writing the song did I see the pattern in my attempts. Part two, I had moved on from then and put an ocean in between. If you’ve ever spent any time in East London, you might have heard of the lido, perhaps even been there before. For me, it was a place of reflection where I could mindlessly swim laps and remember the unwanted objects I’d left on doorsteps."