WATCH THE SONG'S POWERFUL VIDEO HERE

NEW ALBUM CALM FURY OUT ON MARCH 4

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MUSIC IN  THE FURY POD

LISTEN TO PREVIOUS SINGLES SWIM AND LOVE & RETREAT

"May I rage for the righting of wrongs
May I love even where I see wrong / May I rage most against my own flaws."
- Sarah Hiltz on May I Rage, May I Love

TORONTO, ON – January 7, 2022 – With a fresh start to the year, Toronto-based singer-songwriter, Sarah Hiltz, shares May I Rage, May I Love. Her first single release of 2022 will be featured on an upcoming album, Calm Fury, out March 4. The project embraces and grapples with the topic of anger in layered, raw artistry. May I Rage, May I Love explores how anger connects with spirituality, and the concept of justified anger, and safe spaces. It arrives with a video directed by Sandi Barrett, capturing stunning, monochromatic scenes of people in deep reflection, coming to terms with their anger and fears, meeting them in spaces with love and catharsis.  Listen here and watch the video here.

"This song is full of close notes held in tension, a kind of audible mirror of the internal struggle I go through in allowing myself to get angry when I see wrong in the world while still holding true to my deepest value (love)," Sarah reflects. "Rage and Love feel like they’re at odds with each other (at least to me), but I believe it’s in balancing them that I might be able to contribute to shifting the injustices that cause harm across the globe. Learning how to hold both of these things at the same time might be the most important spiritual work I ever personally do."
 
May I Rage, May I Love follows Sarah's 2021 album previews, Love & Retreat and Swim. On Love & Retreat, Sarah draws from the experience of fraught communication, using the setting of heated arguments and discussions, making this catalytic track the apex of the album as a whole. Listen here and watch the visualizer here.

Calm Fury is a collection of songs inspired by Sarah’s research into the ways that Canadians experience, express and repress anger, along with Sarah’s own, and how others relate to anger. Sarah has dedicated a period of deep research around anger and its various origins and connections. Through interviewing experts, friends, family, and fellow artists to absorbing literature, articles and other sources of media, she is pairing this new collection of songs with The Fury Pod, her ancillary podcast series, that dives deeper into the topic.

Part of the research project involved attending a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in March 2019. The tracks on the album go deep, looking at: how it is processed in the body, communication with others, female anger and the male’s response, how it can be used as energy, self-directed anger, justified anger, creativity & anger, and spirituality & anger. A range of media and texts from interviews with peers to footage (everything from Wisdom For Cooling The Flames by Thich Nhat Hanh to Sinead O’Connor’s appearance on SNL ripping up a photo of the pope) were sources of inspiration for Sarah. 
 
The album brings a variety of sounds, arrangements and awesome collaborators into the fold. Sarah was less fixated on capturing a particular sound or arrangement for each song and instead focused on working with people who she felt would honestly engage with the subject and reflect it in their own performance. The album was recorded in Montreal and guests include: Charlotte Cornfield (drums/percussion), Colleen Brown (keys/vocals – of Major Love), Tara Kannangara (trumpet/vocals), Connor Walsh (bass), Rachael Cardiello (vocals – of Zinnia). Shae Brossard also assisted in the studio, while Sarah Thawer sat in as drummer on a couple of songs. Bruce Cawdron (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) added vibraphone, marimba and tenor glockenspiel across the album, with a feature by Fats Kaplin, performing pedal steel on another track. 

May I Rage, May I Love features: Sarah Hiltz on (vocals, piano, electric guitar, background vocals), Connor Walsh (bass), Charlotte Cornfield (drums, percussion), Bruce Cawdron (vibraphone and marimba), Tara Kannangara (trumpet, background vocals), Colleen Brown & Rachael Cardiello (background vocals). 

Stay tuned for more sonic studies from Sarah Hiltz and learn more about her career to date below.

DOWNLOAD – Hi Res Press Photo | DOWNLOAD – Hi Res May I Rage May I Love Art

About Sarah Hiltz
Sarah Hiltz is a contemporary folk artist based in Toronto. Her current project has her researching the ways Canadians experience, express and suppress anger in modern society, especially women, and creating a song cycle in response. 

Sarah’s last album, Beauty In The Blue, compiled songs and stories culled from her multiple journeys across Canada as a travelling musician on VIA Rail’s passenger train, “The Canadian." Beauty in the Blue features lush, nuanced vocals and jazz-influenced songwriting.

Sarah has independently released three full-length albums and two EPs since 2009. Her work over the last decade as a talented singer-songwriter has landed her Folk Music Ontario’s Songs From The Heart Award (Political Category), opening slots for Canadian icons Gordon Lightfoot and Ron Hynes, Top 3 placement in a nation-wide music competition (She’s The One), a Best Folk Album nomination (Toronto Independent Music Awards) and earned her an invitation to give a TEDx talk in 2014.