Not all friendships last forever. People change and grow, move and move on, vanish and resurface and vanish again. For Rapport’s Maddy Wilde, this isn't necessarily a bad thing—it’s part of life. But on “Can’t Get It to Last,” one of the standout tracks on the Toronto synth-pop band’s new EP Floating Through the Wonderwave, Wilde reminds herself that it’s OK to let friendships fade. “You've come to rely on me, but what’s that look like?” she sings in the first verse of the song, trying to figure out where she stands in one such relationship. Meanwhile, bandmates Kurt Marble and Mike Pereira pair Wilde’s misty-eyed musings with glimmering synths and bobbing basslines.
“On the surface, this probably sounds like your average love song,” says Wilde. “But it’s really about friendships and growing apart. Close friendships take different shapes—for example, friends who do everything together but have never actually been vulnerable with one another. It’s like maintaining a light and fluffy connection that has never really progressed further than a casual relationship. Friendships like this can go on for ages, and they are valuable, but they don’t seem to last as long.”
The accompanying visual finds Wilde performing at a drive-in theater with her co-conspirators projected behind her. “[Director] Adrienne McLaren brought to life my vision of creating a music video mood similar to that scene in Grease where Danny walks around the drive-in singing about Sandy,” Wilde explains. “For the drive-in movie, we made an experimental film… To get even more meta, we displayed the drive-in music video itself playing on a small Panasonic TV in various locations around the city. A video within a video within a video.”
Floating Through the Wonderwave is out now. You can order it here.
