What does it mean to leave a legacy?
It’s a difficult question to answer. Thoughts may drift towards what we’ve accomplished—the biggest impacts we’ve made, contributions to our crafts, and what we chose to put out into the world.
Hospital Gossip’s newest single, “In Rain”, is a reflection on legacy. Rather than focus on the loftier aspects of who we are, it homes in on the connections essential to our being—the relationships we develop with those who will carry our memory forward.
In committing to this topic with such introspective honesty, with a music video that expertly builds a narrative around this theme, Hospital Gossip is establishing its own legacy.
Who is Hospital Gossip?
The four-piece band consists of Alexander Callaghan, Devin Gourley, Jordan Haines and Don Corkum. Callaghan and Gourley started the band back in 2021, coming together to pen some songs that would inevitably end up on their 2023 EP, Apart at Last. Originally, they had drummer Dylan Taylor, but after moving away, he was replaced by Corkum earlier this year.
Work on their second project started soon after the first, with songs being written by both Callaghan and Gourley, who also share vocalist duties. However, due in part to Taylor’s departure, they decided to hold the album off until this fall. Taylor still plays on the album and, after a recent trip to Halifax, will appear in their next music video.
“We didn’t want to rush something just for the sake of getting it out and then having it sort of fall flat,” says Gourley of their newest record. “We decided to hold onto it.”
With the album’s rollout imminent, the band released their first single from the project on Monday, Sept. 1, along with its associated music video, directed by Fia Lillington and featuring camerawork from Alex Boyd of Springtide Productions. Haines would handle the editing.
The video details a tumultuous friendship, brought back together by the death of a loved one, twisting around moments of joy, anger, nostalgia and melancholy like an emotional helix. Callaghan spoke on the concept and its inception.
“I had an initial concept for and vague ideas about some of the other shots we would include, then once we got Fia on board, and Jordan as well, all of us just got together, brainstormed ideas about what kind of things we’re going for.”
Lillington would draft a storyboard and screenplay for the video before filming at the Sanctuary Arts Centre in Dartmouth and various spots around Halifax. The end product was a video that masterfully connects the raw emotions of “In Rain” to a story of friendship, loss and the meaning of legacy.
What is a legacy?
The lyrics of the song speak clearly of legacy—wanting to understand how you’ll be remembered despite never knowing how people will think of you once you’re gone. “Eventuality was always bound to catch up to me/ Put my faith in something I’ll never know/ The undecided legacy that follows,” as the lyrics go.
Yet, in that anxiety of not knowing how you’ll be perceived after death, there is also a want for those around you to move on: “Don’t let yourself be/ Halted by me for a second/ Your greatest weapon is/ Speed and momentum”.
As with the song, the video defines a legacy as something not to be enshrined, but as a motivator for others to move forward.
“It’s dark, but it’s also, at the same time, you know, the funeral scene is kind of a linchpin for the whole thing,” says Callaghan. “It’s a testament to people’s ability to bring other people together, especially in times of sadness and people’s ability to lean on each other.”
Callaghan, having written the song, dug deep to understand why he had a tendency to focus on the concept of legacy.
“They say that everybody dies twice,” says Callaghan. “The first time you die is when your body dies, and then the second time is when your name is uttered for the last time. To me, leaving a legacy—an enduring legacy—is kind of the only way to prevent that second death.
“I don’t necessarily have the luxury of having a huge body of people that are anticipating what kind of music I’m going to put out, because music is my main creative output,” he continues. “So, I was just thinking, if I were to die, what would I leave behind?”
The answer was relatively simple, yet empowering.
“I would leave behind the music that I’ve made with my friends and the connections that I’ve made with other people. I would just have to trust that that would be enough.”
This can be said for anyone, whether or not they’ve put anything out into the world. As long as relationships have been fostered, Callaghan believes that you’ve left your mark.
“This song really touches on how not concrete your legacy is,” says Gourley. “And I think that’s really important, and lets the listener kind of get whatever they decide to get from it.”
Not Tragedy coming this fall
While the band is tight-lipped about their upcoming album, they say it’s an evolution upon their previous EP, further defining themselves as a band whose music can’t easily be defined.
“There’s a lot more about that EP that feels genre,” says Callaghan. “And I feel this full-length, without even really trying to eschew genre tropes, we just kind of created an album that I don’t really know what I would categorize it as, and that to me is proof that we’ve done something cool.”
“When we’re chatting in our little band group chat about what bands we want to play shows with, we feel equally at home with the indie punk scene in Halifax as we do in the hardcore scene,” says Gourley.
On the day of their single release, Hospital Gossip decided to leave another creative mark on the local scene by playing a pay-what-you-can show at Distortion Guitar Exchange in Dartmouth alongside Captain Sunshine. While it was the first time the Pleasant Street music shop held a live show, they managed to reach capacity quickly.
While the band has received plenty of support from Gus’s Pub and has seen success with shows at the all-ages venue Radstorm, this one in particular felt special in that it was such an alternative venue.
“I think people are just interested in alternative spots for shows to happen, especially spots that can accommodate all ages because there’s really not much in the way of support for that scene right now,” says Callaghan. “The more places we can do these sorts of things, the better.”
Hospital Gossip’s new single “In Rain” is available on most streaming platforms, excluding Spotify. Their full-length album Not Tragedy is set to be released this fall.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.thecoast.ca ’
