Body Releases ‘I’m Still Alive’

The angled geometry of the parking lot stretched beneath restless children strapped into backseats of cars. Their voices circled in questions of “why and when?” while stout, bouncing women, faces set in frozen concentration, steered wobbling carts toward the gaping maws of hungry trunks. Bodies dulled by errands sank into vinyl seats, the thick heat pressing down like a smog-stained curtain.

It is from this precise, sun-bleached scene that Body draws its new single “I’m Still Alive,” released today. The solo project of Paul Hawley, founding member and drummer of the acclaimed Canadian indie rock band Hot Hot Heat, continues the quiet evolution that began in 2024.

Where Hot Hot Heat built its reputation on sharp, energetic post-punk and new-wave inflections out of Victoria, British Columbia, Body moves inward. Hawley channels decades of experience into fragmentary moments and weighted sounds that arrive from somewhere indefinable, carrying the residue of ordinary afternoons.

The song’s origin story is told in the same poetic register that shapes its imagery. A family moment in the car, daughter Sissy, seven years old and keen-eyed, asking why her father is frowning, triggers a memory of love, marriage, and the arrival of a child in 2024. “A mere fragment of sound, brimming with weight. Where is it coming? Where does it go?”

Throughout the creation process the artist’s own voice repeats like a mantra: “Body! Body! Body!” as if calling something into being. The result is music that locates meaning in life’s overlooked moments, in the thick heat and vinyl seats and the small shifts that mark a new beginning.

“I’m Still Alive” arrives as the June single in what feels like a measured, intentional series. Rather than leaning on the legacy of Hot Hot Heat’s international success in the 2000s, Hawley has used Body to explore new sonic and emotional territory. The track does not announce itself loudly; it settles in, carrying the same careful attention to atmosphere and detail that has defined the project from the start.

In a year already crowded with releases, Body’s approach stands out for its restraint and its refusal to overstate. It asks the listener to stay with the ordinary until the ordinary begins to hum.

Follow Body

“I’m Still Alive” is out now. Stream the single and explore the catalog below.

Listen: Spotify
Follow: Instagram · YouTube
Official: thebandbody.com