The constant of change has, deliberately or not, been one of the driving forces of Halifax’s Hillsburn. From its early days as a harmony-heavy folk outfit to three albums spent evolving and expanding its full-band sound to its current iteration as an indie-pop four-piece, songcraft has been the steadfast centre of an often-shifting musical outlook. So what happens when the songwriter—founding member Paul Aarntzen—is no longer at the centre? You start moving parts around. 

Hillsburn’s latest single, ‘Room Across The Hall,’ features a familiar cast in expanded roles. Frontperson Rosanna Fairfax-Burrill plays bass, drummer Clare Macdonald adds vocals, and keyboardist Jackson Fairfax-Perry cements his status as the band’s central soundscapist. The song is written by guitarist Clayton Burrill. It follows a couple in the midst of a health crisis, the protagonist keeping watch by a hospital bed and imagining a healthy version of their partner nearby: “I know I’d find you dancing your head off, like you’re never gonna stop.” The track starts quietly before gaining volume and propulsion. After all, the hallmarks of a Hillsburn song are heart and heights: both are solidly on display here. 

From band member and songwriter Clayton Burrill:

“I was trying to give my creative brain a jolt one day and tried sitting down without an instrument to write melodies in my head. I gave each idea five minutes, recorded what I’d come up with by singing a voice memo to myself, and then moved on to a new melody. After half an hour or so, I listened back to what I’d recorded and found what ended up being the first half of the chorus for ‘Room Across The Hall.’ I built the rest of the song from there.

“The idea with the lyrics grew out of a placeholder line that popped into my head when I was working out the melody: ‘I thought I saw you dancing your head off like a kid outside the mall.” I liked the image of someone dancing their head off and started playing with other words that rhymed with ‘mall.’ That led to ‘room across the hall’ and the idea of a preferable alternate reality that was seemingly just out of reach. Initially I pictured the protagonist sitting in one room and imagining that at any moment a lost loved one could call out to them from another part of the house. Then gradually that concept morphed into the idea I eventually settled on, which is about someone sitting with a partner who’s sick in hospital and imagining finding a healthy version of them across the hall. The verses explore the pain that goes along with the uncertainty and fear of the situation.”