Wallice Shares New Single 'Gut Punch Love'

Singer-songwriter Wallice has shared a new single, “Gut Punch Love,” off of her debut The Jester out November 15th via Dirty Hit. 

The song was written from an experience that happened to Wallice’s mother. While in Japan in the ’80s, her mother’s fiancé disappeared. Off and on for two years, she would venture into busy Osaka streets and businesses, looking for and asking about him. She eventually learned he’d been killed by Yakuza violence. Wallice has known bits and pieces of this story for years, since her mom always kept her first engagement ring in a safe. That story provided the basis for “Gut Punch Love,” a remarkably sunny power-pop number with an ascendant chorus. It feels like a dream, her mother returning to the past to find him there in the streets after all this time. 

“You can’t necessarily hear the amount of tragedy in the song, because it feels like an alternative-rock song,” Wallice says. “But it is tragic, and I think it’s an important story.”

The release follows on the heels of double singles “Heaven Has To Happen” and “The Opener,” shared last month along with the announcement of the album. “Heaven Has To Happen” is a confessional, intimate track about navigating the complexities of imposter syndrome while living your dream. Six-minute long title track “The Jester” tells the story of Wallice’s experience touring the world on various tours as an opener.

This push and pull between expectation and actuality animate much of The Jester, Wallice’s ultra-dynamic and charged 14-song debut. Though Wallice has been writing songs since she was a preteen playing cello and releasing them for almost as long, her career took shape during the last four years, when a series of singles and EPs suggested her as a new chronicler of early adulthood’s struggles and delights. The Jester is a bold and expansive debut album from an artist ready to make her move.

Tracklisting

1. The Opener
2. Gut Punch
3. Look At Me
4. I Want U Yesterday
5. Hurry Babe
6. Clown Like Me
7. Hardest Working Man Alive
8. Manipulate
9. Boring
10. Sickness
11. Deadbeat
12. Flash in the Pan
13. Heaven Has to Happen Soon
14. Curtains to Close

Photo Credit: Cal Kevany