Noah Reid's Dreamy New Song "Everyday" Dwells in Raw Moments of Instability & Imbalance

Singer/songwriter (and Schitt’s Creek star) Noah Reid reckons with the loss of normalcy in his sweetly stirring new single “Everyday,” a candid, dreamy folk song inspired by the fracture and uprooting of the pandemic’s early days.

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Stream: “Everyday” – Noah Reid

I had a little fire barrel in my backyard and I would just stand there watching things burn late into the night, just to feel like something was happening.

Life took a jarring, real hard turn in March 2020. We’ve all experienced our fair share of trauma and change, but no matter what happens, eventually you expect to settle into a new normal, a new routine – a new rhythm and groove. Regular might look different than it used to, but it feels familiar all the same.

That wasn’t the case two years ago in the earliest stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when we moved (or rather, stayed put) in a state of flux, turbulence, and uncertainty. We’d lost our anchors; with the rules and recommendations constantly evolving to meet the moment’s needs, there was no normal. Singer/songwriter Noah Reid reckons with that loss and instability in his sweetly stirring “Everyday,” a candid, dreamy folk song inspired by the fracture and uprooting of the pandemic’s early days.

Everyday - Noah Reid — Everyday – Noah Reid

Pickin up rust on the side of the track
Thinkin how I’ll never make my money back
I could fill a novel with the I don’t knows
Try to find a friend on the radio
Lookin in the mirror feelin proud of the greys
There’s not a lot for me to celebrate these days
Roll another joint but I can’t get high
I’m tryin to remember what I did last night

And the clouds are getting pretty as the sky gets dark
Wouldn’t it be nice to take a walk in the park
I’m hungry for connection but I don’t wanna talk
I’d rather stand alone and burn a cardboard box
And give myself a minute just to be upset
Then I’ll try to breathe it out like a cigarette
Cuz I know I’m pretty lucky and I shouldn’t complain
But I guess I kinda figured things would pretty much stay the same
And it’s changin

Released March 4, “Everyday” is Noah Reid’s first track of 2022 and the lead single off his forthcoming third studio album, set for release later this year. Intimate in a way that only comes from true solitude and isolation, “Everyday” finds Reid recalibrating in real time as he tries to square his present with the past he once knew. It’s a confessional song trying hard to connect the dots and make sense of it all, searching for understanding and some kind of stability and meaning to hold onto. “I could fill a novel with the I don’t knows, try to find a friend on the radio,” Reid sings, sharing the ways in which he himself struggled to keep a clear head and move – if not elegantly, then at least successfully – through the changes. “Lookin in the mirror feelin proud of the greys, there’s not a lot for me to celebrate these days.”

As we all know, there wasn’t much holding us together during those early stages.

“‘Everyday’ was written in the really early stages of the pandemic, when everything just felt so strange and empty,” Reid tells Atwood Magazine. “Those full shutdown days that the world had never experienced before, you know, that unsettling quiet in the middle of a city. It was so jarring for me – one night, I was playing sold out shows on my First Time Out tour with hundreds of people singing and laughing, feeling that connectivity we all took for granted, and the next night the whole world shut down. I had a little fire barrel in my backyard and I would just stand there watching things burn late into the night, just to feel like something was happening.”

“Eventually, we’d have people over for a backyard bonfire and remember what it was like to be around others, how necessary it was. We called it the “fire escape.” So yeah, this is the pandemic song, I guess. I thought maybe it would run out of relevance; I think I hoped it would. I say in the song, “man, I don’t think that I can talk about it again,” but here we are two years later. And it keeps changing. The song used to be about my current surroundings and trying to make sense of it, and now it’s like man, remember that? What a crazy time.”

It came from a feeling of being forced into a sort of loneliness, and not really knowing what to do about that.

Got a lot to do but I’m always bored
Wonder when they’re handin out all the Darwin awards
They say it’s gonna change but we don’t know when
Man, I don’t think that I can talk about it again
And there’s no one in the streets on a Friday night
I hope that everybody’s gettin by alright
So we’ll pop another bottle and roll the tape
And meet me tonight out by the fire escape

Truly a human song, “Everyday” sees Reid holding on for dear life while leaning into the unknown. His emotional state vacillates; sometimes he seems to feel numb (a means of avoiding the surrounding upheaval), and at other points we hear him trying to face it all head-on. We probably did a little bit of both in those days, too; that mix of trying to steer the ship, while the ship inevitably steers us, provides at least the semblance of balance in decidedly unbalanced situations.

To his credit, Reid manages to navigate the turmoil while creating in his music a warm, welcoming and comforting environment. With his lilting acoustic guitar, enveloping piano chords, chugging drums, and tender, up-close vocals, Reid allows “Everyday” to feel like a mellow, sun-kissed daydream. It’s easy to listen to, even if it came out of one of the hardest periods in living memory.

You won’t necessarily get an answer to all your woes in this song, but Noah Reid makes damn sure you’ll find a friend in him. As March 2022 gets underway, let “Everyday” be a means of acknowledging and appreciating the chaos we experienced, both as individuals and as a global community, two very long years ago. In March 2020, I was living in New York’s Upper East Side. What was once a bustling neighborhood became a ghost town overnight. Gone were the ever-present taxis and cars – those familiar sounds that used to put me to sleep at night – but even more striking was the lack of people. When I went for walks, I’d be the only one on my street. It was a lonely existence; seldom do you feel yourself longing to be in the presence of a bunch of strangers (whom you don’t talk to anyway), but it’s better than being alone.

The years are sure to make it a distant memory fast – and there’s no telling what happens next, as we enter year three – but here we are: Hearts still beating, feet still moving forward.