5th PROJEKT Premiere Their Spiritually Healing New Single “Vagabond”

It’s not an opportunity that many of us ever get or even want, but some of those who have lived the vagabond life might tell you of the clarity, emotional enrichment, and peace of mind that can come from it. Toronto duo 5th PROJEKT were inspired to write their new single “Vagabond” after lead singer Tara Rice and guitarist Sködt McNalty spent several weeks journeying the Camino Santiago de Compostela.

The Camino is a network of pilgrims’ ways extending across Southern France and Northern Spain that leads to the shrine of the apostle St. James the Great. With thousands of years of history, the Camino is considered a place where people can go to seek refinement or self-purification. To Rice and McNalty, the path of the vagabond came to represent what they saw in all of us, a journey of self-discovery that is both reflective and triumphant.

Expounding on their journey and the song’s inspiration, the duo tells us:

“‘Vagabond’ is an almost stubborn cry for a simpler life. It’s about listening to that call from within your soul and letting it carry you along your path without the need or want for anything else.

The Camino was an experience that just kept stripping things away. First, some material possessions that I just didn’t want to carry anymore and realized I didn’t really need. Then I started to lose more emotional and energetic things, like shame, self-doubt, vanity, and limiting beliefs. It’s a very long walk, so a lot of processing and healing can take place.

“‘Vagabond’ is an almost stubborn cry for a simpler life. It’s about listening to that call from within your soul and letting it carry you along your path without the need or want for anything else.”

Along with being inspired by the Camino, the song also pays homage to the poem The Vagabond by R.L. Stevenson, about the restless spirit of a wanderer, happy to be connected to nature and unbound by material things.”

The release of “Vagabond” comes ahead of the March 2023 release date of 5th PROJEKT’s new EP, The Wolf, on Organik Rekords. It’s a quick follow-up to their previous EP, The Labyrinth, which came out earlier this year and was a big hit on Canadian college radio. Featuring haunting vocals from Rice and sharp ambient guitars from McNalty, the twosome is one part psychedelic, another cinematic, and another firmly planted within the grunge rock of the ’90s.

They are both very excited to enter this next phase for 5th PROJEKT, with so much reflection and rumination that went into creating this music. The release of The Wolf will pave way for a new full-length coming in March, which will bring Rice and McNalty’s spiritual journey full circle.

Artwork for the single “Vagabond” by 5th PROJEKT