After decades of wrestling stardom as WWE‘s Christian and TNA’s Christian Cage, Jay Reso is making moves in other parts of the entertainment industry. Since he worked his last match in 2014, Reso has been a podcaster, actor, TV host, and more. One of his recent projects: executive producing and acting in the movie Cagefighter: Worlds Collide.

With Spandex talked to Reso about Cagefighter, which will premiere on Fite TV on May 16, his life after wrestling, and more. He kicked off the conversation by asking, “How’s things?”

With Spandex: They’re pretty good. How are they with you?

Jay Reso: It’s alright. This quarantine is stressing me out, but I’m trying to stay busy.

How are you spending your quarantine?

Mostly homeschooling my daughter. It takes up most of the day, so I have a whole new respect for teachers at this point.

Had you ever tried to do something like homeschooling before or is this new territory?

This is all new. They send assignments, and then she has like a Zoom class with her friends in the class every day so she sees them at least but, you know, it’s just kind of hard to get her to focus at home, you know? But we’re getting through it.

So I have some questions for you about Cagefighter. You’re an executive producer and an actor in the movie. How did you get involved with the project?

Yeah, so a couple of years ago I had done an independent movie in Saskatchewan, the same place that this movie was shot, for a guy named Hugh Patterson, called SuperGrid. And we kept in contact, and then one of the producers of this movie, Shayne Putzlocher, is friends with Hugh, and they were discussing this movie, and he was like “Oh, you should talk to Jay, he’s a wrestler and there’s some wrestling elements in this film. You should pass it along to him and have him talk a look at it.” So I read the script over and just made a few suggestions and they asked me to come on board as an executive producer… That’s kind of how I got involved with it.

As an executive producer, did you help out a lot with the wrestling aspect of the movie?

Yeah, just the wrestling things that were in the script, I just made some suggestions on those things and that was basically what I contributed to it.

I talked to Jon Moxley about the movie and he said you reached out to him about his role. Did you think that he would right person for the part, or how did you end up reaching out to him?

I think we were just discussing who would be the role and he popped into my head just with the type of character that this was, and just the demeanor and the way that he talked and the kind of attitude just felt very much to me like this was the guy. And it just so happened that right around the time we were casting, he became a free agent, so we obviously talked to him and he was interested, and he came on board, and it worked out.

When you’re working in other parts of the entertainment industry, what are the biggest misconceptions you see people have about wrestling?

I think it’s changed somewhat for the better over the last few years with The Rock and John Cena and now we see Dave Batista doing big things in Hollywood, kind of getting past that stigma of just being the big, kind of bruiser, Bouncer #2 type characters. I think that’s going to help a lot. I guess there was a stigma sort of attached to being a wrestler before. Now I think a lot of people that you see in prominent positions in entertainment maybe grew up as wrestling fans, kind of during that boom period of the late 90s and the Monday Night Wars and when wrestling really started to build up to where it is now. I think that’s helped out a lot as well.

And I think that, you know, the cool thing about wrestling to me is it’s sort of like an entertainment boot camp. You’re on live TV every single week, so you’re working without a net, so you understand having to have your stuff down because there’s no second take. And you’re playing a character when you go up there on television on a weekly basis, so I think all those things kind of go hand in hand, and I think it’s really kind of changed the way the entertainment industry looks at wrestlers.

Wrestling seems like such a life-consuming career. When you realized you were going to leave, how did you find your path for life after wrestling?

Well, it’s just having the foresight. I think like any athlete, your shelf life is only so long and at a certain point you realize that what happens in the ring, it might be a big part of your life, but it’s just going to be that part of your life. You have to figure out what the next step is after that.

And I don’t know, I always felt like I was capable of doing other things. I wanted to try different aspects of things. I stepped away and Edge and I did a podcast for quite a bit of time and that was a lot of fun and a different challenge, and we wrote, produced, and starred in The Edge and Christian Show, two seasons of that on the WWE Network. I hosted a show on the History Channel called Knight Fight for a season; I had a couple parts in a couple TV series and things like that. I wanted to just not go back to one thing, but kind of be multifaceted, I guess you could say.

The goal, kind of the same as my mindset for wrestling, was work with people who are better than you. That’s how you get better. Wrestling’s an art form. It’s a way to create and be creative and be artistic in a sense and it’s kind of like a creative outlet. Trying to find that outlet that kind of fills that void when you step out of the ring, for every person, it’s different. And so yeah, I just wanted to try different things. Especially when, like you said, wrestling is consuming, and when you’re on the road 250, 300 days a year it’s hard to try different things, so when that travel schedule kind of goes away, it’s almost kind of hard to just get re-acclimated back into normal life, so you’re always trying to find things to keep yourself busy as well.

What’s the most difficult thing about getting re-acclimated to normal life?

For me, it was relaxing. Whenever I was home, it was always for two, maybe three days a week, and I’d sit down on the couch and be like, “Oh, I forgot I need to do this” and then get up and do it and then sit down. So I really had a hard time just sitting down and relaxing because that short amount of time I had at home, I was always trying to get things done or see people, just trying to make the most of every minute you were home, so it was kind of hard to just sit and relax. To get used to thinking “All that stuff will be here tomorrow. I don’t have to worry about it so much,” so I could actually put my suitcase away in the closet was strange.

And I know you had different types of injuries that led you to retire, but did Edge coming back to wrestling earlier this year make you think about coming back to wrestling at all?

No, I mean, not really. I was surprised when he told me that was what he was working towards and that’s what was going to happen. My injuries are much different than his. He had a neck injury and I had concussion issues that caused me to retire, so it’s two completely different injuries altogether. So I’m pretty content with what I accomplished in my career, and I’ve moved on to the next phase.

Is there anyone working in WWE who you would like to work with if you were still wrestling, who’s really stood out to you in that way?

Oh yeah. There’s always guys who you watch their matches and go “Man, I could have really torn it up with this person.” I think of a guy like Sami Zayn, who very much had a similar kind of style, or a guy like Kevin Owens, or even in NXT you see guys like Adam Cole or Tommaso Ciampa or Johnny Gargano, you know. Aleister Black is another guy. So yeah, there’s always guys that make me go, “Man, I could have a great match with that guy.”

I noticed you mentioned some of the smaller guys on the roster, and you did Light Heavyweight Championship stuff early in your career…

I won the Light Heavyweight Championship in my very first match in WWE, yeah.

It seems like WWE’s opinion on what is the right size for a top guy wrestler has changed over the past few decades. Do you know how did they become more amenable to smaller wrestlers than before?

I’m not sure, but honestly, I think that MMA might have had a lot to do with that; smaller weight class guys main-eventing, drawing big crowds. A guy like George St-Pierre or someone like that. I think that might have changed the mindset a little bit, but also, like anything, it evolves, and it becomes more of an athletic thing… I think more than size, it’s having the complete package, a personality that the audience can grab onto. If you think back, Roddy Piper wasn’t the biggest guy in the world, but he had a larger than life personality, which, you know, made him what he was, and I think when you can tie all those things together – but like I said, I think it’s just a sign of the times, that as we become better-conditioned athletes it becomes more of an athletic type presentation, I think.

Working with current WWE performers on The Edge and Christian Show, was there anyone who stood out to you as someone who would be great for an entertainment career outside of wrestling?

Yeah, I mean, so many. We just had such a fun time with it. We had a very light script, so we left a lot of room for ad-libbing and for all the Superstars to kind of make it their own and have some fun with it, and there was no pressure. You know, I think a guy like Bray Wyatt would be an obvious one with the work that he does now and the stuff on The Edge and Christian Show. The comedic stuff he did was just unbelievable. Off the top of my head, I think of a guy like him. I also think Renee Young, she was in one skit that we did, and she was hilarious as well. She’s another one that stands out to me.

I think I have one last Cagefighter question for you. It looks like the movie has an MMA vs. pro wrestling dynamic. What do you think would be the ideal relationship between the MMA and wrestling worlds?

Honestly, I don’t see it as wrestling vs. MMA. I think it’s an MMA movie and it’s just very relevant to what we’ve seen here happening the past few years with wrestlers kind of crossing over into MMA. You think of Brock Lesnar or CM Punk or more recently Jake Hager. I think it’s a very relevant subject at this point in time because it’s actually happening. Bobby Lashley crossed over to MMA too for a little bit…

I think that a part of this movie is that there’s always this feeling from MMA purists and MMA fighters that wrestling is fake and they’re not real athletes, and there’s that element to this movie. But what it really boils down to is, it’s entertainment. Whether it’s pro wrestling or whether it’s an MMA fight, it’s still entertainment. You have a live crowd there and audiences watching at home and they want to be entertained. It’s the same tree, different branches, is really what it is.

And you see MMA fighters borrowing from pro wrestling. You see them taking their personas and adding them to their pre-fight hype routines and their entrances and their promos, the way they talk smack to their opponents, those are all very much borrowed from pro wrestling. And wrestlers, on the other hand too, like you didn’t have tapping out in wrestling before MMA. So I think they borrow elements from each other understanding that at the end of the day, it’s entertainment.

Ellis shared her shimmering debut record Born Again just a few weeks ago. To celebrate the album’s release, Ellis returns with a pensive video accompanying her debut’s title track.

Directed by Justin Singer, the video follows the singer as she begins the journey of a long drive through some canopy-lined backroads. Ellis becomes contemplative on the drive as she frequently looks longingly to the open meadows that she passes.

Ahead of the video’s release, Ellis spoke with Uproxx about her album. The singer said that being raised in a conservative Christian family has influenced her songwriting:

“A huge part of my journey was leaving the church, and it was sort of devastating at the time. It was like a breakup or something. Everything I had ever known crumbled — I’m sure you can relate to that bit. Since then, I’ve just been trying to figure out who I am without it, and that’s been a whole other journey. Luckily, my parents are very open-minded and kind of going through the process alongside me. They like reading a lot and I think they started reading liberal Christian perspectives. We have amazing conversations and I feel really lucky because I know that’s not the case for a lot of people who go through leaving religion. Like you said, it’s not something you ever fully shake. Especially in that intense environment that we grew up in. I’ve seen things I can’t explain. I can’t really rationalize.”

Watch “Pringle Creek” above.

Born Again is out now via Fat Possum. Get it here.

We’ve been “locked down” for nearly two months, and people are are understandably tired of it. Millions of Americans are out of work, which means many have also lost their employer-provided health insurance. Our economy has slowed to a crawl, businesses are shuttered, and everyone is worried about the sustainability of it all.

“We can’t let the cure be worse than the disease,” people say. The president himself has repeated this line, the implication being that the impact of the lockdowns will be worse than the impact of the virus. Just today in his press briefing the president mentioned suicides and drug overdoses as tragic consequences of the lockdowns, stating that more Americans could die of those causes than the virus if we fall into an extended economic depression.

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Is that true, though? While no one can predict the future, death statistics and economic history in the U.S. do not support that idea at all. Not even close.

Let’s start with suicides. During the two worst years of the Great Depression, 20,000 Americans per year took their own lives. That’s tragic—but it’s nowhere near the number of Americans that have died of COVID-19 just in the past month.

Screenshot via Worldometers

Of course, the U.S. population has nearly tripled since the Great Depression, so we can’t compare that number directly. But even if we triple those Great Depression suicides to 60,000 a year to account for population change, that’s still not as many Americans as have died of COVID-19 in just the past 5 weeks.

Using a different calculation, there was a 25% increase in suicides during the Great Depression. With ~48,000 suicides in the U.S. in 2018, a 25% increase would also put the annual number at 60,000. No suicide number is a good number, of course. But by no math in the universe is an extra 12,000 deaths per year anywhere near the 80,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19 in the past two months.

Our COVID-19 deaths have averaged around 2000 per day for weeks while under lockdown. At no time in our history, through bad economic depressions and horrific world wars, has 2000 Americans died of suicide per day. Even if our suicide numbers tripled—a 12 times greater increase than during the worst years of the Great Depression—that would still be less than 400 people dying of suicide per day. A terrible number, but not nearly as terrible as 2000 per day.

What about drug overdoses? Well, that’s a little trickier to gauge. I’ve not seen any statistics about drug overdoses during the Great Depression, and we already had an opioid crisis flourishing before the pandemic hit. I imagine it’s probably harder for people to get the drugs to feed an addictions right now, so I’m not convinced that there would be an enormous increase in drug overdoses. But for the sake of argument, let’s say drug overdoses doubled. Highly unlikely, but let’s go with it.

In 2018, the last year for which we have statistics, 184 people per day died of drug overdose. If we double that, we’re talking around 370 people per day—still less than one-fourth the number of Americans dying of COVID-19 per day in the past month.

Even added together, those extreme suicide and drug overdose scenarios don’t add up to our current COVID-19 situation. And once again—those numbers are with lockdowns in place.

What about starvation, though? Surely millions would die of starvation or malnutrition in a tanked economy, right? Well, no—for a couple of reasons.

1) The reality is if anyone starves to death in the U.S., a country that has the ability to produce more than enough food to feed our population, that’s a mismanagement of resources, not an inevitable outcome of an economic crash.

2) Americans didn’t die of starvation in large numbers during the Great Depression.

In fact—are you ready for a rather mind-blowing statistic—the overall health of Americans didn’t decline during the Great Depression at all. It improved.

People lived years longer during the Depression. Life expectancy rose. Mortality rates dropped in every category (except suicide) across practically every demographic.

In fact, this pattern shows up consistently during economic booms and recessions. More people die—and die at younger ages—during economic booms. Vice versa during recessions. Counterintuitive? Yes. But that’s what the data shows. (Here’s the 2009 study that shows these trends during the Great Depression.)

We could debate the reasons for this, but it doesn’t really matter. The point is, if the “cure” is a lockdown that results in an economic depression and the “disease” is the virus spreading unchecked. we have no evidence that the cure is or could be worse than the disease, at least not in terms of death counts.

Now clearly, there are huge problems with a tanked economy. Mental health issues increase. Life is hard. People struggle and suffer and we certainly should not minimize that. BUT…

Mass death and mass illness also cause suffering and mental health issues, while also hurting the economy.

I’ve seen people say we open back up, shoot for herd immunity, and just accept the fact that people will die. But that notion completely ignores the economic impact of having a big chunk of the population too sick to work. As we hear more and more people describe their COVID-19 journeys, it’s becoming clear that even infected people who don’t have to be hospitalized can still be very ill for weeks.

Let’s do some quick herd immunity math. Reaching herd immunity means 70% of the population would have to get the virus. (Some say 60%, some say 80 or 90%—let’s go with the middle.) That’s 229 million people in the U.S. We don’t have a good enough hold on this virus to know how many people have already have it or how many would be asymptomatic, but a current guess for asymptomatic cases is 25% to 50%. Let’s go with the higher.

That would mean 114.5 million Americans being symptomatically ill. It’s impossible to know how severe each person’s case would be, but if even half of those with symptoms got flu-level ill, that would be 56 million people too sick to work for weeks. Some would have lingering health issues afterward to boot. What would that kind of mass illness to do to the economy?

And we haven’t even gotten to the people dying yet. We don’t have an accurate mortality rate, but let’s go with a conservative 0.5% death rate (meaning 99.5% of people who get it, survive it). We’re still talking 1,135,000 deaths if we shoot for 70% herd immunity at that death rate. That basically means we’d all know people who died of this disease.

I’m pretty sure mass grieving over a huge death toll in a short period of time isn’t great for the economy, either. (Perhaps instead of deciding how much death and illness we’re willing to tolerate, we could take this opportunity to fundamentally rethink how our economy works? Just a thought.)

Granted, all of these numbers are based on data that keeps changing as we learn more about the virus and its impact. We don’t know enough yet to say anything for sure. We don’t even know if people are truly immune yet. We do know the virus is real, and that it’s more contagious and more deadly than the flu. Everything else is a best guess.

Essentially, there are no good options before us at the moment that don’t involve great losses of one kind or another. But by no historical or statistical measure do we have evidence that the cure worse than the disease—at least with the data we have right now.

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Despite Florida being one of the quickest states to reopen during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, that process doesn’t seem to be moving fast enough for folks who are desperate to work up a sweat and get back to their gym routines. According to local Clearwater (FL.) NBC News affiliate WFLA, on Monday afternoon a small group of protestors (20-30 people in total) gathered outside of the Pinellas County Courthouse to protest the state’s phased reopening and call on gyms to reopen so employees could get back to work and customers could start getting fit with professional equipment again.

During the protest, several attendees began defiantly performing squats and push-ups on the courthouse steps, which hopefully made it clear that they didn’t need gyms to reopen at all and could just, you know, workout outside or in their homes. “See those pushups you’re already doing outside?” you can imagine public officials saying while rubbing their temples. “Keep doing them… outside!”

Florida is currently in phase one of its reopening process which notably doesn’t include gyms. When gyms do get the go-ahead to reopen, they’ll have to limit their capacity to 75% and will have to adopt new strict protocols to increase sanitation procedures and ensure social distancing. Considering that there was already a problem with people not wiping down their equipment in Pre-COVID-19 times, keeping things controlled and sanitary right now as gyms do reopen seems incredibly important.

As you’ve almost certainly heard by now, Becky Lynch revealed last night that she’s expecting a baby, and relinquished her WWE Raw Women’s Championship to Asuka, who won the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match that turns out to have been for Becky’s title all along. While the Raw segment was great, there obviously wasn’t much room to go into detail about Becky’s feelings or plans. It didn’t take long, however, for a lot more to come out.

Shortly after the segment ended on Raw, Becky tweeted gratefully about her feelings and her future:

She had also already given an interview to People.com, which went up almost immediately after word got out. As she explained there, the only question she had about being a mother for a long time was when it would be possible.

I’ve always, always wanted kids. I’m just so career-focused that it became one of those things that, when you’re chasing a dream for so long, I always wondered, “Am I going to get around to it? Is it going to happen for me?”

But once Seth came into the picture, things became clearer:

When we got together, things started to look a lot clearer and I knew he was the person that I wanted to have kids with — that this was going to happen and it was just a matter of when. Seth is one of the smartest people I know. He’s just got an insane work ethic, insane integrity and he is the most generous, kindhearted person. He’s very, very focused on what the right thing to do is and always looking to grow and correct himself and be better so he can be the best person for me, and now, the best father.

The first pregnancy test came up negative, but Becky knew better and tried again.

I took the first one wrong. Then I took a few more tests until I got a digital one that just said the word “Pregnant.” I was with Seth at the time and he just threw his hands up in the air, all excited!

And once she knew there was a baby on the way, her whole outlook had to change:

Of course, you start to become nervous, too, because you’ve lived your whole life as thinking for yourself and yourself alone. Now you have this whole other person that you have to look after and grow, and make sure that you’re doing everything that you possibly can to make sure that they are the healthiest and the safest that they can be. But we’re just so, so excited. Just so excited for how much love we’re going to give that little thing.

Beyond becoming a mother, Becky clearly doesn’t know what comes next. Will she return to the ring, or move on to an acting career? Only time will tell.

It’s just such a joyous time and then such a sad time too. I loved this and I’ve given my life to this. I’ve achieved everything that I want to achieve in this business. I don’t know what the next chapter is because I only know what it’s like to think for myself when I’m by myself. So I don’t know what it’ll look like and how my priorities shift and what I’m going to want in the future. So, everything’s open.

WWE won’t be the same without Becky Lynch, but knowing how happy she is with this turn of a events can only bring comfort to her fans. And whether it’s in WWE, on the big screen, or elsewhere, it seems safe to assume we’ll see her again down the road.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Three years have passed since Kehlani delivered her debut album, SweetSexySavage. Yet, before its arrival, she was already a celebrated artist thanks to her 2015 mixtape, You Should Be Here. The mixtape gave Kehlani her first Grammy nomination for Best Urban Contemporary album while also landing on several year-end lists. You Should Be Here also presented an emphasis on emotional presence, a theme that Kehlani would incorporate into her future work and overall artistic style.

A nine-track EP, dubbed While We Wait, and a number of quality singles made the three-year gap between her first and second albums far less grueling than the wait periods experienced with her R&B contemporaries. Returning with her sophomore effort, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, the album arrives after a rollercoaster pair of years that found her highs and lows pulled apart by Twitter know-it-alls. It Was Good Until It Wasn’t finds Kehlani detailing her own heart when it comes to love. At the album’s conclusion, she proves that her tendencies in love and a willingness to give her all are anything but flaws in her eyes.

Confident in her abilities to not only support but uplift and protect her partner, Kehlani looks to change her potential lover’s secluded and tunnel-visioned approach to the world on the Jhene Aiko-featuring “Change Your Life.” Agreeing with Aiko that the song’s subject is far from “incomplete,” Kehlani pushes forth with her persuasion. “But now you seein’ that it’s more than body, face, and smile / You see me, and you look beyond it, you feel inspired,” she sings. “I’m here to excel with you / Here to break bread with you.” This narrative continues on “Bad News” as Kehlani expresses distrust in the world — one that constantly aims to break her down — and its ability to protect her lover from any dangers. “Take your time away from the bullsh*t,” she begs. “Just be on some cool sh*t with me.”

The phrase “it takes two to tango” comes alive on It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. Kehlani wears her heart on her sleeve in every relationship and despite unfavored results, she proudly keeps her sleeve rolled up where her heart remains unmoved. Convinced the world is unable to handle a love like hers, she labels herself a “Serial Lover” on the Boi-1da-produced track and considers a break from chasing the romantic experience she longs for. Break or not, with pure intentions and a “heart full of gold,” changing her approach to love is not up for consideration. In an attempt to convince her partner that the streets aren’t as informed as they pretend to be, Kehlani places her best foot forward on “Everybody Business.” Self-aware of her best and true qualities in love, she reminds listeners and her latest lover that she’s never been a “half-assed lover” or one to dish her heart and body out to any and everyone. Regardless of the ending, Kehlani rests assured knowing she was never at fault, singing, “Can’t make me feel bad for nothin’ / Don’t make me feel bad for lovin’.”

Throughout the album, Kehlani proves that being a fearless lover is a consistent quality she brings time and time again. Placing it all on the table in the beginning, when it comes time to leave Kehlani admits to struggling to pick up her belongings and exit without delay. On “F&MU” and “Can You Blame Me” with Lucky Daye, she confesses to picking fights to ensure her ex-lover does not depart from her life for good. Enthralled by the newfound bedroom passion that follows moments of anger and frustration, Kehlani and her ex-lover keep each other at arm’s length as they are far from ready to let go of this fiery experience, one that she details on “Toxic.” Why? Well, as she says on “Can You Blame Me,” “Rather call you out than no one call my phone / Hold my grudge instead of havin’ none to hold.”

Kehlani’s It Was Good Until It Wasn’t reminds me of the growing love-themed YouTube series My Crynicles, which features the stories of Sierra McKie, a young college student, and her failed romantic relationships. No amount of hurt between Kehlani and Sierra seems to deter them from giving their heart along with the shirt off their back. While the pain from broken hearts will sting for a considerable amount of time, there’s one thing they will never experience: guilt for their unapologetic love as more times than not they are the party that is wronged.

The naivety Kehlani held on You Should Be Here and SweetSexySavage vanished from existence on It Was Good Until It Wasn’t. She no longer pouts at failing attempts at love instead, she leaves herself with two options: stay or leave. However, this isn’t the overarching theme on her sophomore album. Rather, Kehlani presents her latest love stories while justifying her reasons for giving her all from the get-go, time and time again. The think pieces and comments from the know-it-alls become null and void once the realization arrives that Kehlani left it all in the bedroom, a quality that deserves to be, if anything, celebrated and heralded.

It Was Good Until It Wasn’t is out now via TSNMI and Atlantic. Get it here.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s been five years since Tony Hawk’s name was put on a console video game. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 hit shelves in the fall of 2015, and almost immediately, fans were asking for a new game, as THPS 5 was panned from the jump. There’s no word on a brand new game coming any time soon, but in a bit of good news, the series will get back to basics a little later this year.

Word began circulating on Tuesday morning, Hawk’s 52nd birthday, that the first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games would be re-released later this year. Twitter user @Wario64 claimed to have gotten a text from Hawk that laid out the details of what’s going to happen.

Soon after, Hawk took to Twitter and confirmed the news, announcing that Tony Hawks’ Pro Skater 1 + 2 will come to major consoles on Sept. 4, 2020.

A trailer also dropped for the updated games, which showed off the updated look at some of the classic locations from the original games.

While the series did a ton of evolving over the years — as was the case with the more story-driven releases like the Underground series and Project 8 — the first two games were beloved by gamers and skaters alike. While the games won’t hit shelves for a few more months, this is still one heck of a way to celebrate Hawk’s birthday.

Nick Hakim aims to translate the yearning for connection to music. Continuing with his goal, the New York-based musician shares “Bouncing,” the second single to arrive ahead of his upcoming sophomore album, Will This Make Me Good.

The song’s accompanying video, directed by Nelson Nance, depicts a group of people expressing themselves through movement and connecting with each other through dance. About the video, Nance said: “The ‘Bouncing’ video asks the viewer to question our drive to find spectacles and how the pursuit of such can lead to becoming a spectacle. There is nothing inherently wrong with viewing or being a spectacle but I think it’s healthy to question if our energy is being put in the right place when interfacing with what draws our attention.”

The song itself boasts all-encompassing instrumentation that melts together with Hakim’s slow-burning cadence. In a statement, Hakim said he wrote the song during the coldest day of the year: “‘Bouncing’ is a sound bath where I wrote about one of the coldest days in New York I remember, while lying in my bed, restless by a radiator. It’s about feeling uneasy.” But while the song was written during a different time, its theme resonates with what the world is currently facing. “It’s such a dark climate these days,” Hakim said, “With what’s going on politically and how immigrants are being treated here in the US. The travel ban, the camps.”

Listen to “Bouncing” above.

Will This Make Me Good is out 5/15 via ATO Records. Pre-order it here.

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