ACTORS interview: ‘There is no permanence, there is no forever’

“Our Love Will Live Forever” had its title before the event that made those words much harder to take literally. Jason Corbett took the phrase from his grandparents’ tombstone; only later, during the writing and recording of the album, a serious cardiac emergency forced him to consider whether he would finish the record at all, or return to the stage. His answer in this interview is strikingly unsentimental: “There is no permanence, there is no forever.”

That does not negate the title so much as change the problem underneath it. “Our Love Will Live Forever”, ACTORS‘ third full-length album, due 4 September 2026 through Artoffact Records, becomes less about permanence as a promise than about what can remain meaningful once permanence itself is no longer credible. The new material emerged through “CTRL”, “Left On Read” and “Youth”, while Corbett’s enforced interruption gave the record a context he could not have planned when he began it.

What is equally interesting, however, is how little Corbett wants to intellectualise his own process after the fact. Again and again, questions about control, rhythmic contradiction, genre or emotional design lead him back to instinct: the beat comes first, a song is left alone until it can be heard afresh, and technical decisions survive only if they produce an emotional reaction. Shannon Hemmett, meanwhile, gives the album’s central idea a visual counterpart through a star adapted from an engraving on medieval armour. The conversation moves between mortality and process, instant communication and old anxieties, authorship inside a four-person band, and what comes after the European tour.

Karo: “Our Love Will Live Forever” existed before the album acquired its most difficult context: the words come from your grandparents’ tombstone, and you had already chosen them before the cardiac emergency interrupted the record. I find that chronology fascinating because the sentence remained exactly the same while your relationship to it changed completely. When you returned to the album, did you feel that you were now making a different record underneath the same title?

Jason: Yes and no. There were definitely challenges to this album that I had not experienced before. When you are forced to take a break like that, you can’t help but reevaluate your motivation and intentions. At the end of the day, there is no permanence, there is no forever. I’m lucky to be here making music.

Karo: The cardiac emergency was serious enough that you were asking yourself whether you would finish the album or ever return to the stage. I’m less interested in the shock itself than in what happened when you went back to work. Did it change your threshold for what was worth keeping? Did anything suddenly feel too clever, too guarded or simply too unimportant to spend time on once not finishing the record had become a real possibility?

Jason: It took some time for me to recalibrate and get my direction again. If anything, the whole situation gave me perspective. You can’t take yourself so seriously that it becomes stifling. The songs come from somewhere inside and outside of myself. I chose to continue trusting in my process.

Karo: The album first became visible through “CTRL”, “Left On Read” and “Youth”, and to me they initially occupy quite different emotional spaces: compulsion and control, digitally prolonged rejection, then memory and the passage of time. Once they became parts of the same album, did you discover a connection between them that perhaps was not obvious while you were writing the individual songs?

Jason: The songs naturally connect. Even the previous two albums were written over lengthy periods of time but were still cohesive. The commonality is that it’s all through my lens. That ties the music together.

Karo: ACTORS are constantly described as “modern post-punk”, but I sometimes think “modern” has become one of those adjectives that explains almost nothing, particularly now that post-punk itself is such an established musical language. You’ve also said that you think less and less about genre. So what actually makes ACTORS contemporary to you now? Is it production, emotional language, technology, or simply the freedom not to treat the past as a set of instructions?

Jason: Genre has become even more prevalent with the advent of streaming. We use modern post-punk as a recognisable jumping-off point for newcomers to our music. I think we operate artistically in the spirit of the first generation of post-punk, but we definitely have one foot firmly planted in the now.

I don’t think about what other artists are doing. I’m interested in getting to the core of what we do.

Karo: By now ACTORS have a sound that can be recognised very quickly, which is a huge achievement but potentially a dangerous one. Jason, you also produce the band yourself at Jacknife Sound, so you have an unusual degree of control over that identity. Have you ever made something technically good and unmistakably ACTORS and then deliberately damaged, changed or abandoned it because it felt too much like something you already knew how to do?

Jason: All I think about is whether I like what I’m hearing. Is it eliciting an emotional reaction when I play it back?

I will start work on a song, then leave it alone for a month, so when I come back to it, it tricks my mind into feeling like I’m collaborating with someone else. Then I get another level of creativity from the process.

Karo: “Left On Read” takes something almost absurdly ordinary in contemporary communication and makes it psychologically cruel: silence is no longer simply absence, because you can see that your message has been received. I find that tiny technological change quite brutal. Has technology actually changed the experience of rejection and abandonment, or has it simply engineered a much more precise interface for anxieties people have always had?

Jason: It’s the same feelings in a world that’s instant. The fact that we have access to each other 24/7 only expedites the emotional transaction.

Karo: “CTRL” is intensely physical, with that very precise four-on-the-floor propulsion, while emotionally the song revolves around the absence of control. I like that contradiction because the body is being given something extremely disciplined to follow while everything underneath it is becoming less stable. How consciously do you use rhythm that way? Can musical control create a safe space in which emotional control can collapse?

Jason: I couldn’t tell you. I’ve never analysed the elements of a song in that way. When I’m writing a song, the beat and vibe come first. Then I react to that and start writing the lyrics. It’s a natural process.

Karo: One thing I keep noticing with ACTORS is how attractive the music can be while dealing with material that is not particularly comfortable. Melody, rhythm and production seduce first; sometimes the darker psychological content registers afterwards. But on this album there also seems to be a stronger movement back towards connection and life rather than simply dwelling inside damage. Has it become more difficult to write hope convincingly than darkness without making it sentimental?

Jason: I hate to sound cliché, but the songs really do kind of arrive on their own schedule and with their own vibe. Once the spark hits, I do my best to craft it.

You can say whatever you like. If that’s your honest expression, it should land.

Karo: Shannon, you created the visual design for “Our Love Will Live Forever”. Here you were dealing with a title that already had an intensely personal history before you began giving the album a visual identity. What did you want the artwork to understand about the record without literally illustrating mortality, memory or love? And because the artwork comes from inside ACTORS, can you allow the visual language to disagree with the music rather than simply explain it?

Shannon: The star design on the cover comes from an engraving on a medieval breastplate. To me, it was an ideal symbol to pair with the themes of the record. As the light from the star reaches into the dark, love becomes a form of armour and protection too.

Karo: ACTORS have also allowed recent songs to be substantially reconstructed through remixes, from Dave Clarke‘s “In Real Life” to “Dead Inside (Crackmix)”. I always find the interesting remixes are the ones that stop behaving respectfully towards the original. When somebody else takes your song apart, how much do you actually want them to preserve? Is a misunderstanding sometimes more revealing than a faithful interpretation?

Jason: I just love to hear what other artists do with a song. It’s fun to hear what their interpretations are. I’m not precious about it. Once the stems are out the door, they’re free to go wild.

Karo: ACTORS originate with your songwriting and production, Jason, but live the project is unmistakably four people. Shannon, Kendall and Adam are not simply reproducing a finished studio object. After all these years of playing together, where does authorship begin to become collective? Can the live band teach you that something you considered fundamental to a recording actually wasn’t fundamental at all?

Jason: Each member brings context and mood to the music. We exist on recordings and live onstage. Both are a different experience and important. The band members are an integral part of what the band and songs are.

Karo: We’ll meet at NCN in Deutzen on September 5, almost at the beginning of the “Our Love Will Live Forever” tour. From there you have an extensive run through Germany, Rotterdam, Switzerland, Spain and Paris, followed by the UK shows with She Past Away and then Canadian dates in October. What happens after this announced run? Are you already discussing more European shows or festivals for 2027, and are there places where you particularly want to take this album that are not on the current schedule?

Jason: After this fall tour, we have a bunch of US dates we will be announcing. That’s all I’m allowed to say.

About ACTORS

ACTORS are a Vancouver-based quartet consisting of Jason Corbett on vocals and guitar, Shannon Hemmett on synthesizers and vocals, Kendall Wooding on bass and vocals, and Adam Fink on drums. Corbett also produces the band’s music at his Vancouver studio, Jacknife Sound. The current line-up is confirmed by both the band and Artoffact Records.

The band’s first full-length album, “It Will Come to You”, was released through Artoffact Records in 2018. Its combination of guitar, synthesizers, bass-driven momentum and tightly controlled production established the sound with which ACTORS became internationally associated. The follow-up, “Acts of Worship”, arrived on 1 October 2021, again produced by Corbett at Jacknife Sound. That album also marked Kendall Wooding’s first ACTORS album on bass.

“Reanimated” followed in 2022, collecting earlier B-sides and related material, while the next period increasingly unfolded through individual releases. “In Real Life”, “Dead Inside” and “Object of Desire” appeared in 2024, followed by the “Crazy Lovers” remix collection in 2025. In 2026 ACTORS opened the new album cycle with “CTRL” in February, “Left On Read” in April and “Youth” in July. Their official Bandcamp currently lists those releases alongside the band’s earlier catalogue. Hemmett also records as Leathers, whose debut album “Ultraviolet” appeared in 2024.

“Our Love Will Live Forever” is scheduled for 4 September 2026 through Artoffact Records. According to the album announcement supplied by the band, it is ACTORS’ third full-length studio album and was produced by Jason Corbett at Jacknife Sound. Shannon Hemmett created the album’s visual design.

The album arrives simultaneously with a major touring period. The European run begins in Berlin on 4 September, followed the next day by NCN Festival in Deutzen. ACTORS then continue through Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and France before three UK dates with She Past Away in Manchester, Bristol and London. Canadian shows follow in October in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

And, as Corbett reveals here, that will not be the end of the 2026 live cycle: a further run of US dates is already planned, although the band is not yet ready to announce the details.