Fazerdaze „Soft Power”

Fazerdaze
„Soft Power”
(Section 1/Partisan/Integral)

Seltsames Gefühl, wenn du jemanden zufällig am anderen Ende der Welt triffst und dann später journalistisch besprechen musst beziehungsweise möchtest. Ich bespreche das tolle zweite Album von Amelia Murray aus Neuseeland (Aotearoa) in drei Akten: 1. Review, 2. Interview und 3. ein mir wichtiges Selbstzitat aus meiner Besprechung ihres ersten Albums, 2017 erschienen in der mittlerweile eingestellten Zeitschrift Spex; weil ich das heute genauso und doch anders schreiben würde.

Akt 1:„Soft Power”

„So Easy“ klingt eher harmonisch uneasy. Murrays erste EP und dann das Album „Morningside“ auf Herbert Grönemeyers verdienstvollem Label Grönland wirkten tatsächlich sehr Kiwi-Pop-beschwingt, irgendwie schwebend, wie viele der Bands erster Generation (siehe Akt 3). „Soft Parade“ wirkt abgeklärter, manchmal beinahe etwas sehr ernst und kopflastig. Das besonders im positiven Sinne Aufregende ist gleichwohl genau dieser erste Eindruck, der, je länger und genauer ich zuhöre, sich verdreht. „Morningside“ war offenbar gar nicht so fluffig und locker mit dem Skateboard fahrend, wie es schien. Und „Soft Parade“ ist eigentlich wirklich ein feierlicher Umzug aus sehr vielen schwierigen Begebenheiten (siehe Akt 2) – inklusiver sehr viel mehr (nicht nur synthetischer) Instrumente. Selbst eingespielt zu Hause. Draußen mit Band. Erstaunlich bleibt, dass Amelias Bühnenperson, Character (der Lyrics, hier auch der Musikclips u.a. von Francis Carter) und ihre Privatperson, zumindest in dem, was wir hier herauslesen können und was ja dann wieder eigentlich zur Bühnenperson gehört, ineinander fallen. Nicht untypisch für Indie, Dreampop und Shoegaze. Wobei letztere beiden Genres dabei sehr gerne etwa Nebelschwaden nicht nur auf der Bühne, sondern auch um das Privatleben erzeugen. Fazerdaze geht da einen etwas anderen, straighten Weg: „Soft Power“ scheint schon eine Art Therapie, Katharsis, ein Trost sein zu sollen, der Narben zwar nicht exhibitionistisch zeigt, aber auch nicht verschweigt. Und sich dabei öffnet für Momente von Disco, Soul, Indietronics, Synthie oder sogar Cocktail Pop („A Thousand Years“), sich befreit aus den Zwängen der puren Indiehaftigkeit. Offensichtlich spielen hier interkontinentale Erfahrungen eine große Rolle (u.a. L.A.), es geht viel ums Fahren, Vorankommen, Befreien etc. Ich flog damals auch nach Neuseeland und war einfach nur emotionalisiert von diesem Land. Mein Leben hat sich dadurch schon auch ein bisschen verändert, obwohl ich Aotearoa ja aus dem Kiwi Pop meinte, schon seit den Achtzigern zumindest ein bisschen zu kennen. Lernen wir Fazerdaze und ihr mittlerweile eher ‚kind of‘ Bombastic Bedroom Producing also ein Stückweit besser kennen:

Fazerdaze (Photo: Frances Carter)

Akt 2: Interview – “When I finally stopped trying to be nice, I felt this liberation in watching my life unravel”

Is Fazerdaze a band or your solo project or both?

Amelia: It’s a solo project in the studio, but I often play with a band of friends for the live show. A similar set-up to what Kevin Parker does with Tame Impala.

What exactly was the effect of covid on Fazerdaze and you?

Amelia: The pandemic definitely hit me hard, but it also became the catalyst for the “Break!”-EP and the “Break!” era. For the first time, I adopted this new attitude of “f*ck everything. Nothing matters. I give up.” Until then, I had spent a lot of my life and the pandemic in survival mode trying to appease people around me. When I finally stopped trying to be nice, I felt this liberation in watching my life unravel. I stopped overthinking every creative decision and just started making music for the hell of it. It was scary though, to leave my relationship and living situation during Covid, but it was one of the best things I ever did for myself. I was very lucky it worked out because it has allowed this new chapter of Fazerdaze to unfold.

Listening to “Soft Power” reminds me more of enjoying The Chills’ “Soft Bomb”, the 90s band Lush (4AD) or Epic Soundtracks’ indie soul (link see below, Ex-Swell Maps, These Immortal Souls, Red Krayola, Jacobites) than of Loop, My Bloody Valentine or Spacemen 3 (much darker). What exactly is soft power from your point of view? Your music sounds like comfort, is this a crucial kind of soft power? Are these signs of an awareness of your versions of yourself or your mobile, ever changing self?

Amelia: Thank you, I love those references. I do think “Soft Power” might be the most ‘pop’ I’ll ever go as an artist. This record came from a time in my life when I felt so desperate and lost, and very disconnected from my inner power and identity. Making this record became a way for me to feel larger than the circumstances of my life. A lot of the hope and poppiness in the music actually came from a place of feeling so sad, and tiny in my relationship and career, I just felt so unworthy and I think I made this kind of record to compensate for those feelings.

But I also think “Soft Power” is about the type of quiet strength that comes from vulnerability, intuition, and softness. It’s about making an impact without using force and envisioning a feminine idea of power. I love that you hear comfort in the music because that’s what the record was for me while I was making it, it was my source of comfort through a dark time. I hope it can be music people can lean on if they’re going through something.

To me personally the new album sounds, on the one hand, much more fluffy and chilled, on the other hand, more serious, sovereign and clarified (“Cherry Pie”), if you know what I mean? More offensive and spending comfort than escapism or shoegazing. Can you share this impression? Where does this come from?

Amelia: Yeah, I’d agree – this record is more bold and confrontational than it is laid-back. I think it stems from feeling so invisible in my personal life at the time; I just wanted to be seen and heard. Making this record sound punchy, poppy, and bold was my way of screaming. I was either too afraid to be confrontational or just worn down into avoiding it, so this album became an outlet for those feelings.

“Lucky Girl” vs. “City Glitter”: I can hear some change from more bouncing around (even with parts of irony) to a melancholic coolness (“City Glitter”, “Bigger”)? What does age, wisdom and experience (and breaks, new beginnings, crises) mean to you? Reminds me very much of one of my most beloved (unfortunately no longer living) musicians: Epic Soundtracks – “Sleepy City”.

Amelia: Wow listening to this song in the tour van now, love it.
I’m really enjoying getting older, seeing my face change, it feels like a small protest every time I look in the mirror and tell myself I’m enough! When I was younger, I was so afraid of things not working out. I think that’s what you can hear in “Lucky Girl”, there is so much more panic and anxiety in there, whereas “City Glitter” has more feelings of acceptance and release. To me, that song is the exhale at the end of the record. Now that I’m 31 and have experienced more love and loss, success and failure, I feel a deeper groundedness and perspective that I think only time and age could give to me.

Can you see special elements of female gazes, sounds and attitudes within Fazerdaze (if you do so, I have the impression that there seem to be some, like soft power could mean female power, which seems to be much stronger than hard power)?

Amelia: The “Soft Power” record is the first time I’ve really embraced my femininity as an artist, and the first time I have started to explore what identifying as a woman means to me; ie. consciously viewing the world through my own gaze, rather than the male gaze that shaped so much of my thinking growing up. Starting my own label, “Buttrfly Records”, was a deliberate move to create a space in the music industry that felt soft and feminine – a response to the “cool” and often hyper-masculine labels and industry spaces that I felt had overlooked or ignored Fazerdaze. I’m doing my best now to not apologise for being a woman. Re-building Fazerdaze and releasing “Soft Power” has become my own declaration of strength and self-assurance. It’s my first step in no longer allowing external forces to define my worth as a human or an artist. “Soft Power” is all about creating quiet, undeniable strength in oneself, it’s power without force.

Akt 3: Im Sommer 2017 schrieb ich in der damals noch existierenden Musikzeitschrift „Spex“ zum ersten Fazerdaze-Album:

„Da kann einem schon mal schwindelig werden. Man latscht am von uns aus gesehen anderen Ende der Welt in Auckland/Aotearoa in den Plattenladen Flying Out des wichtigen Labels Flying Nun, leicht aufgeregt, mehr als zwanzig Jahre zu spät zu sein, mit einem richtig ordentlichen Jetlag versehen, und hinter dem Tresen lächelt einen Amelia Murray an, mit einem Album der beinahe vergessenen Feedback- und Shoegaze-Briten von Loop in den Händen. Seltsame Überkreuzungen. Kognition kommt kaum hinterher. Kommunikation legt einfach los. Labert was von Neuseeland, alten Helden wie The Chills, The Clean, The Bats oder Tall Dwarfs. Schleim. Irgendwie dann doch Indie-Esperanto. Fühlt sich alt(klug), der Dame dann noch Spacemen 3 vorstellen zu müssen, die immer die interessanteren Loop waren. Und bekommt nach dem Großeinkauf nicht nur alle möglichen Reise-, Locations- und Musiktipps, sondern auch eine kleine E.P. von ihrer Band Fazerdaze geschenkt.“

Immer noch danke!