They say absence only makes the heart grow fonder, which is case in point if Amelia Murray as Fazerdaze’s first release in five years is anything to go by. Returning today with the agile and invigorated ‘Come Apart’, the producer/singer/songwriter/
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Amelia comments about the single, “‘Come Apart‘ is an angsty surrender to growing apart from people in my life. I wrote this at a time when I wasn’t accepting that some of my closest relationships were just not working. I was contorting myself to fit others, doing everything I could to keep the relationships going instead of allowing them to be what they were; ending, done. I believe this song was a way for my subconscious to shout at me to surrender and to allow things in my life to come to an end.”
With her debut LP, 2017’s Morningside, things for Fazerdaze were objectively hitting their stride. Then residing in Auckland, an early determination to graft hard and put herself in the right places led to her signing with the legendary New Zealand label Flying Nun. The album picked up rave reviews from worldwide publications, hailed as “effortless pop songs that are far less effortless than people think” by Pitchfork and “a fuzzed-up, Pixies-worthy melodic high” by Mojo. Taking Fazerdaze out of her native NZ and onto the wider musical stage, it was, from the outside, everything Amelia had been reaching for, for years.
Which all begs the question of why Fazerdaze has been almost entirely absent since?
Finishing up touring for the record at the end of 2018, Amelia experienced a deep sense of burnout and, more than that, the feeling of the “wheels starting to come off” in her general life. A combination of unhealthy personal relationships, feelings of unworthiness regarding her burgeoning success and general mental exhaustion soon began to manifest in her musical output. At a time when she should have been deep in the throes of writing her follow-up project, Fazerdaze found she couldn’t finish a single song.
“I lost a lot of confidence during that time, and I gradually just eroded. Eventually, I had to surrender to the truth of the toxic situations I was finding myself in, both professionally and personally,” she explains. “No longer being stoic and strong was the best thing I ever did for myself. Giving up on the people and things that weren’t working in my life was this big emotional release. I could finally put down this weight I was carrying. Ever since then, things have been flowing in my life again,” she continues, “I can hear my intuition, write songs and be creative again; I signed a record deal, I moved into my own place. It’s like the floodgates opened for good stuff coming back into my life.”
And so, with its ’90s-indebted fuzzy guitars, comes the first single from this new and vital phase of Fazerdaze’s journey. Embracing the cathartic power of plugging in her guitar and harking back to her love of bands like Blur and Nirvana, ‘Come Apart’ marks an important reintroduction to an essential artist of our times.
‘Come Apart’ – Out Now On section1
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