Post FIDLAR almost for free | Track by track

Track by Track is a new recurring music feature that asks an artist to break down each song from their last disc, one by one.

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Six years ago this week, FIDLAR boys burst onto the national scene like a well-watered beer can. During their eponymous debut, Zac Carper, Brandon Schwartzel and the Kuehn brothers (Elvis and Max) delivered a 21st-century punk skate opus, an opus filled with inexpensive grbad, cheaper beer and rabies. VHS quality that accompanies young, bored and a little retro. It was punk for our time, and that was it.

Now, the men of FIDLAR are a little older, a little more sober and even more conflicting about the world around them. Listening to the songs of Almost free, you may be surprised by the subject (some songs deal with gentrification, political division and even the traps of texting) and arrangements (these horns are new, for example), but not by sneaky humor and shaved. energy with which it is chosen. In short, FIDLAR still produces punk for our time. It's not their fault if our time is a little dragging.

Hear Almost free in full below:

For the latest Track By Track, I invited Zac and Elvis to freely discuss their new disc and the stories that surround it. Above, listen to our full audio interview to hear their thoughts on soaring rents in Los Angeles, the magic touch of producer Ricky Reed and the new definition of the word "nuclear" without disaster. A condensed preview, based on text, is presented below.

"Get up from my rock":

Zac Carper: I grew up in Hawaii. [“Get Off My Rock”] began as a song about Los Angeles. It was supposed to be "Get Down My Block." In the neighborhood in which I moved in, there was just a lot of negative feedback for the people who were settling in there, you see? Gentrification and all that. When I returned to Hawaii, I saw it on a different scale. I had not been back to Hawaii for three years and I went back and I just saw my neighborhood change completely.

It was basically one of the first ideas written for this recording. This song was an experience that basically resembled how to get away with making a song like that without punk drums or anything. C & # 39; was […] Looks more like a Beastie Boys vibe than anything else. We just used a bunch of drum machines and stuff like that instead of a bunch of guitar pedals, guitars and distortion. It was a strange experience that had just taken on a life of its own, I suppose.

Elvis Kuehn: We also picked up the songs of the Beastie Boys, and I'm pretty sure we all grew up listening to the Beastie Boys, so it's not too far from our wheelhouse.

FIDLAR – Almost free

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FIDLAR – Almost free

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"You can not see":

ZC: We both sang differently on [“Can’t You See”]. I just reported it the other day. We both sing differently from what we usually do.

EK: Right. That's true.

ZC: Elvis is super melodic in verses and chrouses are lower. It is a contrast or a strange difference. We never sang like that before, so it was pretty exciting. At first it was uncomfortable, then I felt comfortable, and playing the song live is so much fun. It's so different from our business. It's so much fun to do.

EK: Yeah, it's good to break like this. It's nice to have more groove. I like what Ricky did and what the mixer did. Manny Marroquin mixed the record.

ZC: Yes, he killed him.

EK: He is an amazing mixer. There are different vocal sounds for our two voices and it really works with different characters. It gives him variety, but it works together.

"By myself":

EK: I think we always had to take dark subjects and make the music happy. I've always liked this kind of juxtaposition.

ZC: It's a musical speed ball.

"Flake":

EK: [“Flake”] certainly derives from an experience with someone in my life, but it has become a little more general, I think. Especially to have friends in Los Angeles, you know, people with whom it is difficult to make solid projects. It has become much easier to blow people nowadays. With phones, you can hide somehow behind the SMS. [“Flake”] was just an honest reaction to that.

"Alcohol":

EK: I went through a few visits without drinking. You have just realized that you have been drunk enough times to know that at some point, you do not miss anything. You did that, you know what that implies. It's fun, it can be a good experience, but when you have it all for a year or two … It's good to choose the moment to drink. Especially on tour, it's still difficult. I guess we have the choice to have alcohol in the locker room, but you do a show and there is always alcohol. You can not escape it.

ZC: I think it's the only job in the world that looks like "Ok! Here is the alcohol! Now, go do your job. "Like, there is no other job in the world that does that. I do not know any other work. Do not act, nothing. It's literally, "Here's a bunch of alcohol. You have like 4 hours until you play. So have fun! "

"Almost free":

ZC: We continued to play [the demo for “Almost Free”] in the studio on the speakers, and kept trying to find lyrics [or] a chorus or a hook. We did this for a few hours and it really did not work. Then we left the track for a moment. We never thought it would be on the album. We were like, "Oh yeah, this track is cool. Maybe we'll do something later. Next record. "

And then, at the last minute, Ricky was like, "Let's finish this song, put it on the record and ask these horn players to play the parts for horn." He had the idea of ​​keeping it instrumental. I would not even have thought of that, so it was pretty cool that he suggested. It was the last thing we recorded. It happened very quickly.

"Probable scam":

ZC: I guess the inspiration for [the horn parts] When I was doing the "Almost Free" and "Scam Likely" demos, I was listening to Stones songs. Exile on the main street, and I think I really liked the use of corns on this album. In the original demo, it was at the bottom of the horns at noon. I've always loved horns in rock and roll. It's something I've always wanted to try. For "Scam", I had these roles, and Ricky sort of helped to develop them and he called guys to play and play on. They were just very good session players who improvised too. On "Scam", there are horn riffs and things like that.

"Called you twice":

EK: Well, Kristine and I have been friends for a minute. She hit me. I had just had a terrible break and she was saying, "Hey, let's write a song." And I thought, "Ah, I can not write for now. I have a broken heart. And she was like, "Perfect. Let's write a song. So she came into my studio and we were writing, and nothing came out, then we went to the side and we got drunk and we came back and it was literally three notes, and then we wrote that melody. . It was really weird how it went.

"Nuke"

ZC: [“Nuke”] is on the guy after the show or at a party that comes, like, nibbles the ear. Or, they are all stunned and trying to show you their music on their phone, or something like that. You know what I mean? There is just a bunch of – like, that's what we call a nuclear weapon. You know, it's like you can go. Sometimes the backstage is so destroyed, it's like, "Oh, do not go, it's radioactive." We say that to each other. Like, "Oh, man, it's just Chernobyl, like, do not do it." […] In addition, you can say in front of people, and they do not know what you are talking about. If a guy yelped at you and turned to Elvis, I thought, "Dude, nuke" -[that dude] would have no idea what I'm talking about, but Elvis would do it. You know?

"Too real":

ZC: The world is screwed right now. I mean, it's been screwed up, but for the moment, like-all the things pretty bading.

"Kick":

ZC: The track sounds just like a drug. You know? So for me it was like, "Oh, it looks like a drug, we should probably talk about drugs." But it's like, subconsciously. We did not know it. There is just this weird atmosphere.

EK: And then, the verse came from different things I had with a friend of mine, like seeing him in a bar when he was not doing well, and a bit surprising in Los Angeles. I've just got kind of this verse […] that I invented when I drove. Not even for, like, any music or anything. Sometimes that's how things happen, you know? Like, they just come into your head and then you sort of have them for a while. Once Zach sent me the piece, I just realized: "Oh, it works totally for that."

"Thought, Mouth."

ZC: Fucking SMS! Fucking SMS! […] I … just released them. Take them. Remove the SMS. That's all!

"The good times are over":

EK: This song is totally born in the studio. You know, I think Zach had the melody in his head, and then introduced it and we started playing –

ZC: Literally on the way to the studio. I was starting to get frustrated by someone and a few blocks from the studio, I only had this first melody and this first line. And then I brought it and we all worked together.

EK: It was the most collaborative song of the recording, I would say, because we just wrote it in the studio, with Ricky as well. So, in this way, it makes sense to get closer, because we had the impression that it was the one we all really participated in.