“It’s more of an internal honesty..."
It’s often difficult to splice apart your senses, to distinguish – say – the smell of lemonade from its taste. Go on, just think about it – the two are intertwined, the fizz sparkling on your tongue and searing your nose.
So when we say that My Best Fiend’s debut album ‘In Ghostlike Fading’ has a visual quality, that their music simply suggests something for the eyes, this isn’t an observation we come to lightly. Named after a Werner Herzog film, the New York group boast a background in visual arts which has deeply influenced the way they approach making music. “There are many non-musical influences on the album – everything from visual arts, I work in an art gallery in New York. My background is in fine arts. I’ve had lots of inspiration from everything. Even artwork. Artists like Turner, or Whistler.. we use them as touching points” muses Fred Coldwell.
At one point studying sculpture, Coldwell is now focussing full time on music and gallery work. “I’ve kind of gotten away from making artwork now, just through not having the time. I’m focussing on music right now. Like everything else, I’m sure it will raise its head somewhere later in life” he sighs. “It’s really fun to talk about all these influences.. At the time of writing these songs I was reading a lot of Proust. Not that I would even dare make a correlation there! It does influence you. You make your way into the album in different ways”.
Almost from its title to the final note, ‘In Ghostlike Fading’ is an album informed by a sense of the spiritual. Tracks such as ‘Jesus Christ’ pay explicit homage to religious imagery, something Fred Coldwell absorbed from a young age. “I was raised Catholic, I went to Catholic school. Damian – the bass player – and I grew up in Catholic school together” he says. “A lot my take on it comes from my mum on particular, she was a nun for ten years before she became kind of disillusioned with the more organised aspects of the church and left. Then met my father.. She raised us up in the Catholic school system and the church, so that’s where I was introduced to music, at an early age was singing and learning how to play guitar”.
This isn’t to say, however, that My Best Fiend are a Christian group. The twin themes of sin and redemption that run through their debut album smother rock music, appearing in work from The Rolling Stones to Spiritualized and beyond. “I believe a lot of music is just intrinsically spiritual. Whether or not it’s in a direct context of what you call ‘worship music’ – I actually really like that term – you go to Baptist church.. I frequent Baptist churches in New York, in Harlem and Brooklyn, pretty regularly just to get that music, that spirit. There’s a true energy in the air. In our world, which is a much more secular world, we use that imagery in a different way, which is something I’m much more comfortable with. It’s something I think about. I guess talking about faith isn’t really a particularly hip thing to do these days, but you can’t really concern yourself with that” he says, before adding: “There are probably more Jesus references on ‘Exile On Main Street’ than there are on ‘In Ghostlike Fading’”.
At times redolent of Spiritualized, My Best Fiend’s narcotics soaked take on rock’s legacy is a Trans-Atlantic journey. Sure, there are plenty of nods towards the noise excess of the shoegaze scene – Swervedriver are a neat counterpoint – but ‘In Ghostlike Fading’ is still an album that feels American. “It’s funny. A lot of the bands that we get compared to, or say we are influenced from, have a decidedly English feel” the singer explains. “That may be true to an extent but I’m really proud of the fact that we’re making American music. It may be our take on something which has its roots in English towns but there’s always something of a cross-current there, musically and I think that’s something to be celebrated”.
But defining ‘American’ as a musical quantity proves to be as enduringly frustrating as ever. “It’s more of an internal honesty. It’s knowing that at the end of the day the music we’re making comes from inside, it comes from a culture that we understand. I think at the root of this music it has the whole cosmic American music feel – Gram Parsons is a big influence”.
‘In Ghostlike Fading’ is dominated by a lack of certainty, but a sense of doubt that manifests itself in various ways across the album. “The lack of certainty is present.. I don’t know I just feel more comfortable trying to explore these things without any answers. When it comes to matters of faith, my beliefs are very conflicted” he explains. “I don’t really trust people who claim to have answers. I’m endeared to people who have more questions. That lack of a finite destination is something to strive for. Even in that transience, a lot of the songs were coming from a place in my life which may have been a bit darker personally. Some were written in the wake of friend’s passing and I think those ghosts, and spirits of those no longer with us have made their way onto the album and that’s something I’m very proud of. I’ve always been uncomfortable with the fact that you’ll maybe talk about them for a month after they’re gone and then they rarely come up again. You shy away from using their name or even talking about their memory – it’s not a way to respect life, y’know?”
But art is a wonderful repository for memory, Clash suggests, it soaks up life and preserves it - in an emotional sense, if nothing else. “That’s true. Proust is an influence, more through that influence of habit on memory, the numbing effect that habits can have on memory” he continues. “Habits are such an artificial imposition into your life, they really take away from a lot of the beauty. Those habits – drug use, obviously there’s a narcotic vibe to the album and that’s got a lot to do with struggling with drug use, getting rid of those demons. They’re replaced by other things constantly”.
“I’m not necessarily condemning those things – everyone has a routine and you need it, really, to function. It’ll find its way into the most exciting life. Even being on tour, we’ve been on the road for three weeks now and there are certain things, tropes that you fall right into” he finishes. “I mean, the tour’s been going great but I never fail to be amazed by the human capacity to put the blinders on and not see the world around them. It’s a mixed bag”.
- - -
'In Ghostlike Fading' is out now.
So when we say that My Best Fiend’s debut album ‘In Ghostlike Fading’ has a visual quality, that their music simply suggests something for the eyes, this isn’t an observation we come to lightly. Named after a Werner Herzog film, the New York group boast a background in visual arts which has deeply influenced the way they approach making music. “There are many non-musical influences on the album – everything from visual arts, I work in an art gallery in New York. My background is in fine arts. I’ve had lots of inspiration from everything. Even artwork. Artists like Turner, or Whistler.. we use them as touching points” muses Fred Coldwell.
At one point studying sculpture, Coldwell is now focussing full time on music and gallery work. “I’ve kind of gotten away from making artwork now, just through not having the time. I’m focussing on music right now. Like everything else, I’m sure it will raise its head somewhere later in life” he sighs. “It’s really fun to talk about all these influences.. At the time of writing these songs I was reading a lot of Proust. Not that I would even dare make a correlation there! It does influence you. You make your way into the album in different ways”.
Almost from its title to the final note, ‘In Ghostlike Fading’ is an album informed by a sense of the spiritual. Tracks such as ‘Jesus Christ’ pay explicit homage to religious imagery, something Fred Coldwell absorbed from a young age. “I was raised Catholic, I went to Catholic school. Damian – the bass player – and I grew up in Catholic school together” he says. “A lot my take on it comes from my mum on particular, she was a nun for ten years before she became kind of disillusioned with the more organised aspects of the church and left. Then met my father.. She raised us up in the Catholic school system and the church, so that’s where I was introduced to music, at an early age was singing and learning how to play guitar”.
This isn’t to say, however, that My Best Fiend are a Christian group. The twin themes of sin and redemption that run through their debut album smother rock music, appearing in work from The Rolling Stones to Spiritualized and beyond. “I believe a lot of music is just intrinsically spiritual. Whether or not it’s in a direct context of what you call ‘worship music’ – I actually really like that term – you go to Baptist church.. I frequent Baptist churches in New York, in Harlem and Brooklyn, pretty regularly just to get that music, that spirit. There’s a true energy in the air. In our world, which is a much more secular world, we use that imagery in a different way, which is something I’m much more comfortable with. It’s something I think about. I guess talking about faith isn’t really a particularly hip thing to do these days, but you can’t really concern yourself with that” he says, before adding: “There are probably more Jesus references on ‘Exile On Main Street’ than there are on ‘In Ghostlike Fading’”.
At times redolent of Spiritualized, My Best Fiend’s narcotics soaked take on rock’s legacy is a Trans-Atlantic journey. Sure, there are plenty of nods towards the noise excess of the shoegaze scene – Swervedriver are a neat counterpoint – but ‘In Ghostlike Fading’ is still an album that feels American. “It’s funny. A lot of the bands that we get compared to, or say we are influenced from, have a decidedly English feel” the singer explains. “That may be true to an extent but I’m really proud of the fact that we’re making American music. It may be our take on something which has its roots in English towns but there’s always something of a cross-current there, musically and I think that’s something to be celebrated”.
But defining ‘American’ as a musical quantity proves to be as enduringly frustrating as ever. “It’s more of an internal honesty. It’s knowing that at the end of the day the music we’re making comes from inside, it comes from a culture that we understand. I think at the root of this music it has the whole cosmic American music feel – Gram Parsons is a big influence”.
‘In Ghostlike Fading’ is dominated by a lack of certainty, but a sense of doubt that manifests itself in various ways across the album. “The lack of certainty is present.. I don’t know I just feel more comfortable trying to explore these things without any answers. When it comes to matters of faith, my beliefs are very conflicted” he explains. “I don’t really trust people who claim to have answers. I’m endeared to people who have more questions. That lack of a finite destination is something to strive for. Even in that transience, a lot of the songs were coming from a place in my life which may have been a bit darker personally. Some were written in the wake of friend’s passing and I think those ghosts, and spirits of those no longer with us have made their way onto the album and that’s something I’m very proud of. I’ve always been uncomfortable with the fact that you’ll maybe talk about them for a month after they’re gone and then they rarely come up again. You shy away from using their name or even talking about their memory – it’s not a way to respect life, y’know?”
But art is a wonderful repository for memory, Clash suggests, it soaks up life and preserves it - in an emotional sense, if nothing else. “That’s true. Proust is an influence, more through that influence of habit on memory, the numbing effect that habits can have on memory” he continues. “Habits are such an artificial imposition into your life, they really take away from a lot of the beauty. Those habits – drug use, obviously there’s a narcotic vibe to the album and that’s got a lot to do with struggling with drug use, getting rid of those demons. They’re replaced by other things constantly”.
“I’m not necessarily condemning those things – everyone has a routine and you need it, really, to function. It’ll find its way into the most exciting life. Even being on tour, we’ve been on the road for three weeks now and there are certain things, tropes that you fall right into” he finishes. “I mean, the tour’s been going great but I never fail to be amazed by the human capacity to put the blinders on and not see the world around them. It’s a mixed bag”.
- - -
'In Ghostlike Fading' is out now.
