Fawns gets serious for summer with “Unsafe”

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While all of the drama happening last year, including riots, elections, protests and Covid -19, has made a lot of people feel unsafe,  it inspired local rock band Fawns to focus on those feelings for their new three song EP “Unsafe” which is officially released, May 14 on all platforms.  Click Here to Hear Fawns.
 The band, including lead singer/ guitarist Mercedes Fawns, guitarist Richard Charlton, keyboardist Cliff Westcott, drummer Chris Morden and bassist Gabi DeLuna wrote most of the new music in 2019, but recorded it last August at the Farm, outside of Lethbridge with Matthew Rederberg in the short pocket between Covid health restrictions with Matthew Rederburg.
“We were working on nine or 10 songs, but these three were the most ready at the time,” said keyboardist Cliff Westcott over Zoom with most of his band mates.
“They’re also the songs we felt worked best together,” added Morden. Charlton noted they also work great as upbeat  songs for summer.
“This EP is  meant to be played loud in the car. They feel like summer,” Charlton said.
“It sounds best loud. This is our big, arena rock album,” he continued.


Though the songs sound big and loud, lead singer Mercedes Fawns said the lyrics are serious.
 She wrote the lyrics to all three songs “ Astraphobia,” “Resist” and “Unsafe.”
“All of these songs are really close to my heart,” she said, adding they were some of her more political songs.
“When I wrote ‘Resist’  there were riots happening in the United States, Covid and protests here. And Jason Kenney was cutting education and health care. So the song is about  using your critical thinking skills to question why these things are happening,” she said, adding the songs are also more complicated musically.


“There‘s a lot more guitar textures,” she continued, adding the band wrote the songs collaboratively.


“ I’d bring in a really simple acoustic  guitar version of the song and Cliff or Chris or Richard would build on it. For example, I’d come up with lyrics and maybe Richard would contribute a guitar riff or melody. This is the first group of songs that we built from the ground up, collaborating as a band so it’s really been exciting,“ she said.


“Mercedes gave us a lot of freedom to play our own  parts,” said Cliff Westcott, noting he also got to play some guitar on the album.
“So we have some duelling guitars,” he said.
“It was 100 per cent collaborative.  Every band member gets a spotlight and gets to be the focal point of the band,” Charlton said.

Multi-instrumentalist Matthew Rederburg engineered the album, but didn’t play on it.

 


“But he had a lot of ideas that we were able to use,” Charlton said.
“It’s definitely our most progressive collection of songs,” Fawns said adding because the band is so solid, it allowed her to focus on  her vocal performance.


“It’s a lot of fun for me, because I can really wail and experiment with my voice and really get out my frustration, anger and energy,” she said.


She said the song and Ep title  “Unsafe” was inspired by Allen Ginsberg’s poem  “Howl.”
“He has a line about a friend of his in a mental institution and say something like as long as one of us is unsafe, everybody is unsafe. If  one person is vulnerable, then we are all vulnerable,” she said.


It was the last recording with bassist Gabi DeLuna before she moved to Victoria.
“It was our last chance to play with her before she left. It was nice and pretty special, but bittersweet is the best way to describe it,” said Fawns.
It was the last recording with bassist Gabi DeLuna before she moved to Victoria.
“It was our last chance to play with her before she left. And it was nice and pretty special, but it was bittersweet is the best way to describe it,” said  Fawns.


 The band hasn’t decided whether to release another UP, single or full length album.

“My vote would be to do a really cool album like Our Lady Peace’s Spiritual Machines. We definitely have enough songs to do one,” she said.
 “I’m excited for people to hear it. And to be able to play these songs live hopefully this summer,” Morden said.
The band got a new logo designed by Levi Penno, so  they will be producing merch as well as releasing the EP.
“Unsafe” will be released on all musical platforms  including Spotify, Bandcamp, Youtube, distrokid and Deezer on Friday, May 14.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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Last Updated ( Friday, 14 May 2021 09:52 )