Creative noisemakers Former Friends Of Young Americans are sprinting to the end of the year. They've been gigging extensively, with shows lined up this week and next month in the midst of their latest album, estas diluculo.
You can stream the full album from the band's website or download it absolutely free from their bandcamp. The release marks the atmospheric pop band's sophomore release on Black Cactus Records, the Phoenix-based collaborative made up of local music dudes.
FFOYA will be playing tonight at the Trunk Space, Thanksgiving night at The Lost Leaf, and again on Saturday at Long Wong's in Tempe. The band's staying busy now, but after the New Year, FFOYA will be back in the studio refining the album for its official release next April.
We caught up with singer/guitarist Toby Fatzinger to get the latest scoop on the band and the new album as he explains track "Planned History."
About "Planned History": A lot of the songs on the album actually are lyrically taken from specific moments or interactions. So I can't explain too much about it because it's kind of embarrassing. But, really, it's based on a conversation I had with somebody I was moving apart from and yet still kind of in that limbo phase -- tying up loose ends. Like when you live with somebody or share a life together and then separate, there's all this kind of reciprocal fallout that you gotta deal with.
The opening line refers to somebody leaving a message on a machine, a bill collector or something like that, so we still have to talk (to communicate the message) without acknowledging any feelings because we're trying to move on with our lives.
That's pretty much what that song is about. When you're stagnant, it's only a matter of time before things become bad enough that you're willing to make a change.
Without really explaining it, I hope I did a good job of explaining it.
On the album's free download: It just makes sense. Nobody really knows us very well or well enough. We play a lot locally, so people may recognize our name, but people aren't really acquainted with our material. So I wouldn't necessarily expect anyone to spring for something that they weren't particularly aware of.
The way the album kind of works is; it's really one very long song. I don't want to get into calling it a conceptual thing because my own skin crawls when I used that word, but I guess that's what it is kind of. It follows a theme throughout the whole thing. We arranged the album so that it would keep your attention like one song would.
05 Former Friends of Young Americans - Planned History by former friends
Former Friends Of Young Americans are playing tonight at the Trunk Space, where you can pick up CD copies of estas diluculo.