The Friday Dispatch
Finneas, Lauren Mayberry, Faux Real, duendita, MIKE and Public Display of Affection
Finneas: Rennaisance Man
As one half of the decade's greatest songwriting partnership, Finneas O'Connell has become a producer rewriting the rules of pop.
On For Cryin’ Out Loud! – released this week – the Oscar and Grammy-winning producer stepped away from working completely solo and instead invited a bunch of his close pals to form a band. “It was so nostalgic,” he says. “It was a treat to be just bouncing off of each other, like you're on a high school soccer team or something. You're making jokes and trying to make the best thing possible.” The result, then, is more of a live feel than his debut, 2021’s Optimist – more guitars than software plugins. “I was outside of my producer bag – a bit like forcing yourself to brush your teeth with your other hand,” he admits. “It was a fun exercise to not be doing all sorts of crazy sound effects and stuff, because I love doing that. But I don't want to be the guy that only does one thing.”
Some tracks happened spontaneously: “Everybody would come up with different ideas, day of,” he says. “I had a notebook of little lyric ideas that I liked, but every day we'd start from scratch. My favourite songs were often the ones that came out of nowhere, just that day, everybody making stuff up on the spot.”
Is it difficult for Finneas, mining inner feelings for lyrics? “Sometimes there’s the person you think you are, and the person you really are,” he says. “[It’s about] letting yourself be vulnerable and open and being like, well, I'd like to be this person who's very confident and super romantic and self-effacing. And it's like, maybe in reality I'm a person who’s a bit more insecure, or easily hurt by a comment. I think it’s important to be a little more honest about who you really are.”
Read the full profile by Felicity Martin now over on Best Fit.
Lauren Mayberry on PJ Harvey
I think I first heard PJ around the time she put out Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, and apparently, she doesn’t like that album, so I feel bad that I loved it so much. But Rid of Me was the record I bought after that.
I remember putting it on and turning it up really loudly, as everybody does, because the start of the title track is so quiet and because I really wanted to hear what she was saying. And then when the chorus comes in, naturally, everybody shits their pants, if you don't know that part's coming.
But I really love how much she always seems to play with characters. And again, with every era of PJ, you could see an image of it, and you would know what record she was touring. I feel like there are different ways for a performer to hold your attention and with PJ, the most arresting moments sometimes are the quietest and the strangest ones. She doesn't need to be screaming and clamouring to get your eyes on her or your ears on her. Sometimes that level of stillness is really arresting.
Adam England
The introduction
Each week, Best Fit will be bringing you mini-interviews with artists on the come-up - and it’s happening exclusively on Substack. Today, we give you the wacky, wonderful Faux Real.
Names: Elliott and Virgil Arndt
Ages: We've been doing this faux ever.
Hometown: Currently Los Angeles
Describe your sound in 5-10 words: The mind of Sisyphus in the body of Evil Knievel
How did you start making music?
We both started making music together at a young age, playing punk rock and assorted garage/grunge in the basement of the house we grew up in. Elliott was on drums and Virgil on guitar. In truth, not much has changed.
Best record for head-banging (other than yours)?
Currently head-banging to Farrah Abraham, Ekkstacy, and the new Texas Techno compilation by Freq System - a healthy mix of organica and electronica, to give the mind & body a full work-out.
What’s an 80s fashion trend you wish would come back…
Feathered hair and shoulder pads, because everything looks better with shoulder pads, especially feathered hair. We're taking this into our own hands. Also bandanas. Did any of this really ever go out of style?
Faux Real’s debut album Faux Ever will be out on October 11th.
Up next this week….
On the new music front, October has started strong. Over at Best Fit, we’ve been particularly excited about the release of Kate Bollinger’s sophisticated and effortlessly cool Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind. Also new this week is Sad Night Dynamite’s genre-bending debut, Welcome to the Night; Half-Waif’s tender and ephemeral See You At The Maypole; Hell or High Water, the first record from New York-based band Poise; and For Cryin’ Out Loud, the latest album from Finneas, this week’s digital cover star.
From the archive
37 years ago last Saturday, The Smiths released their final record as a group, Strangeways, Here We Come. The record itself was actually released after the band had broken up, and it followed a period of intense tension between guitarist Johnny Marr and the mercurial Morrissey. By this point in their career, The Smiths had been through it. With a demanding touring schedule, a rotating cast of managers and the prying eye of British tabloids, the relationships that kept the bandmates together were near crumbling. Creatively, though, they still had much to offer, and Strangeways, Here We Come was a testament to that fact. In many ways, the group’s dissolution — though abrupt — helped preserve its pristine musical legacy. For this week’s archive, we’ve pulled a clip from that era. In the 20-minute sit-down, Johnny Marr talks about the recording process for Strangeways, his thoughts on being a frontman, the technique of The Smiths, and more.
The full clip can be found, along with other 80s Smiths cuts, on The Smiths Archive.
Something Old, Something New
Every week, we share recommendations from the Best Fit community on two iconic records — one from the past, one from the present. This week, Queens-based duendita offers her thoughts on War In My Pen by MIKE (2018) and Expressions of Obsessions by Public Display of Affection (2024).
War In My Pen, a classic record, was my introduction to MIKE’s music. I remember hearing “grabba” for the first time and being absolutely stunned. The tone of his voice is just so warm and present. The production… feels new and familiar at once. I love the way he centers his family in his work. I had emo times with this album thinking about my family coming from Puerto Rico to NYC, specifically The Bronx, and being part of the cultural lineage of hip hop … like after all the miles traveled on this globe, all the pain and trauma we carried for generations just off the strength of being a seed of a seed within another human being, now it’s 2018 and there are artists like MIKE making art that soothe those deepest wounds. I have incredible memories of hearing “neverKnocked” live. What a wonderful feeling to recall!! The features are also so special on this project — Jadasea and Tamphari especially. My favourite song is probably “UCR”, the way the beat switches up, the samples, the bassline, the pure poetry…
I love P.D.O.A. and especially love going to their concerts. This new record, Expressions of Obsessions, is a real treat. It’s all over the place in the best way. The lead singer and frontwoman, Madeline Rose, uses her poetic license to touch on a wide range of topics, from ballerinas and the housing crisis, to deep reflections on family. It’s an album that oscillates from sexy to punk to theatrical. “Sister Rivalry” is a stand out track, the beat is so special. also, Maddie’s vocal on top of those drums on “Vitamin C.” The drummer and producer on the project, Anton Remy, is also actually a friend and collaborator of mine (he co-produced “soupie” and “fts” off my latest). His production really shines on tracks like “Life Support,” which is very dynamic, open, warm and overflows with movement and space. This record is really fun to listen to in headphones, and each song is truly its own world.
duendita’s the mind is a miracle is out now.
Listen to the week in new music by following our Discovery playlist
Dropping at midnight every Thursday, follow our playlist for a taste of the best new music from the most exciting breaking artists – 20 new tracks, top-loaded from the last five days in music and on repeat in the Best Fit office right now.
Leading the selection this week are new tracks from Heaven Slight, Nettspend, Konyikeh, Slaney Bay, Lou Terry, and coverstar Man/Woman/Chainsaw.