The track presages a record that takes several unexpected turns, such as the speak-sung Sober, the downbeat confessional Overdose, and the funk-metal fuck-you Punks.
“In rock’n’roll – garage, punk, whatever this world that we fit in is – it’s scary for bands to try new things,” says frontman Zac Carper. “Especially when one thing worked. It can go either of two ways: people can fucking hate it or people can like it. But you can’t live your life wondering what people are going to think about what you do. We needed to change it up, because we’re just those kind of people. I didn’t want to make the first record over again. For me that’s the most lazy, selling out kind of thing that we could’ve done.”
With the release of the 2013 debut, and its lead single Cheap Beer, FIDLAR built a reputation as rowdy party boys. Unwittingly, Carper had begun to comply with this public impression, before realising how insincere it was.
“Max [Kuehn, drums] was fuckin’ in high school when he joined FIDLAR. I was 20 when I started FIDLAR. I just turned 28. Everything just changes,” he says. “For me, it’s not a bad thing. I know punk rock fans don’t really want you to change, they don’t want you to make money; you selling out means you have a career [laughs]. There came a point for me where I was just like, ‘You know what, I don’t fucking care about that anymore’.
“Songwriting-wise, I just got bored writing the same fucking songs over and over again. It might have been different chords, different melodies, different lyrics, but in the core it was the same song about being fucked up and all this shit.”
Along with the increase in dynamics, Too is sonically harder hitting than its predecessor. Abandoning the DIY, self-recorded approach that gave birth to FIDLAR, the band hopped over to Nashville and teamed up with producer Jay Joyce. While the finished product vindicates this decision, Carper had some trouble adjusting.
“First fucking day I almost lost my mind,” he says. “It was one of those things where I produce records myself, so I want it to sound a certain way – I have a vision of it. But sometimes you’re a little too close to it, too. The song Punks, I wanted it to sound a certain way. I was arguing with the producer, I was arguing with the guys, and then finally at the end of the night I went home and thought about it and I was like ‘I’ve got to give up control over this, because I’m going to lose sight of what the journey is.’
“Sometimes when you don’t have an idea of how you want it to sound, the possibilities are endless and whatever comes out, comes out of the process. So I just let go and once I did that I learned a lot more. I became a lot smarter because I realised that I didn’t know everything.”
On the subject of relinquishing control, after wrapping up the mammoth run of touring behind FIDLAR, Carper went on a lone songwriting retreat, which is when the majority of the songs on Too took shape. After that process, however, the band’s remaining three members were given to opportunity to contribute.
“There’s not too much arguments with our band, to be honest,” says Carper. “They have opinions and stuff like that, and that’s why we had a producer. If they wanted something a certain way and I wanted something a certain way, we looked at the producer and the producer would make that decision. Having the producer was like having somebody that was just looking out for what’s best for the song.
“Doing my first record by myself, it was so close to how I wanted it to sound, and I made the first record sound a certain way. It was the same thing with this record – I was too close to it. Then once I let go I was just like, ‘OK, I trust the producer, I trust my band members, let’s do this.’ Letting go of control was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Some songwriters are happy to spend their whole career roaming through a clearly defined sonic sphere, with no desire to enact an artistic progression. But having opened up to new ideas, Carper’s entire songwriting outlook has shifted.
“The older you get the more you learn things in general. I want to try different things, I want to try write different types of songs, I want to experiment. That’s what a lot of musicians want to do. Some don’t, which is totally cool, but I do. I have that weird thing where I need to keep working, I need to keep doing things.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
