There’s an old Appalachian folktale that cardinals carry an immense spirituality when they cross your path. If one appears in your window, it’s said to be a loved one signaling you from the afterlife. It’s a symbol of peace, hope, and prosperity to you in a time of need.
When one appeared in the top floor window of the building across the street from Mr. Small’s Theater on Sunday afternoon, it was the first time that Amelia Murray, lead behind the musical project Fazerdaze, or Dave Rowlands, a longtime friend of Murray and touring Fazerdaze guitarist, had heard of this legend. Yet, it felt perfectly on theme with the release of her sophomore album, “Soft Power,” that was released last Friday via section1.
If you search for “soft power” online without clarifying you’re looking for the album, you’ll find a lot of political theory surrounding co-opting rather than coercing when dealing in international politics. But to Fazerdaze, soft power is about approaching change with compassion and love, rather than force. Alongside with the release of the music video for single “A Thousand Years,” Murray wrote on her website that “True power doesn’t come from control or dominance, it comes from something much quieter and deeper within us. True power radiates from the heart, not the head, and leads from love rather than fear.”
When listening to this album, that theme of empowering one with love rings true in abundance. In the second verse on the intro title track, Murray sings “There’s a beauty / In the quiet side of me / There's a secret /That I’m trying not to keep,” unapologetically sharing this feeling of accepting oneself with the listener. On the track “Bigger,” she reiterates that “In the morning I'll be a world away / I'll grow, I'll change.” A personal favorite of ours at the Moose, “City Glitter,” caps off this album beautifully as we say goodbye to this past version of Murray as she looks back: “Will I look back to see / You waiting there for me / But like a fading dream / You're further than I reach.”
Outside the venue where they would later perform on their current North American tour with indie rock group Pond, we spoke with Fazerdaze to learn more about the new album and tour, the growth it took personally and sonically to get there, and finding your own “Soft Power.”
You're currently on tour right now with Pond going across North America. I know you guys are talking about you've been in Washington D.C. last night, just in Philly a few days ago. How's tour been treating you guys so far?
AMELIA MURRAY: Yeah, it's been really great so far. We've got a really good compact tour party, which is just obviously me and Dave and then we've got our tour manager Charles and it's just the three of us driving around in a minivan. We've got a really good little system and Pond have been really caring.
DAVE ROWLANDS: Yeah, as far as tours go, it's been a real breeze, in the sense that timings and everything and the travel has been really, really great. It's been Pond, we love Pond, so we've been lucky to be able to watch them a bunch of times each night and now that this is the fifth show in, we're sort of really starting to get our kind of groove of how to set things up and get things how we like it and you know, roll the show. We're able to enjoy the show a little bit more now.
Murray: Totally, and also just like for Fazerdaze in general, this is our first time in a lot of these cities, so it's pretty exciting for us to see new places and get to play to new audiences. And also there have been quite a few Fazerdaze fans at these shows, which has been really exciting for us. Like, places that I just didn't think Fazerdaze would have reached, but even last night, in Washington D.C., we had like people in the audience shouting songs they wanted to hear and stuff. It's just been really gratifying and especially because we're so far from home, so it's honestly been a dream come true of doing this.
That was actually one of the questions that I wanted to ask you guys about, because Soft Power just released on Friday. How's that been like seeing that reception kind of happen right in front of your faces? It's a little different when you're back home just seeing it on social media and everything, versus actually being out on the road, seeing the fans live. How's that been releasing an album while on tour?
Murray: It's been so nice. Honestly, I prefer to put out a record like this than just sitting at home and like watching it online. It's just really nice to see people buy the physical record and have it in their hands, and be able to sign it and be able to look them in the eye.
Whereas, I think when I'm back home in New Zealand, I can feel a bit removed and isolated and it sometimes feels like it's never doing well enough. Like, when you just look at it online, but then to go to the shows and chat to people that are connecting with it, it's pretty special for us.
Rowlands: Yeah, there's something that feels nice and proactive about being on tour when a record's out which feels like you are able to really be like, ‘this is the record, like we're doing it now.’ Whereas, I think when you're sitting at home and the records come out, you just mill over everything and question this and question that. And so this is nice to just see the human side of it.
Speaking of which, congrats on releasing the record in and of itself. We actually just listened to it on the way here. I've listened to it a good handful, at least in preparation and everything, but we listened to it together in the car on the way up here. It's such an incredible record. I know [when] you talked earlier with Rolling Stone, you called Soft Power, this sort of “bedroom stadium record.”
I really love that description. Especially since most folks would probably call it a dream pop or a shoegaze album, along those lines. But I saw you spoke to it with The Spinoff many years ago that you liked how specific those descriptors are, because it meant that you could tear them down one day. Do you still feel that way about this album?
Murray: Yeah, well, I like that I said that. I don't remember saying that, but I like that I said that. Yeah, I think I did get really pigeonholed into like this bedroom recording project.
And I mean, I'm still that, but I like calling it a bedroom stadium record because it shows that my sound is evolving and getting much larger, well on this record anyway. And when I do anything, I like to do it 100%. So yeah, I guess when I'm making music, I just want it to lean into what it's trying to be.
I think the bedroom stadium vision, I think it comes through strong on this record. It's like it means I can pivot and change and do something different for the next record.
One of our favorite classic kind of like college radio bands at U92 is The Flaming Lips. At least allegedly, they notably put more effort into how an album would sound like played live rather than how we come across on like a CD or a tape back then. Do you find this to be true at all for your sounds? How does that process of knowing that you're going to be performing these songs one day register when making a record like this?
Murray: With Morningside, I didn't really picture how they would come across live. And then, I was suddenly playing them live, whereas with this record, I knew I'd be playing them live. So that definitely influenced the writing, the writing and creation process as I was picturing, ‘How does this feel at a music festival? How does this feel at a headline show?’ That definitely informed the scope of the sonics. I wanted it to be the kind of record that would be fun to play with my friends on stage, and especially at festivals.
I love festivals. I love, like, festival music. Alternative music festivals have been the biggest inspiration behind Fazerdaze. Going to Langway Festival in Auckland, seeing Tame Impala play when I was just so young and impressionable. I just watched that and I was like, ‘I want to make music like this.’
Seeing The War on Drugs play, St. Vincent; these are the acts that inspired me to start this project. When I was writing this record, I was like, ‘I want to play festivals.’ I don't think we've actually even been booked for any festivals yet, but it doesn't matter. I just feel like the spirit of the record is this live festival feeling.
Rowlands: Yeah. I think in translation from the record to the live realm as well, we have put, particularly with both the Break! EP and Soft Power, a huge amount of work into the details of the songs and how the songs translate from a recording standpoint. We kind of never sit dormant and think like, ‘this is how it is.’ We're always kind of trying to take a smaller detail and level it up. And I think with Joyland in Jakarta, that was, was that last year?
Murray: Yes.
Rowlands: Yeah. Or maybe this year?
Murray: Maybe. We do not know what time is anymore.
Rowlands: But Joyland in Jakarta felt like a really great translation of [that], because we played a lot of the Soft Power songs before it had actually come out. Feeling the way that that record hit and those songs hit in a live, large audience, festival size format was like, cool. These work how they're supposed to work. The intention and the execution married.
Murray: Yeah. I was in a state of euphoria after we played that set. I was like, ‘this is my dream come true, playing these “Soft Power” songs.’ The audience didn't know the songs yet, but for us, it was like, this is on this massive, massive stage to this massive audience. It was exactly what I'd envisioned with this record. Who knows if we'll get it again, but it was so, so fun.
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. That kind of relates, almost, to the theme of the album with this kind of growth and really touching on like Soft Power from within. I love that write up that you did with “A Thousand Years” on the website. It's been really interesting, at least to compare it kind of thematically to, you know, Morningside and Break!. I was wondering, what did that progression of sound kind of like? Does that growth of sound come alongside the growth internally?
Murray: Big time, yeah. Big time. I think, you know, just me trying to take up, learning how to take up space and not apologize for my existence. I think “Soft Power” was such an outlet for a time that I felt so small in my domestic space and my personal life. This was like my reaction to those feelings as I was like, ‘Well, this is a safe space. I can be as massive as possible. I get to make the rules on this record.’ Definitely, the stuff I was going through in my life influenced the sound of the record.
And I'm just so...proud of my past self, that maybe she was feeling small, but she made this like effing massive sounding record. Like, I'm just really proud. Even if no one listens to it, I'm just so proud that that's what came out of a really tough time for myself. Dave was someone I turned to and was a safe person I could just talk to and just hang out with, when I didn't even have the words for what I was going through. I'm just so stoked that now I've come through that chapter and I'm left with this record that just like sounds like a bedroom stadium record. The [growth] definitely influenced the sonics for sure.
I know at least for a lot of folks, like we just kind of hit on there, music is this kind of tool to process and heal from emotions. I was wondering, at least like in the creative process, was that more of an ‘experience the change first, and write about it second?’ Or was making this album kind of used as that like therapy for you almost in like helping you like work through that emotion?
Murray: Yeah, probably the latter. When I was working on this record, I was in such a fog, a mental fog. I think I was processing stuff as I was writing and I didn't really know what the songs were about at the time.
I was just trying to make stuff, and it kind of makes more sense now. I usually find, sometimes I'm making stuff in a fog and then later it makes sense. Other times, I'm writing about stuff that I'm processing from a few years ago. So I feel like it's a mix. Sometimes it's in real time, and sometimes it's years after the fact.
Rowlands: Yeah. I think as a friend as well, knowing the circumstances over the last couple of years, it's interesting for me to listen to the songs as they come through. There are moments that are directly equating to things that are happening, and there are things that were past things. Then there are future things that you're yet to realize, that you're putting these words into songs and it's like your song is telling you a thing that you then realize a year and a half later.
I saw you said that “Cherry Pie” had started as notes app lyrics on a trip to [Los Angeles] over 10 years ago. How would you describe where these songs you've been working on for many years, where that began versus now, the like final product?
Murray: There's a feeling like there isn't really ever a start point. Like it's just, ‘I've just got to keep making stuff.’ I don't know if I could really pinpoint a start of this record. It just all feels like constant work over a long period of time.
[With] the next record, I'll be like, ‘I don't know when I started this.’ It all feels like just making stuff. And then, yes, it comes out on a tidy, tidy album, but there was probably stuff I started on [Soft Power] that was like pre-Morningside. There's just so many ideas, like, on voice notes and notes apps and logic and my laptop that I just have to try to piece together at various points to make the record.
Rowlands: Yeah. I think creatively as artists as well, when we put together records and when we write, songs effectively write themselves in some ways. Some things come fast, some things you labor over, some things you do a bit of and then forget about, and then you come back around to it.
But at the end of the day, as we're sort of putting together a body of work, the body of work dictates how it lives and breathes, and when it's ready and all that sort of stuff. When there's a longer time between records, it's basically because we're putting an impetus on ourselves that we want the absolute best thing to exist.
You're not going to just put something out for the sake of a timeframe. You want to wait until that full record has blossomed and all the songs have come together and the body has defined itself as to what it is.
Murray: Yeah, it feels cohesive.
Amelia, I saw that you released your debut solo directed video with “A Thousand Years.” I absolutely love that video. It's so unique in that electronic, digital handycam-style visuals that go along with that electronic sound of the song. How fun was that experience for you, your first time solo directing a video?
Murray: Yeah, it was very fun. It was daunting at the beginning, because there's just a lot of resistance towards ‘How do I work a camera? How do I use the software?’ It was a bit of a steep learning curve for myself, but very empowering just learning. I didn't have a budget for that video and that song, but I really felt compelled to make something. It was just a very empowering process.
As I grow Fazerdaze, [I want] to return to my roots of DIY and to do it at my new, current level, which I feel like the normal is to have a team. But, I don't always have that budget or the resources for that. So, it's really empowering for me to know I've still got my DIY swag. Honestly, I could not tell you how. It's not even really about the end result. It's like, ‘Oh, I set out to make a music video. This was the vision and I finished it.’
Just finishing it, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I did it.’ I feel it was really good and reflective, also, of what the song is about to me. It's all about isolation and being kind of trapped in my own psyche, and to make a really secluded video on my own as a self portrait really felt in keeping with the theme of the song. So, yeah, I feel really proud of myself.
I mentioned it a little bit earlier, in that writeup that you released on your website alongside with the video, you talked about how Cindy Sherman and her creative process was a big influence for the making of the video. Do you think that like Sherman's work, or any kind of other artistic, but not necessarily kind of musical, works influenced you on this album and this rollout?
Murray: Yeah. I feel like, again, I was in a real fog when I was making this record and I just was in a really bad place. I was consuming stuff, but I wasn't really intellectually analyzing things.
But, and I talked about this in a recent interview – it just came to mind, I read the book, The Awakening by Kate Chopin and I read Jane Eyre for the second time while I was making this record. Those books, they're very feminist books. Now, coming to putting out the record, I sort of looked back on reading those, and I realized that those, the woman and the characters in those books, were searching for qualities that I actually was looking for when I was making this record; This feeling of equality in my relationship at home and, and also in the music industry, just being a woman and a lot of extra dynamics I had to navigate when I was younger. I think just subconsciously consuming [stuff] that was made by a woman probably going through similar, if not much more extreme circumstances than my work than I was, actually did give me comfort and encouragement and inspiration to keep going, because it was so hard to make this record, but something bigger than me kept me going with it.
I know at least for the past interviews that I've done, asking a musician to pick their favorite song from an album is like asking a parent to pick their favorite child. But, is there any one particular song that kind of stands out to either of you that is like really like ‘Yeah, that's the one?’
Murray: Gosh, it changes every day. The last interview that asked me this, I said it was “A Thousand Years,” but probably today, I think I really like how “Cherry Pie” came together. I just feel like we landed the production in the mix and a really good space. So, today that's my answer.
Yeah. Maybe if I got you tomorrow, it'll be a different one.
Murray: If I'm in a more moody space, I reckon, maybe “City Glitter” would be my favorite. Do you have a favorite, Dave?
Rowlands: Yeah, I think “City Glitter.” We have yet to play that live, but I'm really looking forward to playing that, because it feels like that song feels like a real live moment.
[Also,] “Sleeper.” I really love the guitar part for “Sleeper,” it is a really beautiful one to play. That's one of those ones that we're really working on getting up to scratch for the harmonies.
Murray: It's kind of like I was trying to tap into a choral, vocal and classical arrangement.
Rowlands: When we hit it, it'll be great. Once we've done this series of shows, it'll be nice. We'll be able to get back and start opening up some of the other songs, and start getting them ready for the live world.
Sometimes, that can dictate what song you're really liking. Like, there might be a song that when you listen to it, you don't connect to it as immediately as when you actually go to play it. There's some form of characteristic that actually really sticks to you when you go to do it. That'll be quite fun for us, to work through some of the new songs that have yet to have an outing.
If you could describe this album in three words to somebody who has never listened to the record, never listened to Fazerdaze before, what would those three words be?
Murray: Cinematic, dream..stadium.
Rowlands: Soft, power, album.
What advice would you give to anybody who's kind of looking for that similar answer within, of soft power and regaining that sense of self?
Murray: It's so hard to give advice because everyone's in such a different circumstance and everyone's got different resources. For me, carving out quiet space for myself away from other people and following your intuition, even if it makes other people uncomfortable. You have to follow it and be brave enough to. To listen to it, I've found I've had to really carve out that space of quiet and alone time to do the work to tap into my intuition.
Sorry, this is getting, like, really vague and washy [laughs]. I guess, intuition is like this whisper. I think it's talking to all of us, all the time, and it takes a lot of courage to follow it. Soft power is about the courage to follow your inner guidance.
Rowlands: Yeah, absolutely. My little tiny thing that I would add to that is, listening to the people that you trust, even if they're telling you the things that you don't want to hear often. That's the thing that you get told, the thing that you don't want to hear a bunch of times and then your brain clicks over to it. You're like, ‘This is the right decision. This is the thing that I have to do to put myself a further step forward,’ you know?
Especially because we haven't really hit on this interview; Here at WWVU-FM, there's a couple of New Zealand artists that we are big fans of: Lorde, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Aldous Harding to name a few. Is there anyone from back home that you guys think deserves some more love and attention that we should be listening to at the Moose?
Murray: I mean, so many. Vera Allen, big time. We love Vera Allen. She's such a great songwriter.
Rowlands: The Assignment, Voom.
Murray: Voom are great. Pickle Darling. Pickle Darling's great. I mean, The Beths are great. We love The Beths. I really like this other Christchurch artist, his name's Goodwill, and he just put out a record and it's beautiful. Office Dog, they're on Flying Nun Records. There's so many, there's so many.
Yeah, yeah. Maybe I ended on a harder question than I meant to.
Murray: No, that was a good question. We're so spoiled with how much awesome stuff there is in such a little country.
Rowlands: Yeah, I think the New Zealand music community is really lucky, in the sense that, we are really small, but you've got to really have that passion amongst you and that support from the people around you to kind of get off the ground, which means that…Someone said to us the other night, “God, there must be something in the water in New Zealand for the artists that we're producing and bring over to the States.” It's just the fact that you have to be doing it because you love doing it. You're not doing it because it's like, ‘oh, cool, I'm going to make this a big job’ and whatever you're doing it for, [it’s] the right reasons to start with.
Yeah, absolutely. I know, at least we can kind of relate to that being a college town. We have that access to Pittsburgh and a lot of the larger bands from there are coming down, but especially we can relate to that. At least, in that small community sense, real tight-knit and it's real comfortable. It's a great place for a nice artistic expression.
Murray: Yeah, for sure. There is something about the smallness of it, which you can still be ambitious, but it humbles you as well. Because, you know, you're not really going to get signed playing in a bar in Christchurch. You could, but you're doing it cause you really love it, you know?
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Photo sourced via Coup de Main Magazine.