Band Of The Week #220 - Fizzy Blood
This week’s Band of the Week is Leeds quintet Fizzy Blood - who after three EPs have finally released their debut album - ‘Pam Am Blues’.
Recorded over a period of 3 years in various locations around the UK, debut album Pan Am Blues touches on a myriad of themes and musical influences; dystopian modern life, familiarity and comfort in nostalgia, soul-searching, isolation and sees Fizzy Blood adopt a fresh contemporary sound fusing Bedroom Pop, Indie Rock, new-wave R&B and Soul.
They took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Fizzy Blood - how are you? So your album is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
Hey there! Good thank you! It feels surreal, it’s been a real labour of love over such a long time, I think it’ll take a while for it to sink in that it’s out.
It is called ‘Pan Am Blues’ - what is the meaning behind that?
Pan Am Blues is a malaphor of “Pan Am Blue” - which is a colour trademarked by Pan American Airlines, who were a historically huge airline that are symbolic of a generation of expansionism and optimistic thinking, and “Blues” - which is, of course, an originally urban music genre and a colloquial phrase which describes feelings of melancholy, sadness or depression. The two together embody the coming together of those ideas to represent the modern experience.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
The album was recorded over a period of about 3 years in various locations. A lot of the live elements for most songs were captured at Greenmount Studios in Leeds which feels like a bit of a spiritual home for us but other bits have been recorded piecemeal around the country and one song was even captured during a writing session we had up in the mountains in Scotland. We loved the demo version of it so much, we decided not to try and re-record it and just included it with the album.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
This record is about escaping a reality which seems impossibly grim, looking back to nostalgic experiences from my past, looking forwards to what lies ahead of us, looking up from your phone. There’s a heavy beach boys influence, not just in the big harmonies but in the way their music built a sunnier world you could escape into at a time when societal and economic problems seemed quite scary, we hoped this would do the same. Sonically we were also listening to a lot of different stuff too - Earth Wind and Fire, HAIM, James Blake, Brockhampton, Phoebe Bridgers, The Lemon Twigs and loads more that probably seeped into the record over the years of its creation.
If the album could be the soundtrack to any film - which one, would it be and why?
We made a film which is also called Pan Am Blues and it is the soundtrack to that, so I’d have to go with that. It’s on our YouTube channel for anyone to watch. [LINK https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ8jv42hdRm6OR3oALL3uwf5mmvrojocY ]
Do you have a favourite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
“The world looked rosy, red-shifted from the view at knee level.
I had heard about the devil, but I hadn’t met him yet.”
It’s a line from a song on the record called 1996 which is a song that is very personal to me. When I read it back or sing it back or hear it, I feel and I take a lot from it.
Now the album is out there - what next?
We’re hoping to screen the film somewhere in person soon. Make an event of it, connect with people face to face and share. That’ll be a nice full circle moment, as during the recording of this, it was a time you couldnt go and do anything in person. We might do some more shows, but we’re really just trying to do it as and when we feel like doing it as opposed to the treadmill of 300 shows a year or whatever we used to do before we started making the record.
Other than that, I guess just enjoy it for a minute.
