Foamboy has released their new single titled ‘Exit Sign’ ahead of their upcoming album ‘Eating Me Alive’ dropping on March 8th, 2024 via N.I.T.A. Records.
With ‘Exit Sign’ I can hear that natural evolution from those that were the tracks of ‘My Sober Daydream‘, while still hearing that ever growing signature sound that is what Foamboy is: original.
A bit more electric than their last outing, yet a bit more organic, with more soul and feeling over a subtly relentless backbeat defining the hook. More groove with a retro-esque feeling, Foamboy sell us a dimebag worth of gold knowing they got a truckload more coming in on the 8th. Brilliant. Get hooked, because anticipation can be a good thing. It teaches us patience.
Check out our other features with Foamboy HERE.
Wil Bakula on the track:
“When I made this beat I was just trying to find that happy medium between all the different instruments either playing really straight, or really laid back. If you overemphasize one or the other you usually just end up with a groove where the listener can pick out a single instrument and be like “oh yeah, that one is laid back.” But If you nudge all of them around very carefully, you can get into this weird zone where everything is laid back sometimes, and other times it catches up to the beat, so you get a groove where you can’t pick out any particular instrument that’s laying back. The whole thing just sounds nasty as hell. It’s something that’s really hard to do in a live setting, but in logic I can sit and just nudge the bass line slightly here, or the kick slightly there until it’s perfect. It’s heavily inspired by Kaytranada and Flume, who do this in their own way on a lot of their songs.”
Katy Ohsiek on the track:
“One of the main ideas of this song was the feeling of a groove that’s so behind the beat it almost sounds sloppy, but in a cool way. Another big idea was for the main vocals to sound like they are going through some sort of processor/harmonizer (but they’re not!). There’s lots of interesting contrast in this track. Lyrically, it’s meant to evoke the feeling of being bored at a bar with your friends- you’re supposed to be having fun with them, but you’re just checked out and thinking about other things.”
About the new album, Eating Me Alive:
“I am so happy with how this album turned out. Unlike our last release, which we created over email during the first year of the pandemic, this record is much more informed by our live shows and the incredible instrumentalists we get to work with. It’s still distinctly foamboy, it’s definitely still fun, but a little darker than the last album. Lyrically, this album details the entire rise and fall of a very complicated and crushing relationship. It’s also about reckoning with the aftermath of your public art, discovering your own queer identity, rejecting heteronormative narratives, surviving grad school, and giving up in a good way. I am so grateful to Wil, our recording engineer Justin, our bandmates, and all other musicians involved in this project.”
Katy
“Where My Sober Daydream felt very compact and bite-sized, this one to me feels much more like a ‘full’ album. I think we really allowed ourselves to expand on different ideas, and not just relegate ourselves to short dance-y tracks. There’s a lot of different stuff here, but from the lyrical content, to the musical aesthetic, everything flows together and songs wash into each other. As always, I spent a lot of time sequencing the record, and I’m happy this came out to feel like such a full story with ups and downs, twists and turns. It’s still groovy, but everything, from the instrumentation to the mixing, has a slight tinge of darkness around it. It’s like the moodier older brother of the first album, it’s kinda brooding and has got a lot more to say. We also worked with a full band on a lot of these songs, so everything feels a little closer to a modern take on late 70s disco, rather than an electronic dance album. Shoutout everyone who worked on this thing and was so patient in getting this release together.”
Wil
Track Listing
- Smoke Machine
- Yours or Mine
- Burnout
- Not A Go
- Sarah
- Take My Place
- He Fucking Texts Me
- Song About You
- imtryingimtryingimtrying
- COOL!?!
- Can’t Fall In Love With You If You’re Not There
- Exit Sign
- I Wish You The Worst
- Don’t Let Me Wear Your Sweater
- Eating Me Alive
About Foamboy
Foamboy are a Portland-based duo comprised of producer Wil Bakula and vocalist Katy Ohsiek. They met in Salem, OR and worked together for a number of years in the experimental musical collective Chromatic Colors. In this group, Wil and Katy collaborated with a wide variety of instrumentalists, released 2 full-length albums, and graced the stages of many outdoor festivals, bars, and basements. In the events of 2020, Wil and Katy took this time to take on a new project, and Foamboy came to be.
LINKS:
https://www.foamboyband.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1JuU4GHSf0kmi5dOCm1BeS
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/foamboy/1560949411
https://www.instagram.com/foamboyband
https://www.facebook.com/foamboyband
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9Yjz4P1s_iXwniWae7xXQ
