Dodos singer releasing solo album as FAN (hear new song "Velour")
The Dodos‘ beloved sophomore album Visiter turned 10 this year, and the band celebrated the anniversary by performing it at Noise Pop. But now The Dodos are taking a bit of a rest while singer Meric Long focuses on his new solo project FAN. FAN is releasing his debut album, Barton’s Den, on May 4 via Polyvinyl (pre-order), and compared to The Dodos’ rhythmic indie rock, FAN is an electronic pop project that was partially inspired by Meric inheriting the Yamaha AX60 and Realistic Concertmate MG-1 synthesizers from his late father. “I’ve had a lot of regret about not overcoming the space that existed between us,” he says. “I would have liked to get to know him more. I think working with the synths he passed on was a way to continue the conversation.” The solo album was also partially a result of Meric welcoming his first child into the world. With less time to focus on a band, Meric ended up working on this album on his own after his daughter had gone to sleep each night.
Ahead of the album’s release, we’re premiering the new song “Velour,” along with its video. Though Meric said making the switch from guitar to synthesizers was “a huge, scary leap,” one listen to “Velour” proves that he had no trouble picking it up. He sounds like a natural, and his knack for writing off-kilter yet super catchy indie pop is in just as fine a form as it is on The Dodos’ albums. “Velour” sounds kinda like the “indietronica” stuff of the early ’00s (think like, The Postal Service, The Notwist, etc), and Meric pulls it off very well. Here’s what he says about the song and video:
This song is an ode to one of the best performances I saw in 2017, which was the lip sync performance in the season finale of Rupaul’s Drag Race by the contestant Sasha Velour. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days afterwards, and everytime I did I could literally feel this surge of energy well up inside me. I couldn’t believe the amount of energy transferred across television waves.
For the video, the director Joseph Baughman really had total free reign so I can’t really cop to know where he was coming from, but I see it as an extension of that same idea, the transference of energy across screens and how we come to have these big emotions about people we watch and never know.
Listen/watch below.
