FXRRVST, [ fawr-ist, for- ], the Toronto-based, Aussie/Canadian, indie alternative duo have a fresh new video baby for us today. It's called Bad Things.
The last time we caught this band, they were playing at one of their favourite Toronto venues, The Mod Club. I jumped at the opportunity to find out a little bit more about Holly Forrest and Matt Fuentes.
There's been a growing trend to replace letters in the band names with other things; one of my first questions was about their band name. It turns out that Matt and Holly came together in 2015, and when coming up with their name, they replaced the vowels with the roman numbers "X" and "V". Mystery solved!
"We were first just going to name the band Forrest, but have you ever googled Forrest? All you get are people with that name or trees. The group started in 2015 so we used the roman numerals for 15 in place of the vowels in Forrest."
The pair came to music early in life. Holly started playing guitar and writing songs at the age of nine, and Matt has been playing piano since the age of seven. Their love of music was fostered early and continues to this day.
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When I last wrote about the act, I mentioned that Holly came from a punk background, and Matt, a folk background. So it's no surprise that their influences are very different. Holly lists her biggest influences as Paramore, Tegan and Sara and Demi Lovato. Matt's influences include Fleetwood Mac, at the top of the list, with Mumford and Sons thrown in for good measure. The blending of these backgrounds and influences is something exceptional.
When I asked the two about the new single and video for, Bad Things, they had this to say.
"It's always really weird for us to talk about the writing process. We aren't the most.....technical musicians. So there's no real strategy. The songs kinda just happen. Holly writes the lyrics, vocal melody and basic chords/structure, then Matt changes the chords sometimes, and does the other instrumentation. It's cool because we never just sit down and decide to write a new song. In terms of "Bad Things", Holly had the chorus in her head for a really long time. Then we decided to use it and it just grew into what it is now.
The video was a lot of fun to film. We used a lot of friends' houses.......and friend actors haha. The video is centered around the main character who is in a tough spot in life and dealing with a lot of "Bad Things". The viewer watches his experiences in the real world and sees he's in a rut. Then he stumbles on a pet play date, goes in, and plays with all the dogs. The pups help him forget about the bad things and he ends up safe at home happy with his own dog."
Why puppies you ask? FXRRVST says,
"As two individuals who suffer from mental illness, we know what it is like to be stuck in that mindset. And when we are 'in the hole', our fur babies always help us get through it. When we thought about the song, we immediately thought "what helps us forget about the bad things?..........DOGS". From there, we thought of all the dogs we love on Instagram and were able to connect with Horton and Hazel McSnorton, Kimchi, and Dawson. Word actually got out, and we were even reached out to by some amazing dog volunteers in Coal, Atticus, and Farley. Nice Diggz was a great host for the shoot and we couldn't have been happier with how everything turned out."
It's an amazing song, and there are puppies! Check out the video below.
Bad Things
FXRRVST is just getting started with Bad Things. They've got another single, and an EP, Dear Friend coming.
Dear Friend; (side A) is the first of a double EP that's coming out in April. If you think of the two EPs as an album, Dear Friend; (side A) is a teaser for the whole thing.
"We really developed what we wanted our sound to be with this double EP, and this first EP is just a taste of how we've grown as artists since our last album in 2016."
5 Quick Questions with FXRRVST
FXRRVST's has four dates scheduled in March including March 7 in Mississauga at the Erin Mills Town Centre Sunrise Records, March 13 at the Horseshoe Tavern, March 14 at the St. Catharines Sunrise Records in the Pen Centre, and on March 21 in Guelph at Sunrise Records in the Stone Road Mall. We hope to see them soon at their dream venue, The Danforth Music Hall. Additionally, they've got a six-date Ontario plus Montreal tour, once the EP is released.
FXRRVST's Links
