The absolutely brilliant, eclipsing beauty of "Fader" by singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Imaad Wasif hinges on Imaad's lush earnest vocal countenance, the vast production touches by producer and long-time collaborator Bobb Bruno of Best Coast, the supporting embracing backing harmonies of Jen Wood [The Postal Service] and maybe the ghost of John Lennon looking down from a great height. For me, central to the exquisite, sublime beauty is the spatial sounds, the feeling that their are distance between the instruments and the microphones. It feels like the track was recorded in a big space, in a church with reflective surfaces. The rolling piano has the rough edges of that space and maybe the timbre of Lennon's piano sound and I can't help but here some of his vocal timbre in Imaad's lilt too. And if you hear John you might hear George in those heavenly guitar flights.
Of the song, Imaad shares:
"I think I carried this song around for almost 8 years and had recorded a few different versions. The album version was a first take recorded early on the first morning I learned how to actually play the chords on piano. Simply put, I wrote it for the idea of lost love. It was originally a guitar song with a ton of Harrison-esque slides on it, but I never felt like it floated the way it should until I played it on piano. Jen Wood [The Postal Service] sang on this and completely blew the choruses out of the water. I have no idea where the lyrics came from but this one in particular felt like a gift from the gods. Like I’d been sitting on a precipice on mushrooms listening to Neil Young’s ‘Borrowed Tune’ off of ‘Tonight’s the Night’, wanting to go that fucking raw but never having the guts to until this one. Not enough can be said about Bobb Bruno’s [Best Coast - So Long Mr. Fear co-producer] vibraphone on this, which immediately puts you into a catatonic dream state along with his alien synth pizzicato Spector strings and Angelo Badalamenti type swells. All this is swirling around in the unconscious magic of this track, I’m lucky I was somehow chosen to receive it.
Press notes reveal:
"I think I carried this song around for almost 8 years and had recorded a few different versions. The album version was a first take recorded early on the first morning I learned how to actually play the chords on piano. Simply put, I wrote it for the idea of lost love. It was originally a guitar song with a ton of Harrison-esque slides on it, but I never felt like it floated the way it should until I played it on piano. Jen Wood [The Postal Service] sang on this and completely blew the choruses out of the water. I have no idea where the lyrics came from but this one in particular felt like a gift from the gods. Like I’d been sitting on a precipice on mushrooms listening to Neil Young’s ‘Borrowed Tune’ off of ‘Tonight’s the Night’, wanting to go that fucking raw but never having the guts to until this one. Not enough can be said about Bobb Bruno’s [Best Coast - So Long Mr. Fear co-producer] vibraphone on this, which immediately puts you into a catatonic dream state along with his alien synth pizzicato Spector strings and Angelo Badalamenti type swells. All this is swirling around in the unconscious magic of this track, I’m lucky I was somehow chosen to receive it.
Press notes reveal:
"Fader" is from Imaad's sixth studio album "So Long Mr. Fear" (released on August 9, 2022 via Sonic Ritual), the “Fader” video is a gorgeously shot mood piece that reflects the graceful beauty of the single. Amidst scenes of a couple slow dancing while Wasif plays a grand piano, and other visual vignettes, the tilaka painted on his forehead is a cultural reminder of his “personal secular spiritual beliefs.” He adds, “The mark is worn as a direct confrontation of a philosophically diametric upbringing: My mother Hindu and my father Muslim.”
I look forward to listening to the full album. As I listen to "Fader" on repeat I realize that I might just be hearing John because I miss him so much. Whatever the reason, "Fader" will live in my heart from now on.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/imaadwasifmusic
https://www.instagram.com/imaadwasif/?hl=en
https://open.spotify.com/track/2vDLKGq1NDdn7O1i8xdDDk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQz0pC9gBKk
So Long Mr. Fear is an intimate album that was tracked mostly in isolation (during the first U.S. covid lockdown) in conjunction with producer and long-time collaborator Bobb Bruno of Best Coast. The album, as Imaad says, is a "rejection of perfection" - only doing the vocals and piano/guitar live for these new songs, keeping it to the first or second take, and for the first time, writing a lot of the music on piano - which took away his sense of comfort and control in songwriting and in turn "proved to be the way to find [himself]."
On So Long Mr. Fear, Imaad, producer and long-time collaborator Bobb Bruno, and mixer GRAMMY®-nominated Lewis Pesacov (Best Coast, Nikki Lane, FIDLAR, Local Natives) unearthed big ideas by carving away at smaller things until they glisten with universality. The album also features Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Jen Wood (The Postal Service, Tattle Tale) on vocals.
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
https://www.facebook.com/imaadwasifmusic
https://www.instagram.com/imaadwasif/?hl=en
https://open.spotify.com/track/2vDLKGq1NDdn7O1i8xdDDk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQz0pC9gBKk
So Long Mr. Fear is an intimate album that was tracked mostly in isolation (during the first U.S. covid lockdown) in conjunction with producer and long-time collaborator Bobb Bruno of Best Coast. The album, as Imaad says, is a "rejection of perfection" - only doing the vocals and piano/guitar live for these new songs, keeping it to the first or second take, and for the first time, writing a lot of the music on piano - which took away his sense of comfort and control in songwriting and in turn "proved to be the way to find [himself]."
On So Long Mr. Fear, Imaad, producer and long-time collaborator Bobb Bruno, and mixer GRAMMY®-nominated Lewis Pesacov (Best Coast, Nikki Lane, FIDLAR, Local Natives) unearthed big ideas by carving away at smaller things until they glisten with universality. The album also features Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Jen Wood (The Postal Service, Tattle Tale) on vocals.
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Imaad Wasif, singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, indie rock, avant pop, indie pop, dream pop, new album, "So Long Mr. Fear", new single, Official Video, "Fader",
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