Fear of Men, hailing from the beach town of Brighton, England create dark, guitar-based pop that shouldn’t be described as beach day music. The band doesn’t sound like a tourist attraction — there’s glimmer and shimmer — but it’s that of raw nerves and dreams that are hard to wake from. The trio released Early Fragments last year, an introduction to the world and love forlorn lyricism of Jessica Weiss (who started Fear of Men as an art project). On Loom, the band weaves (pardon the pun) their existential lyricism deeper while fleshing out their sound with more instruments while maintaining their dreamy sound. Below, Weiss talks about inspiration, art, and more.
Jessica, you’ve mentioned you have “obsessive phases” of reading about certain people or subjects. What are you currently reading about? How does translate into your music?
Currently it’s J M Coetzee. I first read Elizabeth Costello last year or the year before and that had some brilliant images and ideas in it which I found really inspiring, for the last few months I’ve been working my way through his published output. Youth is incredibly perceptive and humorous. I’m now reading a book of essays about him edited by Jane Poyner. It kind of saturates my imagination rather than directly influencing what I write about so it affects the music in a more impressionistic way.
Seeing as art plays an important role in your life and work, what is your favorite work of art?
This is as hard or harder than asking someone for their favorite record… In the same way different music represents different phases of my life to me, so does art. Growing up I was crazy about the impressionists, Monet and Van Gogh, when I got a bit older I wanted to be a photorealist painter and was fascinated by the technique. I spent some time as studio assistant to a painter called Juno Doran who did a really beautiful series of paintings of outsiders that affected me a lot when I was at school… Then I went to Goldsmiths and got into Sophie Calle and Pipilotti Rist, Marlene Dumas, Goshak Macuga… I couldn’t really pick a favorite piece, but last summer when I stumbled across Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party in the Brooklyn Museum that was something pretty special that has stayed with me.
You’ve had various lineup changes and are down to a trio. Is this the last incarnation of the band?
We’ve actually always written and recorded as a three piece- fourth members have come and gone live, but never been involved with the music. At the completion of the album we thought that while it’s nice to include live members in photos, we’d had too many changes so we’ve cut down to a trio for that aspect but nothing’s changed about how the music is written and recorded. We now have Rebecca Wilkie playing bass for us so we’re still a four piece really.
You’re one of the few bands in recent memory that really seems to know and be aware of how it wants to be visually represented. Do you think all artists have a responsibility to be involved in the creative direction of their visuals (whether it be music videos, album artwork, etc)?
We think it’s extremely important, so we’re heavily involved in everything. We make all our own artwork and we’ve collaborated on all our videos. I don’t think it’s as key for some people, but to be honest I can’t imagine another way. Anything that we’re capable of doing ourselves we will.
What are three books that left a lasting impression on you?
The Bell Jar. So many young women relate to it that it’s become an incredibly cliched choice, but that doesn’t make the writing any less powerful- people relate to it because of it’s truth.
Anais Nin’s biography by Diedre Bair. It really set me off reading in a lot of different directions, and it’s written in a very engaging style which neither vilifies or canonises her, which is rare. A really intriguing life, and Bair is an excellent life writer- her books on Samuel Beckett and Simone De Beauvoir are great too. I’d love to be a biography writer.
Morrissey’s autobiography I finished recently and his commitment to his art and principles really struck me. The middle section of the book is fantastic. I like his style of writing where many of the facts are hazy, but you’re still left with a strong impression of the person. I’ve always been a big Smiths fan, but almost used to think that I liked them in spite of him, as I found his public persona quite unappealing and macho these days. Reading the book though, his charisma gets you, and I felt the way that I’m sure most of his fans do- that you both understand something of the other that is deeper than skin.
What does the album cover and title represent?
We’ve previously used classical/archival/museum objects as our cover art, so this was our chance to be a step more ambitious and make our own object to photograph. Inspired by the casts of bodies found at Pompeii we worked with my friend from art school Tom Malyon, who’s a talented sculptor and set designer to make our response to this. We wanted to make a figure that referenced this classical tragedy in a state between sleep and agony, and contained in a vitrine, which links in with one of the song titles on the record. As a whole, it’s an expression of feeling isolated and estranged from something, as many people I think feel their days are coloured by something hanging over them, a mood or a presence, and this links in with the idea of the volcano looming over Pompeii. We liked the duality of the album name too, as the record has many textures woven together.
Loom definitely seems to have a narrative. What do you hope listeners take away from it?
I hope they find it an interesting record, I feel quite protective of it personally. It represents many different things for me so a listener can take away what they want, I don’t think you can control that.
Fear of Men’s Loom is out tomorrow on Kanine Records. You can also see the band when they perform in Brooklyn this Wednesday at Baby’s All Right (FREE!).