Premiere: Former Faces, ‘Back Up a Minute’

Kevin Bronson on November 14th, 2016

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Former Faces is the new face for the music of Ryan Parmenter (KG Bird, Cue the Moon), whose journey toward sonic bliss now takes him to the heavens via Silver Lake, crafting ambient melancholia for stargazing both real and imagined. The slow-percolating “Back Up a Minute,” the second song he has unveiled, recalls the more cosmic moments of artists such as the War on Drugs and Mojave 3; it’s a gorgeous, spacious reverie about wishing he could go back in time. “I wrote ‘Back Up a Minute’ a few weeks ago, shortly after the death of my grandfather,” Parmenter says. “The verses are a final conversation I wish we’d had, and the choruses are a reminder that loss is a universal experience. At some point, we all long to move on.” In Former Faces’ live show, Parmenter (who wrote and produced the music himself) is backed by guitarist David Lee, bassist Brian Blake and drummer Abraham Kim, and he aims to make it a full audiovisual experience. For now, “Back Up a Minute” conjures up visuals enough.

||| Stream: “Back Up a Minute”