Daiana Feuer on April 4th, 2018

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Meric Long of the Dodos has gotten synthed up for a solo project, FAN, with his self-produced debut album, “Barton’s Den,” coming out on May 4 via Polyvinyl. Long put music on hold when life brought big changes in the passing away of his father and the birth of his first child. Although they hadn’t had a great relationship, he inherited two synthesizers from his dad, a Yamaha AX60 and Realistic Concertmate MG-1, and began playing with them as a way to stay connected with his father. “I’ve had a lot of regret about not overcoming the space that existed between us,” says Long.” 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.”

Long worked on music whenever he had the opportunity, two weeks in a cottage alone in Galicia, Spain, a week in a Portland basement during a blizzard, and at night in an Oakland garage, Meric “Barton” Long’s titular “Den.” Getting into synths was a daunting transition. “I have such a specific approach to guitar, and have been doing it for so long that breaking away from that felt like a huge, scary leap,” he says.

The latest single from the record, “Velour” has a whimsical origin, inspired by “Rupaul’s Drag Race” of all things. Long says, “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 every time 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.”

||| Watch: The Joseph Baughman-directed video for “Velour”