S.Lo on February 14th, 2019

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On the heels of organizing the beautiful tribute show for their (and many others’) late producer Richard Swift, Sam France and Jonathan Rado, aka Foxygen, returned in a more introspective mood to the studio, sans orchestra and fanfare this time, with just the two of them producing and writing, Jim Keltner on drums and Shawn Everett engineering and mixing at Sonora Recorders in Los Feliz. Their lead single, “Livin’ a Lie,” from their upcoming album “Seeing Other People,” (out April 26 via Jagjaguwar) provides that at a certain point one reaches a point of reflection.

The video for the single, directed by Alessandra Lichtenfeld and filmed in Calabasas and the duo’s hometown of Westlake Village in the wake of the Woolsey fire, evokes a sense of emptiness and aloneness with mansions deserted and foundational structures in ruins. The song opens with a vocoder effect just for a fleeting moment as France begins, “If it was a year ago, I probably wouldn’t have to say it on the phone” before dropping the artifice, “Yeah, you know I really gotta pray for your soul / Take down all the pictures, Joe / Yeah, I’m tryin’ to get on your vibe / But now you’re name-dropping me all the time / You know that I don’t really care for it / Yeah, you know that I don’t really care about it / How does it feel to be livin’ a lie?” Then singing almost to himself, “One more time,” before going at the line again, “How does it feel, again?” crushing into a compacted diminished minor chord then tailing out into a resigned bluesy suspension. It’s affecting. And filled with the spirit of Swift. The band calls it “Sad-Boy Plastic-Soul Adult-Contemporary Cartoon-Noir Music… chopping up pop culture and spinning it into a sticky, wicked web.”

Thematically, the song is about being done with the rat race of the music industry and its shady characters. France, who is working on a tell-all memoir called “Sam Francisco: Confessions of an Indie Rock Star” and launching his own record label, Fascist Records, says of the album, “For me ‘Seeing Other People’ just means goodbye: Goodbye to the drugs, to the partying. Goodbye to my twenties now. Goodbye to my Saint Laurent-model-body. Goodbye to the touring circus — that’s right, no more shows or tours for a while. Goodbye, hopefully, to the anxiety attacks. Goodbye to beating myself up because I didn’t fit into those leather pants anymore. Fuck it. Goodbye to the facilities. And goodbye the leeches in my life. I know a lot of gritty stories about a lot of players in this business but you’ll have to read between the lines. …

“I remember a quote from Rado sticking with the press a few years ago about how we’d lived every rock ’n’ roll cliche in, about, one year. Well, here’s the album about it… It sounds like your dad’s favorite recording artist circa 1985 [editor’s note: Elvis Costello?] sneaking off to the studio bathroom for a hit of blow. Or maybe, sometimes it sounds like Kanye West producing John Mellencamp. Please don’t quote this paragraph (They’re gonna put this one in all the headlines).” Oops…

More heartwrenching is the following part of France’s statement, “We’re never breaking up. We’re not a band and never were. …So, don’t be blue. We’ve always been a recording project.”

||| Watch: The video for “Livin’ a Lie”

||| Live: Sam France plays the Bootleg on Tuesday, Feb 19, (with Matt Pulos of Dub Thompson fame and Noah Champ Davies accompanying) launching his label Fascist Records, with Jimmy Whispers opening.

||| Previously: Richard Swift tribute, Live at the Greek Theatre, live at the Fonda Theatre, “On Lankershim,” “Follow the Leader,” “America,” live at the Roxy and “San Francisco”