This month’s PRESS PLAY featured artist is Edmonton-based singer-songwriter, Liam Faucher.
Earlier this year, Liam Faucher released Keeping, an album of quiet songs that command a lot of attention. For PRESS PLAY this month, Faucher shares “The Hive,” a previously unreleased song. Below, Faucher shares some of the song’s origin story:
I remember writing “The Hive” and thinking “my writer’s block is over.” It had been a few years of really struggling to get anything out. One day, spur of the moment, I opened the notes app, and five minutes later there was “The Hive.” It just goes like that sometimes.
It was a bit of a levee break. After “The Hive,” I spent a few months in a writing flurry and ended up with two albums in the bank — my 2020 and 2022 releases, Home Recipes and Keeping. “The Hive” didn’t make the cut on either album, but I’ve been looking for a way to show it some love ever since.
Like many folks making music over the pandemic, my work these last few years has been an exercise in self-education and home recording. I’ve enjoyed leaning into my limitations and pulling out things that interest me from the imperfections in my janky tracks. “The Hive” is a very early effort, and it shows. The vocal looping — the buzz — is a patchwork of individual hums copied and pasted like paint thrown at a wall. My hope, though, is that the chaos, naivety, and even arrogance of the recording matches the song’s distraught emotional palette. I wanted something pretty but disturbed, and I think that’s what I got.
PRESS PLAY: Liam Faucher, “The Hive”
Thanks for checking out DOMINIONATED
We rely on reader support to keep delivering Canadian music conversations like the one you’re reading.
Become a supporter and help keep DOMINIONATED’s conversations going.
