Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: I think as I grew up, I passed through a lot of different phases of what music I was into – classic rock, alternative rock in the early 90s, and then into electronic and experimental music later on. I think the sound of The Formalist reflects a lot of those early influences, and is intrinsically a little bit of a nostalgic look at how different sounds conjure up different feelings and memories in the context of these songs.
Q: Can you describe the musical style of The Formalist in three words?
A: evocative, atmospheric electro-pop
Q: How do you stay connected with your fans, and what role do they play in shaping your musical journey?
A: We worked on the new formalist album for a couple of years and are really eager to see how people respond to it now that it’s out in the world. My hope is that will get picked up perhaps on soundtracks or other places where more people can connect to the songs and be moved by them as we develop our audience.
Q: You have just released your new single, ‘A=N’. Is there a story behind it?
A: The title of this song comes from the lyrics, about amnesia and nostalgia, and how both remembering and forgetting are the ways that we create the story of our lives. It’s kind of a wistful track – someone recently described it as a romantic breakup ballad – but I think of it more as being about how we lose or forget who we once were, and find ourselves all over again.
Q: What is your favorite track from the upcoming album and why?
A: It’s always hard to pick a favorite, but I can say the most recent single A = N is probably the song we worked on the longest – I think I first had the chord progression and baseline back in 2017 or so. It took a while for that song to find its final shape and I think it’s development kind of underscores how we created all the songs on this album – a process of back-and-forth iteration, where erik would play something on the guitar that I would turn into an ambience soundscape, and I would write bassline on a synth that Erik would then play on an electric bass and really bring to life. I think both sonically and lyrically all the elements of the album are there in that one song.
Q: Can you walk us through the creative process of producing the album?
A: The songs were pretty organic mix of loops, samples, beats and baselines that I would create in my home studio setup and bring to Erik in his glass box studio to write guitar parts, work out the lyrics together, and track all the vocals. There’s a pretty seamless blending of the two styles of creating and songwriting that come together on each one of the songs. Often, I would then take guitar parts or vocals by Erik and manipulate them back in the samplers to make additional textures and layers which blends the foreground and background of the songs in hopefully an evocative way.
Q: What has been the most memorable concert or performance for The Formalist so far?
A: The Formalist is really a studio creation – it took years to put together some of these songs. We have not attempted to translate that into live performance just yet!
Q: Reflecting on your body of work, each song holding its unique significance, could you share a particular track that stands out to you personally? What makes that specific tune special, and why does it hold a place of pride in your musical journey?
A: I think the second single, we released, Finite, is maybe the most personal song on the record for me – it was written during early pandemic times in New York City when there was a lot of loss and tension and despair. So that song was really coming to terms with life and loss and in that way, the lyrics are may be the most direct. The whole chorus of the song is the word “please” so it doesn’t get much more plaintive than that.
Q: Exploring the diverse creative processes within the music industry is always fascinating. Could you provide insight into The Formalist’s unique approach to crafting music? From the initial spark of an idea to the finished song, how do you navigate the creative journey and bring its musical concepts to life?
A: I think the great part about The Formalist is that these songs are not something that either one of us could’ve created ourselves. Certainly without Erik’s guitar, songwriting gift, and talent as a singer these songs couldn’t possibly exist. And in his own musical work, Erik is more of a traditional, singer/songwriter, and multi instrumentalist, and there’s much less of an electronic or experimental quality to his other work. So I think that’s what we bring to each other and these songs – the ability to push both of us outside of our talent and our comfort zones.
Q: As we wrap up our conversation, looking ahead, what aspirations or dreams do you have for The Formalist, and what message would you like to share with your fans as they continue to accompany you on this musical journey?
A: I would say that creating the album, A Trace of Yourself, was something that helped get us through that difficult period of time in New York early in the pandemic, and as that ended we were able to finish the album as a document of our journey through that time. So my hope is that now that it’s coming out, people will find some resonance in that, and that these songs might help them to look backwards or look forward, and also transport them a little bit.
