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Photo via freedomfrymusic.com
You might not know their name yet, but if you've seen this viral YouTube video, you've definitely heard their music.
Retro-inspired indie pop duo Freedom Fry is celebrating a successful summer in which their EP, The Wilder Mile, was released, and they completed a stint as artist-in-residence at ALT 98.7 in their homebase of Los Angeles. After gaining a whole new level of exposure with the help of a feature in Filter magazine they scored through Sonicbids, Freedom Fry is closing this chapter with their soon-to-be released limited edition vinyl collection of singles.
The pair behind the band, Michigan native Bruce Driscoll and French singer/songwriter Marie Seyrat, spoke with us about their new music, their DIY approach to music videos, and advice they wish they had prior to entering the music industry.
You released your latest EP, The Wilder Mile, this past August. What sets this EP apart from your past releases?
Seyrat: We're constantly looking to have different genres and inspirations bleed over into our sound. The Wilder Mile has a very uptempo, folky vibe, and we hadn't done something quite like that before.
Driscoll: The overall sound of the recordings is also a bit different from our earlier stuff. We had just built a brand-new studio from the ground up, so we had a lot of things at our fingertips that we've never had on other Freedom Fry songs. Live drums versus samples, for example, was, for us, a big exciting step up – not only from a sonic perspective, but also from a songwriting angle because so many of our songs begin as drumbeats.
So far, you've released music videos for "The Wilder Mile" and "Home." How did you go about filming these as DIY musicians?
Driscoll: "The Wilder Mile" video was really fun to make, and a bit of a surprise, because we had no idea what it was going to look like at first. We just knew we needed a video to help get the song out there. A while back, we got a camera in order to be able to make our own videos as quickly and easily as possible. We both trade off doing our album artwork in Photoshop, and with my familiarity with Pro Tools and other recording software, it was easy enough to figure out the basics of Adobe Premiere. So when it came time to film the video, we moved a lot of the gear out of our studio, grabbed the tripod, and took turns filming each other until we felt like might have enough shots. Then, we edited it and tried to make it as rhythmic as possible so it really conveyed the energy of the song.
Seyrat: It was a very organic experience.... We're very DIY and not afraid to make anything for better or for worse. If it's not good, we just delete it and start over. No harm done. With "Home," we wanted to have more of a story and asked our friend Eric Maldin, who shot our "Summer in the City" video, to help us out again. He's so easy to work with, and he gets our style and our music, so we spent a day shooting around LA and in our house with our friend Lexi as the heroine. We attempted to show the dichotomy of California life, the haves and the have-nots in a split-screen. There's a bit of a twist ending, too. The highlight of the shoot was probably when Eric stole a shopping cart from Ralph's to use as a prop. The cart did eventually make it back to Ralph's, but it was well worth the theft for the shots of Lexi with it.
What's the songwriting process between you two like? Do you generally write together, or do you bring your ideas to one another and work from there?
Seyrat: Either we go to the studio and start with a beat or a guitar riff and build it up together, or we look through our iPhones' voice memos and choose a melody we thought of beforehand and go from that.
Driscoll: Yes, we have many mumbly-sounding voice memos that sometimes become the seeds of our songs. We usually try to start with writing choruses. From there, we construct the different sections until we either get really excited about the track or move on and try something else.
You were the artist in residence at ALT 98.7 in Los Angeles this past July. How did that opportunity come about?
Seyrat: We've known DJ Tobi Lynn for a while now, and when this contest came up to play with Echosmith and Phantogram on July 4, she reached out to us and other local bands about entering. The deal was whoever wrote a song about California and got the most votes on their site would win an opening slot at the show. So we wrote and recorded the song "Home" in a few hours, submitted it, and ended up winning. Supposedly, she had been thinking about making us their artist-in-residence down the road, but since the stars all aligned, she had us do that month instead.
You've gotten some pretty great gigs through Sonicbids. What have been your favorite so far?
Driscoll: Sonicbids has consistently surprised us by coming through on so many things that we thought might be long shots. Our favorite gig would probably be Filter magazine's "Discovering the Undiscovered" feature. Being on the website and in print in a magazine we read all the time was a really big deal for us.
Your song "Summer in the City" was featured on an NBC segment with Brian Williams. The footage is absolutely gorgeous, but how cool was it to hear your song in the background with Brian Williams?
Driscoll: I've known Thomas, the director, for a while now, and he's extremely gifted in bringing out the beautiful side of everything he shoots. I provided music for one of his short films called Girder in which he brings to life the New York construction workers having lunch atop a crossbeam photo and adds a great narrative. When he asked if he could use the Starcadian remix of "Summer in the City" in this, we were thrilled, but obviously didn’t know what to expect. When the video rapidly started amassing millions of views on YouTube, we were floored. Sun damage has never looked more dreamy, and sunscreen never looked more effective. When NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams aired it, we were extremely happy for Thomas and very thankful that he asked us to use our music. It brought a lot of new fans our way.
What piece of advice do you wish someone would have told you when you were first starting out in the music business?
Seyrat: I kinda fell into it unexpectedly, so I think I would have loved it if someone had told me that I needed to be stronger and maybe not open up as much as I tend to do naturally. I'm French, so I'm usually pretty honest and direct, but I think sometimes I should think twice before talking. I definitely had to challenge my confidence every now and then.
Driscoll: That it's all about practice, patience, and perseverance. When your opportunity finally comes, you'd better be ready by knowing your craft. On the way up, the ladder isn't a straight line; it's always ups and downs. You'd better be able to deal and keep going. Also, the best times in your career usually follow the most tumultuous times. Get through the clouds.
What's next for Freedom Fry?
Seyrat: We just released our very first vinyl, and it feels like the close of the first chapter of Freedom Fry's adventure. The tracks on there are all our singles since we started in 2011, but there's also a new song called "Some Way" that hasn't been released anywhere else yet. So that's the little bonus for the people who buy it. The record pretty much sums up what we've been doing until now before we transition into our next phase, whatever that may be. It's magical to hear a song you wrote play back with that crackle behind it. It feels so good as a band to have that kind of reward.
Driscoll: We have plans for how we'd like 2015 to shape up and are really excited for the new year, new music, and new places we'll go. For the holidays, we're going to lock ourselves in our new studio, which we now call the Cactus Garden. See you in 2015!
