Music Spotlight: Favours

Nov 30

Nov 30 Music Spotlight: Favours

Meet new indie-rock band Favours. their second + latest single Stowaway is a dreamy track featuring vintage 80’s synths + lyricism that will give you a blissful escape from your relationship troubles. The band, composed of Parth Jain, Alexander Zen, Jacqueline Andrade, Dan Bothen, created a video for Stowaway that resulted in a mesmerizing piece of performance art, juxtaposing vivid colors with a moody, gloomy atmosphere. we chatted with alex about the single, the video + what’s next for the band.

Asymmetric Magazine: Congrats on your release of Stowaway. Can you tell us a little bit about it
Alex Zen: Thank you kindly! This is our second song we have put out independently, which will be part of a larger EP that we are putting out in early 2019. The song started as a kind of bossa nova jazz song with an ascending guitar line that I played around with for months. Favours were then able to take it in a whole different direction adding the Juno 106 synth and driving drums. In the studio, we recorded with Josh Korody, who pushed us to sing the song with a call and response vocal which really carried the song to its fullest potential—adding to the lyrical narrative.

AM: What do you hope people feel when they hear this song for the first time?
AZ: If people have any response or honest reaction to our music, that is a positive outcome in my book. If they actually feel something, that’s even better. What they feel is probably going to be affected by their current life situation, what they are listening for and how they are listening. I suppose when I listen to music, some songs will resonate with me because my internal dialogue is talking about something that it captures. What Stowaway means to me could be totally different than what someone else perceives, so I don’t really want to define any clear outline about the feelings it should provoke. I’ll just say it has a sombre, but uplifting mood, so if the song can fit into those quiet moments of your life and perhaps carry you through to something more elated, that would be ideal.

AM: The music video for this single is beautiful, what was the filming process like?
AZ: Thank you again! We are really happy it all turned out. There were a few hiccups in the process, but at the end of the day, we made it work. We produced and made our first video for our single In the Night, which follows a storyline about a cult that tries to capture a boy. In that video, the band was not really featured in the filming, so for Stowaway, we wanted to showcase the band and highlight our colorful vibes. We got the idea to use these translucent sheets from the movie Blow Up and went back and forth between five or more different ideas for narratives. Somehow, we settled on making the video as more of a performance art piece trying to capture vivid colors with pleasing images. The rain was a random chance event that ended up adding to the overall picture quality and mood, but that was pure luck of the draw.

AM: How would you describe your sound?
AZ: As a brand new band, we are still evolving with each song we write, but we seem to be singing some 80’s-sounding, moody, melodic, riffing, guitar, sexy slow jams.

AM: What themes do you typically pursue through your music?
AZ: When I write lyrics, I typically start with some off the cuff train of thought, rambling to get a melody before it settles into personal themes or events that have happened to me in life. I typically draw from past experiences or things I am working through, with perhaps a touch of lyrical rhyming just to keep people listening, as I dive back into self therapy.

AM: What other musicians are you currently listening to?
AZ: Men I trust, The Marias, Polo and Pan, Papooz, Rhye

AM: Where is one place that you feel completely in touch with your creative self and your music?
AZ: My parents’ house in the country when they are not home, and I can sing and play as loud as I want. I am very sensitive to noise and other people listening to me, so I can’t write in my downtown Toronto apartment. It kills me to think my neighbors are hearing me play the same song for months on end as I work out the pieces.

AM: What can we expect to hear from you next?
AZ: We will have an EP ready in 2019 and maybe another single to be released in December 2018. In early December, we are back in the studio with Josh Korody to record another six songs, which we hope will flesh out the EP. It’s a pretty even spread between melodic moody slow jams and upbeat 80s dance tunes, so hopefully you stick around to see what we are cooking.