By: Kat Harlton
http://www.fmberlinmusic.com
FM Berlin is a four-piece Alternative Rock band from Moncton, New Brunswick, who’s press release states that they sound like “The Police and The Strokes made a baby….in space.”
The band’s new album, At Least You’re Having Fun, (July 2017) had a few false starts, after the band recorded the entire album in a state of the art recording studio at the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia community college. After hearing the finished product, they decided the sound wasn’t right and ended up putting together a home studio in Moncton. Guitarist Matt Clowes says the band “Didn’t want to be pigeonholed to a certain geographical location”. The new album was then produced remotely (via email and skype) by two Toronto based producers, Jason Dufour (Tokyo Police Club, July Talk, Lights) and Josh Bowman (Matthew Good and The Balconies).
The first single, Yer Honour, is an upbeat pop rock song laden with new wave guitar runs and soaring chants. “It’s a song about not giving in to self-doubt,” says frontman Corey Hachey. With lyrics like, “…say what you will, but I’ve been hard to kill, tell everyone else, that I ain’t going down….” that message is clearly delivered.
Although the end product is clear, Hachey explains that the song writing process can start out a little hectic “Sometimes it starts with the lyric and the melody, and sometimes it starts with the music. Sometimes I do something and it doesn’t fit, so I just put it aside for something else. Matt (Clowes) will often come in with music and I’ll just sing gibberish at the start, with a few words in there. It sounds like English, but mostly it makes no sense, sometimes full sentences will come out or sometimes a full song will come out. Most times it’s just gibberish, and then it slowly starts to form over time. Often I’ll write something out on an acoustic, or sometimes I’ll just write a vocal melody. There’s no rule. We never think ‘we need to sound like this’, we just know when it sounds right, when it feels alive.”
FM Berlin’s authenticness extends not only into their live shows, but into their social media presence as well says Bassist Glen Farquhar “We post a lot of live shots, because it seems the most honest.” Drummer Nick Michaud agrees “If your dishonest about your portrayal of yourself, then that’s going to come through. It’s whatever is going to resonate with people, and be honest, because you can’t control it.”
Hachey explains that same level of passion goes into everything they do, in order to be successful “You may end up having to do a lot of things that you don’t like to do, which often ends up taking up more of your time than the actual music. It’s not going to be just grab your guitar or instrument and play and sing. In these times you have to do everything, even things labels used to do for you.”
FM Berlin gleaned its name from (Bassist) Glen Farquhar’s father who (in June of 1960) carried a concealed camera into Soviet occupied East Berlin, and was able to smuggle pictures of the bombed out city back to Canada.
FM Berlin are the recipients of the 2016 Bell Media Prize from Canada’s Music Incubator. They’ve showcased at East Coast Music Week in St. John’s Newfoundland, and took home the Music New Brunswick Emerging Artist of the Year award in (2014) for their debut EP In The Interest of National Security released in (2013).
Please see: http://www.fmberlinmusic.com for tour dates and more info