“Sleeping on eggshells

I know too much

Behind your locked door

Man on the run”

“This is taken directly from my experience at the hands of a former partner. Whilst I’ve written about it in other songs, this is the first time I’ve addressed it this head-on,” says singer Lily Rae.

“It’s such a common experience for so many people, especially women, that I wanted it to feel recognisable and relatable to anyone who’s gone through the same thing. It’s terrifying and suffocating at the time, but then the aftermath is just anger and later pity. You spend the whole relationship wondering what you could do better and then once you’re free of it you realise the way someone treats you was never your fault, or your problem, at all.

“I didn’t intend for it to sound like Army of Me by Bjork and Plump by Hole crashing into each other on a motorway but that’s how it turned out and I’m not mad about it. Bob the Excellent Mastering Guy said it was ‘very In Utero’, so that’s nice too. A Big Angry Song!!!”

Guitarist Alex enthuses about how the band have embraced pushing themselves in a new direction.

“In ten years of being Fightmilk, we’ve got used to doing things a certain way, and as we were finishing No Souvenirs, we started thinking of it as the end of an era in some ways,” he says. “’Sounds Like A You Problem’ was the first new song we worked on after that album, so we figured it would be a good time to try something different.

“Working with a new producer in a new studio encouraged everyone out of their comfort zone on this song in one way or another. Without any backing vocals getting in the way, we probably all just decided to scream through our instruments instead. We went into Rich Mandell’s with no agenda, half-seriously throwing references around like PJ Harvey, The Geraldine Fibbers and, er, Limp Bizkit in an attempt to match the nervous scratchy energy of Lily’s initial demo, and we couldn’t be more proud of what he’s pulled out of us.

“When we started playing it live, Lily used to yell “I’m sorry” over the middle 8, and I’m glad she doesn’t anymore. This song is many things; apologetic isn’t one of them.”

The post Fightmilk share new single ‘Sounds Like A You Problem’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

Three years in the making, the 12-track album is preceded by its second single and title track ‘No Souvenirs’. A poignant, stirring and personal paean to coping with losing a loved one, the new single is a big-hearted quasi-epic, deftly navigating the fine line between remembering and moving on.

Vocalist Lily says: “This is a song about surviving a loved one’s death and what you do with the leftovers. In 2013 a close friend of mine died and it messed me up for a really long time. It took ten years to write about it in a way that felt right, because I kept trying to articulate him and couldn’t get it down on paper.

“So instead this song is about that balancing act of honouring a life whilst also trying to hold onto little bits of it. I kept everything – notes, letters, texts, even a packet of instant flan mix he sent me once as a weird joke – but at the back of my mind is the knowledge that it’s just stuff that I’ve given power. Souvenirs lose their meaning over time. The memory of him is really the only important thing.

“It’s a sad song about death but I wanted it to sound huge and final, like I’m putting something to bed.”

Guitarist Alex observed: “It might be the best song we’ve ever written. It’s definitely Lily’s best set of lyrics. The second we finished it, there was no question the album was going to be built with that song at its foundation.”

No Souvenirs:

1. Summer Bodies
2. That Thing You Did
3. Canines
4. Back From Tour
5. Yearning and Pining
6. Banger #7
7. No Souvenirs
8. Inferno
9. My Best Me
10. Eating For Two
11. Paddling Pool
12. 30

The post Fightmilk announce new album No Souvenirs & share the title track appeared first on She Makes Music.

Commenting on the track, vocalist Lily says: “It’s about how women and femmes are constantly bombarded with media telling us how to be our best and most beautiful selves, or, bluntly, how to bully your mind and body into an image set by constantly moving goalposts—straight teeth, white skin, feminine but not girly, cool but not threatening, skinny waist, snatched jawline. Products that promise to shrink you in the guise of ‘wellness’. And if you don’t look like that, you’re supposed to hate yourself until you do. No thanks. Our favourite bit in this song is where we all take turns unleashing a big scream.”

The first taste of their much-anticipated third album, the band recently signed to Fika Recordings (Mammoth Penguins, Fortitude Valley) and INH Records, with further details and news to be revealed over the coming months. New single ‘Summer Bodies’ questions patriarchal society’s ridiculous and ever-changing expectations of women’s bodies and the futile quest to ‘be sexy’, with Lily’s dead-pan commentary weaving between buoyant harmonies and gloriously scuzzy hooks.

A fierce ode to self-love in the face of the onslaught of damaging beauty standards that we are constantly bombarded with, it also sees Fightmilk flirt with a heavier side to their sound than fans may be used to. So, as the warmer weather approaches, wear whatever makes you feel comfortable, pay no mind to the incessant Instagram ads about fad diets or corrective procedures, and know that you look great – whatever size, age or gender you may be. As bassist Healey summarises: “life’s too short, do whatever the fck you want, do no harm and take no sht.”

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