Faye Webster

 Faye Webster has released her first new single in 2 years. ‘But Not Kiss’ towers as a modern love song, steeped in the in-between feelings where romantic longing crashes into ambivalence, with an explosive piano hook the song oscillates between Webster’s near-whispered intimacies and a stunning, maximal arrangement. ‘I think it could be a really romantic song or a really anti-romantic song,’ explains Webster. ‘It’s something I’ve looked for but struggled to find in other love songs, for them to describe this conflict or contradiction.’ Along with the new single, Webster has released a companion music video directed by Kyle Ng of Brain Dead and filmed at Los Angeles’ famed Bob Baker Marionette Theatre.

As she works toward a subsequent full-length, Faye Webster acknowledges that ‘But Not Kiss’ ‘says a lot about what’s coming.’ With an immediate, lovelorn yearning and a stunning, maximal arrangement, ‘But Not Kiss’ is both Classic Faye and a new pinnacle achieved.  Her most recent release was her Car Therapy Sessions EP which came out in April of 2021 via Secretly Canadian. The EP featured re-imaginings of her works for orchestra. The orchestral ensemble was headed by Trey Pollard who was responsible for both conducting and arranging. Like Cole Porter, or Judy Garland – her delicate and emotional delivery packs a gut punch when dramatised by the EP’s robust arrangements and the experience’s influence can be heard in spades on the new single.

I Know I’m Funny haha, the 25-year-old artist’s most recent full length was also her most fully realized effort to date. Though she usually tackles album-making in a song-by-song approach, 2020 necessitated a more intensive recording process. Webster immediately knew the Athens-based players she wanted to record with and headed into the studio with producer/mixer Drew Vandenberg (Deerhunter, Of Montreal, Kishi Bashi). They assembled a band including Harold Brown on drums, Bryan Howard on bass, Nic Rosen on keys and Matt “Pistol” Stoessel on pedal steel – one of the most reliable and essential musical elements of Webster’s records.