Fear of Men is a
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
-based band that formed in early 2011 and consists of Jess Weiss (vocals/guitar), Daniel Falvey (guitars/keyboards) and Michael Miles (drums).
On 12 February 2013 the band released a reverse chronological compilation of their early singles through
Kanine Records
Kanine Records is an independent record label based in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York started at the end of 2002 by Lio and Kay Kanine. Their first release, ''NY: The Next Wave'', was a 20 track compilation featuring mostly unsigne ...
called ''Early Fragments''.
The band released their debut album ''Loom'' in April 2014 through Kanine Records. A limited edition
Record Store Day
Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...
Vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
was released on 19 April 2014. In 2016 they released their second album ''Fall Forever''.
History
Fear of Men was formed in early 2011 by Jessica Weiss and Daniel Falvey. For her art degree, Weiss had been creating soundtracks for her short films and she met Falvey at one of the exhibitions for her films. Falvey, a guitarist and a fellow art student, liked her recordings and they started working together. Weiss became the lead vocalist and lyricist,
while Lin and Anthony joined on bass and drums respectively.
In March 2011, they released a four-track cassette entitled the "
Hannah Schygulla Demos" on the Sex is Disgusting label and began to perform live locally.
In August the band released the single "Ritual Confession" on the Italian Beach Babes label.
It was followed in December of that year by the "
Alice Munro
Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move f ...
Demos" . Over the course of 2012 Lin was replaced by Robyn Edwards on bass, while they were joined by Michael Miles (ex
Laish) drums. This created the core of Weiss, Falvey and Miles as a trio that recorded together while bass was added to the live-setting.
In June 2012 they release the single "Green Sea" on the Sexbeat label. It was followed by the 7" "Mosaic" October on
Too Pure
Too Pure was a London-based independent record label formed in 1990 by Richard Roberts and Paul Cox. The label gained prominence after the release of PJ Harvey's debut album '' Dry'' in 1992, and subsequently found further success in the late ...
.
In February 2013,
Kanine Records
Kanine Records is an independent record label based in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York started at the end of 2002 by Lio and Kay Kanine. Their first release, ''NY: The Next Wave'', was a 20 track compilation featuring mostly unsigne ...
released a compilation of previous recordings as ''Early Fragments''. It included the previous three singles and one previously unreleased track "Sheer". The album was described as "moving backwards from their most recent dreamy haze to their first art school experiments" by
Consequence of Sound
''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. In addition, the website also features the Festival Outlook ...
. The band also performed at
SXSW
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
, Festival Nrmal and the
Indietracks
Indietracks was an annual indie pop music festival at the Midland Railway in Butterley, Derbyshire, UK. The main site was located at Swanwick Junction. Bands played in variety of locations, including a restored church, in a train shed, and on ...
festivals,
while Edwards was replaced by Alex Flynn-O'Neill.
They worked on their debut LP ''Loom'', which was released in May 2014.
In a review on Pitchfork described it as "wistful dream pop" while it received an aggregated score of 83 on Metacritic. They preceded to go on tour in North America and Europe supporting
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were an American indie pop band from New York City, formed in 2007. The band centered around founding member and principal songwriter Kip Berman (vocals, guitar). In the band's final iteration, Berman was joined ...
.
After the release of ''Loom'', Weiss began composing new songs while experimenting with electronic sounds.
The new material was played live during a short tour supporting
Lower Dens
Lower Dens was an American alternative indie pop band from Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The band was formed in 2010 by Jana Hunter, Geoff Graham, Abram Sanders and Will Adams. Lower Dens has released four albums: their debut on Gnomonson ...
in October 2015.
This experience changed some of the material as the band "wanted to write an album that would make the stage shake, and we had to work out how we could sound stronger and get our ideas across in a more concise way".
By the end of December 2015 the recording had been completed.
Style
In relation to recording the second album, Falvey commented that "We got a lot more interested in manipulating sounds and building songs with computers, but we had to learn how to combine that with our live performance".
Discography
Albums
* ''Loom'' - (2014)
* ''Fall Forever'' - (2016)
Singles
* ''"''Ritual Confession''"'' - Italian Beach Babes, 2011
* "Mosaic" -
Too Pure
Too Pure was a London-based independent record label formed in 1990 by Richard Roberts and Paul Cox. The label gained prominence after the release of PJ Harvey's debut album '' Dry'' in 1992, and subsequently found further success in the late ...
, 2012
* "Green Sea" - Sexbeat, 2012
* "Luna" - Art Is Hard Records, 2014
* "Island" - Kanine Records, 2016
* "Into Strangeness" - Apertura, 2020
Compilations
* ''Early Fragments'' (2013)
References
{{Authority control
British indie rock groups
Musical groups established in 2011
English musical trios
2011 establishments in England