There have been a few instances where Happy articles have referred to a certain artist or song as a lost track form the Drive soundtrack, as you can see here and here. Perhaps our writers share a great taste in film, or perhaps are running a sly underground marketing campaign so more people will want to watch a mute Ryan Gosling with robotic synths in the background.
Or perhaps it’s something more; the way that film takes seemingly cold music that really has a ridiculous amount of heart and character, despite the lack of words spoken, much like the main character. Froyo is one such artist that walks the delicate line between cool and calm, and warm and passionate.
Rev up your Delorean, it’s time to go back to the 80s courtesy of the synth pop of Froyo. The Sydney trio embrace the richness of the genre to full effect.
Froyo are a three piece synth pop outfit from Sydney who have been making music together since 2013. They’ve only released a handful of singles in that time, which in a way is a good thing. Synth pop as a genre can lend itself to being bloated with too many ideas and little tricks, or in some cases too few, and only in a few cases does it reach it’s mesmerising full potential.
So it’s good to see the band slowly roll out these singles as they develop their craft. They’ve referred to their sound as “The soundtrack to a John Hughes movie that never happened”, and with the amount of 80s influence abundant in their music that feels like an accurate description.
The Drive comparisons are warranted mind you, one only has to listen to the band’s latest single Out There to be convinced. The synths are rich as they echo out into the atmosphere, a sense of wonder and excitement found in the sound. The repeated vocals of “Is there anybody out there?“, intermittently sung by the male and female vocals has a dreamy quality to it whilst maintaing a the notion of a sad plea. It feels very much at home in a Hughes film or one about a emotionally stunted stunt driver.
The dual vocals are fantastic, the way they intertwine on tracks like Valerie and Dream Fall sees them carry the emotional weight of each track. There’s a tenderness and a familiarity to them. The nostalgic sounds are as slick as ever, the synths and percussion perfectly tuned and timed precisely. Yet those vocals lend a warm quality to each of the songs, each in their own way dedicated to a lover lost and almost forgotten by time.
Froyo isn’t a band who are just influenced by 80s synth, they are a product of that time and embrace it wholly. You can dance with joy or may even find yourself shedding a tear, it’s their earnestness that speaks the most, and whether you find the 80s tacky or otherwise you can’t deny that this isn’t amazing music.
