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Fancy Normal give a track-by-track rundown of their ‘Starters & Appetizers’ EP

Melbournian synth-pop legends FancyNormal are here to talk about all five tracks on their thrilling debut EP Starters & Appetizers.

If you’re not up to speed with the charming sonics of FancyNormal, let me catch you up. After dropping two dazzling ’80s-inspired singles, Ultra Passion & Sober Spaceman, the duo released their slick debut EP Starters & Appetizers. Noni’s soaring vocals and lyrical substance paired with Jules’s colourful synth and production elements made for a remarkably catchy and reflective listening experience.

If you’re craving some more tidbits after listening to Starters & Appetizers, FancyNormal has served up their thoughts on a silver platter. Have a read of their own takes below, and be sure to let them know your favourite track.

FancyNormal

Track 1 – Butterflies & SSRIs

 

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This is an instrumental “Intro” track that we hope paints a melodic journey about addressing depression & anxiety through therapy and medication (SSRIs) and finally functioning and seeing the world in colour for the first time.

For Jules, in particular, this has been a super long, painful journey, so we felt it would be perfect to open the EP with an instrumental that would frame the topics of each track after – there are a bunch of different elements that you’ll hear repeated in other tracks to draw the whole thing together. Honestly, we tried so hard to put lyrics to it, but at the end of it felt that the music told a story by itself.

Track 2 – Ultra Passion

We originally released this in November last year. Ultra Passion is about foolishly jumping into a bad relationship with your heart on your sleeve and having the situation unexpectedly and explosively go up in flames. For Noni, this recounts a particularly heartbreaking time in her life.

The first line sums up the song: “21 and a fool, we didn’t know what we were doing.” This was our first ever song we wrote together. It involved copious bottles of wine late at night along with plenty of arguments as we figured out how to work creatively with each other.

Track 3 – Sober Spaceman

Another re-release from last December. This one is about being held back from making decisions in life for fear of disappointment and living life passively on ‘autopilot’ because of crippling anxiety. Almost like you’re floating through space, unable to redirect where you’re going in life and finally sobering up to the reality of the situation.

I think for both of us, we always wanted to tackle a project together but put it off because we were anxious about being creatively vulnerable. We actually came up with the name before the track was written by drawing random bits of adjectives & verbs from a bowl, and the whole space theme kind of followed and ended up shaping a lot of our aesthetic.

Track 4 – Sad Champagne

This is Noni’s favourite track by far. A personal reflection on trying not to jump into a relationship too soon after heartbreak – not wanting to be alone, but knowing that you need to be alone to heal and reflecting on the brokenness of past relationships.

I think it’s so easy to jump on the rebound train, especially when all you’ve ever known is being in a relationship. It’s kind of like a bottling up of pressure as you try to hold it together after a breakup that finally pops, like a bottle of sad champagne, but it’s a beautiful and emotional healing process as you learn to love yourself for the first time.

Track 5 – Private Wine

Story through an introvert’s eyes at a party and struggling to ‘be normal’ and fit because of social anxiety. Noni wrote the lyrics to this one with Jules in mind. It’s about finally finding your rhythm and ‘dance’ in life, something we both found in 2020. We wanted to capture the feeling of walking into a party, knowing no-one and being filled with dread.

We wanted minimal percussion on this track to capture the almost ’numbing’ of your physical senses when you feel like everyone’s looking at you, your heart is racing, and you’re trying to figure out what to say next in a conversation and ending the EP on a lower, more introspective note.

Listen to the Starters & Appetizers EP below: