Track by Track: Fossil Collective

Fossil Collective release their forthcoming EP On & On, on 22nd October via Dirty Hit; and it has already caused quite a stir thanks to the multi-instrumental talents of David Fendick and Jonny Hooker.

Where debut EP Let it Go gently nodded to Fleetwood Mac and Mid Lake, On & On possesses a classic folk sound rooted in harmonious vocal arrangements and expert song construction. The result is a tender folk falsetto soundscape that lingers long after On & On has finished.

You can listen to an exclusive EP stream here:

Fossil Collective - On & On EP by Fossil Collective

David and Jonny have also shared their track-by-track insight as a sensory feast for the eyes as well as the ears. Enjoy now, buy the EP from the Dirty Hit website from 22nd October.

'On & On'

This was the first song that we wrote. The original idea started as quite a slow one, but we couldn't get the idea to sit properly. We stopped and had a listen to a lot of faster more uptempo songs, and then Jonny started playing the drum beat - we started playing along,and the song started to fit into place. We also wanted the idea of an alternative 'solo' in the middle of the song as the solo on the guitar sounded very predictable, so we played about with a few instruments and the flute worked best. We also outlined a bit of a story about the stag and the wolf quite early on and when we finally came together to work on the lyrics we couldn't remember how it went. The first thing I said to Jonny was 'try and remember how the story goes' which became the first line of the song. We liked the idea of the song having some sort of descriptive narrative throughout rather than 'he said, she said etc etc ...'

'Rivers Edge'

This was a song which we previously recorded quite early on but we kind of dismissed as it had a bit of a driving 'arcade fire' feel which wasn't really in keeping with the other songs we were writing. We always liked the lyrics and the outro and we spent nearly a year trying to tinkle with it to make it more appropriate. We finally worked out that we had totally overcooked the song and we totally stripped it down and and brought it back to life. A lot of songs have references to the sea, mountains, rivers etc and this was no exception. Again we called in the favours of a few musician friends of ours to play the strings for the outro - they can normally be bribed by a bottle of wine and some tea and biscuits.

'Silent Alarm'

The song has an environmental them running throughout it - we tried to say how most people are totally ignorant of everything that is happening around them, that 'most spend their lives with their heads in the ground'. It's another song that has had a few different versions that have evolved over the past year or so. We stripped it back to just the acoustic guitar, double bass and harmonium and tried to make the voice as dry as possible (which is the complete opposite of our normal reverby vocal sound). We actually got Steve, who is our engineer, to play the harmonium at Vale studios (where we recorded the EP) as it has always been his favourite song of ours. It guess it made his day. We love going to Vale studios as they are all really friendly and they have this fantastic vintage Neve desk which helps us get the retro sound we are looking for.

'Fog'

This song was directly influenced by 'This is a Low' by Blur - I read how Damon based the lyrics on the shipping forecast on Radio 4 which started me off with the line 'When the fog lifted I was unaware that a single cloud was hanging there.' It was always just half a song, a little ditty even to me but Jonny encouraged us to work on the song and the song grew off his enthusiasm. I'd been listening to a lot of Crosby Stills and Nash and was continually telling everybody to turn the backing harmonies up. I wanted the song to be more of a 3-way harmony then a vocal led song. It seemed the perfect track to close the EP.

Catch Fossil Collective live throughout October and November in the following cities:

Tue 16 Oct Liverpool Shipping Forecast

Wed 17 Oct Bristol Louisiana

Thu 18 Oct Birmingham Hare & Hounds

Fri 19 Oct Nottingham The Bodega

Sat 20 Oct Oxford East Oxford Centre - Gathering

Sun 21 Oct Cardiff SWN

Mon 22 Oct Norwich Waterfront

Tues 23 Oct Cambridge Portland Arms

Wed 24 Oct Brighton The Hope

Thu 25 Oct Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre

Fri 26 Oct London Old Queen's Head

Sat 27 Oct Leicester Academy 2

Sun 28 Oct Leeds Brudenell Social Club

Mon 29 Oct Sheffield Soyo

Tue 30 Oct Manchester Apollo (w/ The Civil Wars)

Thurs 1 Nov Dublin Academy 2

Fri 2 Nov Glasgow ABC (w/ The Civil Wars)

Tue 6 Nov London Roundhouse (w/ The Civil Wars)