[Photo credit to Glen Han]
Los Angeles-based singer, guitarist and songwriter Imaad Wasif known for contributions to Folk Implosion and Yeah Yeah Yeahs has recorded his sixth solo album, So Long Mr. Fear arriving on August 9th, 2022 via Sonic Ritual. The first single “Fader” is out now and features vocals by Jen Wood (The Postal Service, Tattle Tale).
The album was tracked mostly in isolation but in conjunction with Producer and long-time collaborator Bobb Bruno of Best Coast.
Wasif comments:
We built a tunnel through the goddamned pandemic, and though we never saw each other during the making of this, we were connected in the ether, sending songs back and forth to arrive at their completion.
The isolation of that first wave [of the pandemic] was strangely freeing for me, being able to record in the moment of inspiration at any hour. The whole process helped me understand that the key to recording my songs is that I have to build everything around my vocal, which is not the modern way. That’s why I did the vocal and piano/guitar live and kept it to the first or second take.
Wasif used Brian Eno’s approach of an Oblique Strategies deck to write a lot of the songs on the album.
He adds:
In the end, some ended up calling for open tuned guitars, but the whole idea of writing songs on an instrument that I was limited in my understanding of totally opened up a new part of me. It took away my sense of comfort and control in songwriting. Not knowing where I was going proved to be the way to find myself. This album is definitely the closest I’ve come.
Imaad Wasif’s So Long Mr. Fear was produced by Bobb Bruno (Best Coast) and mixed by Grammy nominated Lewis Pesacov (Best Coast, Nikki Lane, FIDLAR, Local Natives) and features Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Jen Wood (The Postal Service, Tattle Tale) on vocals.
