Friendly Giants boomed to life during the mandatory lockdown of 2020 when John Wittmayer and Shawn Fisher met and workshopped each other’s songs. As bands go, the duo added more talent to their collective, adding James Stephens, Barry Jones, Amy Heasman and Holly Schweitzer. Trevor Yost incorporates drums into some of the band’s discography. Each member lends their respective talent, be it Fisher on violin, Jones on trumpet, or Wittmayer on vocals.
“The sum of our parts creates music that we all identify with, and this sharing is what thrills us to keep creating,” Wittmayer says.
On their new track, “Dancing By Myself,” Heasman leads the vocal track with a dark, haunting call to a past lover or close friend. She croons, “What do you see when you look inside me? What do you feel when you brush up beside me? Why can’t you know if you can dance by my side? I’m not a muse for your own gain. I’m not a fool to play your games.”
The revenge saga crescendos into a brooding synth wonderland full of hollow bass drumbeats and consistent hi-hat hits. Jones’ trumpet licks mesh with Heasman’s croony questions throughout the outro, where the title comes into the spotlight.
“I’m dancing by myself,” Heasman exclaims while Jones trills through his trumpet melody, pungently trilling under the pensive refrain.
Although Heasman contributes her evocative lyrics to Dancing By Myself, Wittamayer conceived the tune. “I had the initial idea and music for Dancing by Myself. I was awkwardly trying to learn Cubase 10 during the long dark winter months of the Great Covid Lockdown. I was exploring electronica and beats and worked at composing semi-organic melodic statements accompanied by hypnotic beats on a computer,” he said.
Wittmayer added the band prides itself on running an open and non-judgmental environment where each member can pitch their ideas. Our musical collaboration allows room that no idea is not worth exploring. We try it out, and if it sticks, we all embrace it. So far, so good,” he said.
Once Heasman penned the perfect lyrics for the tune, Fisher and Jones took to production, and Wittmayer recorded his “delicious, dirty guitar riffs.” The band stated this single elicits a “gypsy influenced-polyrhythmic Moroccan groove, with a powerful homage to a Bulgarian sounding women’s choir.”
Friendly Giants favors a genre-blending atmosphere of indie tones and free-sounding hippie-pop. “The band is endlessly inspired by the Slocan Valley’s lively artistic communities and their surrounding landscape where music brings people together,” Wittamayer said.
“Dancing By Myself” is out now, and keep your eyes peeled for Friendly Giants’ debut album dropping in spring 2023.
