Amelia Murray aka Fazerdaze is back with her first release in five years. Her new single ‘Come Apart’, has a dynamic befitting of a track by Pixies or Throwing Muses, but infused with the producer/singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist personality. Out now, through her new label home section1, it shifts gloriously from rickety strums and wonky rhythms to infectious choruses, we are falling and growing apart, but let’s sing along anyway – and watch the accompanying visualiser below:
Talking about the single, Amelia comments, “‘Come Apart’ is an angsty surrender to growing apart from people in my life. I wrote this at a time when I wasn’t accepting that some of my closest relationships were just not working. I was contorting myself to fit others, doing everything I could to keep the relationships going instead of allowing them to be what they were; ending, done. I believe this song was a way for my subconscious to shout at me to surrender and to allow things in my life to come to an end.”
With her debut LP, 2017’s Morningside things for Fazerdaze were objectively hitting their stride. Then residing in Auckland, an early determination to graft hard and put herself in the right places had led to signing with legendary New Zealand label Flying Nun. Taking Fazerdaze out of her native NZ and onto the wider musical stage, it was, from the outside, everything Amelia had been reaching for for years.
Finishing up touring for the record at the end of 2018, Amelia experienced a deep sense of burnout and, more than that, the feeling of the “wheels starting to come off” in her general life. A combination of unhealthy personal relationships, feelings of unworthiness regarding her burgeoning success and general mental exhaustion soon began to manifest in her musical output; at a time when she should have been deep in the throes of writing her follow-up project, Fazerdaze found she couldn’t finish a single song.
“I lost a lot of confidence during that time and my sense of self really eroded. Eventually, I had to surrender to the truth of the toxic situations I was finding myself in, both professionally and personally,” she explains. “No longer being stoic and strong was the best thing I ever did for myself. Giving up on the people and things that weren’t working in my life was this big emotional release. I could finally put down this weight I was carrying. Ever since then, things have been flowing in my life again,” she continues, “I can hear my intuition, write songs and be creative again; I signed a record deal, I moved into my own place. It’s like the floodgates opened for good stuff coming back into my life.”
Photo credit: Joey Clough
