Jul. 07, 2010 - Issue #768: Crumbling Away

Prevue

Breaking free

Hector Fector's Amundson on his own

For the last four years, Greg Amundson's been plying his fractured, dreamy take on pop as the frontman for Hector Fector, a weird kind of hybrid project that quickly went from a solo bedroom vehicle to a full foursome, and an accomplished one at that. But when he sat down to start writing the songs that became White White—his latest album and de facto debut under his own name—he couldn't shake the feeling that it might be best to go it alone.

"I just didn't want to do a band record. I didn't want to do those things that bands do, the compromises," explains Amundson, sounding a bit like he just woke up from a nap (a mood, it should be pointed out, entirely appropriate to the feeling of White White). "It can be really good, really productive, but it can also be about compromises and stressing out. It's like any relationship: it's easier to call your own shots, with nothing in the way. I just knew what I wanted to do, and I needed to do my own thing."

The result isn't a grand departure from his work with Hector Fector, but it's definitely something that reflects more of an insularity of mood. Drifting away from his more direct pop roots, White White sounds like the non-dance parts of Kid A-era Radiohead played while the dawn burns off a heavy fog, a sonic headspace somewhere between satisfied-sleepy and welcomely hungover. Sparse in its choices but lush in their implementation, it blends Amundson's impressionistic lyrics and ethereal falsetto with minimal electro-cabaret, an intoxicating mix that Amundson even has a hard time pinning down, a result of him getting to narrow his focus while also fighting against the desire to get everything out.

"It's definitely heading towards something a bit more experimental," he explains. "It felt a little post-apocalyptic, but at the same time, spiritual. I felt it might be this kind of noir, gospel record, but it took on maybe something nihilistic.

"I don't know, I don't want to get too wordy," he adds, pausing for reflection, "but it's hard to explain that headspace, especially since it was so intense and done in such a short time. It took on almost a concept-album kind of feel, because it was so compressed. The last album kind of felt like a best-of-the-last-seven-years feel, but this was more intense." V

Sat, Jul 10 (7:30 pm)
Greg Amundson
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