It’s a testament to the human voracity for nudity that Phèdre‘s “In Decay” video — a NSFW-branded clip featuring metallic body paint, over-laden platters of food, and, uh, vomit — went unexpectedly, moderately viral after its mid-January release. Naked bodies, and the fact that “In Decay,” a perky, theatrical pop ditty, is a great song.
“We had no idea that this video would be so well-received. We were pretty surprised actually,” says April Aliermo, one-third of Phèdre and also a member of local favourites Hooded Fang. “For us, that video was just about pushing decadence over the edge to the point where it’s really disgusting. Like, we all really barfed that day — and not forced vomiting!”
Part of Aliermo’s surprise at the reception for “In Decay” comes because she and her Phèdre bandmates, fellow Hooded Fang-er Daniel Lee and Doldrums’ Airick Woodhead, recorded the songs on their latest self-titled release in summer 2010. “It was just the three of us hanging out and getting drunk, and not getting drunk, writing songs in an attic,” says Aliermo, trailing off and then adding: “We’ve been waiting for the right time and 2012 seems like a good, magical year.”
In fact, Hooded Fang is just back from a UK tour after signing to indie label Full Time Hobby. Doldrums, who have a pending release, spent 2011 playing the UK and U.S. Hut and Tonkapuma are musical side-endeavors for Aliermo and Lee, who’ve also teamed up with Ian Chai to form Daps Records. 2012 does seem like a good, magical, but incredibly busy year for all three members of Phèdre.
“We’re not even thinking about not putting out certain projects because we have other ones going,” says Aliermo, nonplussed. “It has a lot to do with ADD, but we’re also multi-dimensional artists and have a lot of needs to be fulfilled. Phèdre is more of an art project than say, Hooded Fang, and it allows us to explore one shared passion: the spectacle of things.”
To enter that world of excess, which Phèdre conceptualizes as simultaneously beautiful and disgusting, Aliermo points to the spontaneity and unbridled enthusiasm of children. “When kids get excited they don’t give a fuck, they don’t care what they look like, they just go with it. And when we become adults we suppress that thing that drives anything that’s passionate,” she says.
So imagine, if you can, music that’s categorically pop but uncategorically anything else. Phèdre is hard to pin down because it deftly pieces shards of so much — “hip-hop to doo-wop to the Beatles to Filipino karaoke to classical” — into a pleasant, perfectly imperfect, vivid mosaic. “Phèdre is just raw. Imagination is really ingrained into whatever we do, so this is about making realities happen.”
Phèdre headlines Daps Revue Vol. 1 tonight at The Great Hall, with Hooded Fang, Moon King, Doldrums and L Con. 8:30 p.m.
