West London producer and songwriter Fyfe releases his new EP ‘Games’, which features his latest single ‘Looks The Same’. The ‘Games’ EP comes ahead of a major new album collaboration with Iskra Strings in the summer of 2022, and represents Fyfe’s first solo body of work since his 2017 album ‘The Space Between’.
As demonstrated by its title track and recent single, the ‘Games’ EP finds Fyfe showing an innate gift for shaping unorthodox sounds and acute sonic contrasts within the context of pure, accomplished songwriting. It’s an approach which sets him apart from the alt-pop pack, as heard within the dreamy ambience of ‘The Beat of My Drum’ or the maximalist yet nostalgic ‘What I Loved About You’. Conversely, there’s also a sketch-like quality to the EP’s three songs that clock in under the two-minute mark.
Thematically, the EP sees Fyfe shape an introspective set of postcard pictures which questions reality and identity in the social media age. As the final track ‘Operator’ questions, “Is life just like The Truman Show? Where God’s the voyeur, I’m the show.”
Fyfe’s new single ‘Looks The Same’ merges all of those strengths into one concisely captivating moment. Bathed in reverb and echo, his voice addresses how influencers deliberately warp reality: the private jet that doesn’t take off (a real phenomenon), a rented Mercedes that will never be paid for. Musically it’s full of the immediately accessible off-kilter sonic flavours that Fyfe is renowned for: baroque-tinged melodies filtered through electronic instruments, the juxtaposition of near silence and swelling soundscapes.
Fyfe says, “I wrote ‘Looks The Same’ deep in the bleary-eyed days of early fatherhood wondering if anything I saw through the portal of my black glass rectangular Apple branded device was real, and if I chose to dive into that world again, what story I might be tempted to tell“.
After releasing two self-titled EPs with Iskra Strings which were collated for 2019’s ‘Extended Play’ album, the two artists started to work on a full album together which will emerge next year. Once that became Fyfe’s main focus, he took the opportunity to revisit and complete the best solo ideas he had in development for this EP. Working with little in the way of pressures or expectations, he created an EP which feels very natural, unhurried and a neat encapsulation of the strengths that he will bring to next year’s collaboration.
The ‘Games’ EP is released alongside lyric videos for all eight of its songs. All of the videos were shot by Will De Ritter, with creative direction courtesy of Girlfriend Creative.
Fyfe – real name Paul Dixon – was obsessed with music from a young age, with Jeff Buckley proving to be a particularly engaging influence throughout his formative years. It led to him creating his own music, blending classical elements and beats in a style that informed his early artistic style. Initially known as David’s Lyre, he built a following with some inventive covers, remixed Everything Everything and Marina and the Diamonds, and released his debut EP ‘In Arms’ and album ‘Picture of Youth’. After adopting the name Fyfe, he issued the albums ‘Control’ and ‘The Space Between’ as well as two EPs, before collaborating with a wide range of artists including Foxes, Gabrielle Aplin, Mika and Kimbra.
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