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IMAAD WASIF Releases Cinematic "Fader" Video Achingly Haunting Sixth Album So Long Mr. Fear Out August 9th

IMAAD WASIF "Fader" Link/Embed: https://youtu.be/GQz0pC9gBKk

AUGUST 2, 2022 (Los Angeles, CA) – Acclaimed Los Angeles singer, guitarist, and songwriter IMAAD WASIF today releases a romantic, dreamlike video to his soaring single “Fader.” Taken from his sixth studio album So Long Mr. Fear (release date: August 9, 2022 via Sonic Ritual), the “Fader” video is a gorgeously shot mood piece that reflects the graceful beauty of the single. Amidst scenes of a couple slow dancing while Wasif plays a grand piano, and other visual vignettes, the tilaka painted on his forehead is a cultural reminder of his “personal secular spiritual beliefs.” He adds, “The mark is worn as a direct confrontation of a philosophically diametric upbringing: My mother Hindu and my father Muslim.” “I imagine ‘Fader’ as the song you hear playing inside a piano lounge tucked in a discreet strip mall,” director Gillian Garcia says. “Inside you find a hidden world—a mystifying person plays the piano and sings in a corner while a lone couple dance underneath a disco ball.”   When creating this single, a song with the spellbinding couplet, “If I die next to you there would be no defeat/Only glory that would shine down on me,” Wasif and his collaborators harnessed piano, keyboard and long, moaning guitar notes that drift through the measures. “Fader” also features singer Jen Wood (The Postal Service, Tattle Tale).

IMAAD WASIF Photo credit: Glen Han (hi-res)

Like the first single, So Long Mr. Fear as a whole features Wasif’s clear and crisp vocals amid lush instrumental arrangements that belies the album’s actual remote recording arrangement. “We built a tunnel through the goddamned pandemic,” Wasif says about tracking most of the album in isolation but in conjunction with producer and long-time collaborator Bobb Bruno of Best Coast. Like songwriting experts such as Lee Hazelwood, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Cave, on So Long Mr. Fear, Wasif, collaborator Bruno, and mixer GRAMMY®-nominated Lewis Pesacov (Best Coast, Nikki Lane, FIDLAR, Local Natives) unearth big ideas by carving away at smaller things until they glisten with universality.    Tender yet enigmatic vulnerability is reflected effortlessly in the album’s ten tracks. Largely acoustic and warmly produced to allow his vocals the space to breathe, So Long Mr. Fear utilizes atmosphere and texture to occupy the same wavelength as rhythm and melody to soaring heights. For the first time in his guitar-focused recording life, Wasif wrote a lot of So Long Mr. Fear on piano. Yes, his expert use of open-tuned guitars, which add a luxurious, mysterious drone, endures; but the circumstances – forced isolation wrought by the pandemic – afforded him the time to mine new instrumental veins. Recording most of his master takes while both singing and playing, the aim was to excavate songs without overthinking – relying on what Wasif calls “the simplicity of their compositions – the direct passage into the emotional realms that I feel most at home in.”

"Fader" lyrics:   Come see my dropout piece Can I tempt you with scenes you can’t ignore? I don’t feel peace As I’m waiting for the beast to transform   Oh and this curse could be broken Like a shadow in the night I won’t look back But maybe I don’t want to forget   It’s been trippin’ me up inside since I came here And I wont be satisfied til I lose Hanging on to life as a fader Too wasted to realize the absolute   I’m incomplete I wander the back streets Though I’m closer now than ever before And if I die next to you There would be no defeat Only glory that would shine down on me   Oh but our time is borrowed In the quicksilver sand There for a flash But we could not pass through undetected   It’s been trippin’ me up inside since I came here And I wont be satisfied til I lose Hanging on to life as a fader Too wasted to realize the absolute

With five critically-hailed previous albums under his belt, So Long Mr. Fear is the sixth solo album for this accomplished artist. During Wasif’s life as a musician he’s been with bands including early slo-core noise rock duo lowercase; psychedelic folk group alaska!; and Sebadoh/Dinosaur Jr. member Lou Barlow’s project the Folk Implosion. Those not familiar with his riffs and solos for Electric Flower Group, Grim Tower and ACID might recognize his electrifying work as a touring member of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.   Imaad Wasif’s video for “Fader” is out today.  So Long Mr. Fear will be released on August 9, 2022 via Sonic Ritual.

SO LONG MR. FEAR Elemental Come Around I Am Free Fader Poet Of The Damned Painted On Place In The Dark Regeneration So Long Mr. Fear Jealous Kind

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