A Quick Chat with Fiz & Sleepthink

For people who might be discovering you for the first time, how would you describe your music and what you’re all about as artists?

Ethan: Fiz and I have been making music together for a long time, across a couple of different bands and projects – this collaboration is the newest iteration of our musical partnership. We create open, thoughtful music blending acoustic instrumentation with field recordings and electronic production elements.

You made this EP across a bunch of different places—Naarm, Boorloo, Madrid. How did those places shape the sound and vibe of Body Knowledge?

Ethan: Well first and foremost, you can hear those places across the EP, in the sounds recorded in those places that made their way into the tracks in some form or another.

Fiz: I think we really wanted to make songs that felt ‘located’ – we’re not so interested in a perfect sound, a commercial and clean sound, we’re interested in the sound that exists in the resonance of a particular room, in the sounds we make and hear wherever we happen to be.

You’ve got some pretty unique sounds woven into the tracks—leaf blowers, birds, keys jingling. What made you want to include those, and how do you think they add to the music?

Fiz: In the case of the leaf blower and the keys – these sounds were the whole reason that the track "Leaf Blower" even happened. So the story goes that I was in Madrid only for one night and had just come off this kind of crazy trip of living on a farm near Barcelona. I was by myself for the first time in a really long time.

So it’s really sunny and I’m sitting by the river in the shade in the middle of the city, and there’s the sound of a leaf blower. I just immediately felt that there was a song in it and I could hear it. So I recorded a voice memo on my phone – just really quietly, the sound of me singing along to this leaf blower. Someone walked past, their keys jingling, there’s the sound of a car alarm.

Once I was back and recording with Ethan, this song was there – we added layers of vocals to it, my dad’s old harmonium, and it became "Leaf Blower."

The title Body Knowledge feels super personal. What does it mean to you, and how does it tie into the stories on the EP?

Ethan: The phrase ‘body knowledge’ was something we were saying frequently while down in Collie (Gnaala Karla Boodja) writing and recording the bones of the EP. It refers to this kind of muscle memory for music – the physical familiarity of an old instrument or surprising affinity for a new one. We brought a good collection of musical tools down with us for that session and had a joyful time exploring new sounds and ways of making music.

You’ve been friends for a long time—how do you think that history comes through in the way you make music together?

Fiz: We’ve had many different seasons in our friendship, and there was a point that I felt like we were thinking so much about the past that it was time for us to create something new together. Because we live in different states, that has to be really intentional; otherwise, it’s not gonna happen.

So in a way, this EP particularly is a direct result of a rekindling of friendship, which meant that we weren’t going into the creative process trying to make a particular sound or something commercial. We just wanted to hang out and see what might happen! This, I think, means that the EP is playful and honest. We had so much fun with it, which has made it more interesting to listen to in the end anyway.

There’s this beautiful mix of electronic sounds and real-world instruments throughout the EP. How do you find that balance between the two?

Ethan: I think we really try to follow the path of the song and what the music needs. We had access to a bunch of beautiful instruments when recording the EP – a harmonium, an old electric organ, a pair of tin whistles, a kalimba. But you’ll also hear bass synth drones and glitchy sequenced arpeggios. It was all about finding the right sound and feeling for the tracks.

A lot of the EP touches on themes of family, nostalgia, and uncertainty about the future. Were there any specific moments or feelings that really sparked those ideas for you?

Fiz: I often use songwriting as a way to process my emotions, so all of the lyrics in the songs are direct reflections of how I’m feeling – and kind of a collective feeling as well. In this way, there’s always a specific moment that sparks the need to start writing a song. Maybe it’s a feeling that’s been building for a while, but at a certain point, I just start writing something without really thinking too much about it. The lyrics are always reflections on my own life or the life of people around me.

Fiz, you bring this raw, heartfelt songwriting, and Sleepthink, your production is super immersive. What was the creative process like—did you each stick to your own thing, or was it more of a back-and-forth?

Fiz: At the heart of the EP, and the thread that brings it all together, is this week that we spent in a real Australiana house in Collie, where we recorded all the main bits for all the songs (and cooked delicious food, and went swimming in the river).

Ethan: And from there, I think the process was different for each track we made. "Mountains" and "Cloak" were songs Fiz had written and demoed that we worked together to bring to final versions, whereas "Rubbish" is a track from a few years ago that I wrote the guitar for and Fiz had started writing vocals for. We finished and recorded it for this release.

If someone listens to Body Knowledge for the first time, what do you hope they feel or take away from it?

Fiz: What I hope for is that our music could make someone feel a certain softness or tenderness towards their own life – towards the mundane things, the scraggly old tree near their house, their beautiful messy family, and their old and new friends.

Ethan: I think in this age of hyper-consumption, the best compliment as a musician is when someone takes the time to listen closely and actively. I hope that listeners will hear something in these songs that draws them in closer, to spend time with the sounds and the words we have made.

Follow Fiz: Instagram / Facebook
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Listen to Body Knowledge: https://bluegreypink.lnk.to/BodyKnowledge