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Fotoform open up to Darkenin Heart, sharing the inspirations behind their new album Grief is a Garden (Forever in Bloom). As part of their revelation, they created a heartfelt mixtape, annotating each influence with thoughtful commentary. This is a journey into the shadows of emotion and beauty.
The result is an intimate tribute to the dark elegance of post punk and the ethereal textures of dreampop, presenting the essence that defines the album’s sound.
Be Forest “K”
Haunting vocals, interesting rhythmic groove, spacious cyclical guitars. We love Be Forest (from Pesaro, Italy) so much and are always hoping they reunite.
Cocteau Twins “Wax and Wane”
That bass sound is perfection. Our fave Cocteau Twins album. Just thinking about it puts us in an inspired headspace for recording. We also referenced the album cover when dreaming up our video for “This City is Over.”
Bat for Lashes “The Hunger”
This album came out while Kim was studying in Italy (during her pivot away from the fashion industry). Natasha Khan is brilliant, and the vibe, melodies and production on this album are so lush, driving and ethereal. We love all her records but Lost Girls is our favorite and this our favorite song on there.
Pink Turns Blue “There must be so much more.”
This album was in heavy rotation at our house, and we were fortunate to play with them while they were touring for it. Beautifully written, we love the strong hooks and lyrical sentiments. (We used this a reference for mixing piano in more driving tracks; it can be tricky to get the balance right.)
The Cure “Fear of Ghosts”
B-side to “Love Song” (from Disintegration), “Fear of Ghosts” is sprawling and spooky, bringing some of the dark thudding despair from Pornography with the exotic guitar soundscapes off of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. It revolves around a great circular lyric: “The further I get from the things that I care about, the less I care about how much further away I get.”
The Twilight Sad “VTr”
Somewhere between the Cure and Unwound.
For Against “Get on with it”
Undoubtedly our favorite band ever from Nebraska, For Against walked the line between post-punk and dreampop, with devastating lyrics, swirling guitars, and melodically driving bass. “I’m preoccupied with life. I’m preoccupied with death.” Sadness and introspection that often resolved into some Johnny Marr-esque subtly ecstatic codas. We’d talked about playing shows together at some point, but it never came together. Jeff Runnings shared a track from his forthcoming album with us before he passed away this last spring. Beautiful and devastating, and we felt honored to share that moment with him.
The Chameleons “Perfume Garden”
Probably Geoff’s platonic ideal of guitar sounds, whirring modulated tape delays that flirt with synth pads. They did (and still do!) some great, (relatively) straight up post-punk songs (“Don’t Fall” etc.) as well as moodier atmospheric pieces. This one manages to do both.
Cigarettes After Sex “Apocalypse”
Both intimate and huge. So crazy how this band seemingly suddenly blew up from clubs to arenas. We used this as a touchstone when mixing “Settle Down.”
Ulrich Schnauss “Wherever you are”
We first discovered Ulrich Schnauss on Morr Music’s Blue Skied an’ Clear comp (and Slowdive tribute), and his albums quickly became our travel soundtracks for so many years. (Kim had a bad fear of flying and for years, and Ulrich Schnauss was all she would listen to on her various work trips to Europe and Asia. That’s a lot of Ulrich Schnauss.) The synths (?) on this song inspired a lot of the guitar sounds/textures on our record (and I think he’s trying to do some Slowdive guitar sounds with synths, so that means our guitars were inspired by synths that were themselves inspired by guitars… that probably wanted to sound like synths. Layers of layers, in other words.)
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Fotoform
Band photography by Jessa Carta
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