[Editor’s Note: On March 15, Chicago based band Friend Of A Friend released their sophomore album FACILITIES. Featuring Claire Molek and Jason Savsani, the band describe their sound as “Portishead, M83, The Kills, and Jose Gonzalez having a baby in the desert during the end of your favorite movie.” (Or for those looking for a more succinct descriptor, “cinematic pop.”) It’s fitting then that the band turned last year to M83’s Jordan Lawlor to help them record the album at his Joshua Tree studio.
The group also had a chance to get outside the studio to check out the serene desert landscape surroundings of Joshua Tree and film a performance of their song “Always on Time.” Filmed by filmmaker/photographer Sheva Kafai, the video finds Molek, Savsani and Lawlor braving the elements as they deliver a powerful performance of the song.
Below, Molek and Savsani pen an essay about their experience in Joshua Tree, working with Lawlor and recording their album.]
We had been working on our record FACILITIES with Jordan Lawlor for about a year when we made this video, coming in for a few weeks at a time. In a lot of ways, being there and working in the desert felt like a pilgrimage or some sort of level in a video game we needed to master.
The desert is not often a kind place. When it is cold the cold is insidious and when it is hot the weight of the sun can almost paralyze you. There are wild dogs. You have to check your bed for scorpions before you go to sleep. But there is something about the unrelenting sun that strips you down, makes you confront everything you don’t want to confront. The absence of anything inviting will get to you, and into your teeth, into your digestion, and under your skin. It is not that it is lacking in paradise, all things being oracles, it is more that sustaining the moments of bliss is the real challenge.
We wanted to capture the live video when the sun is setting in the desert because it is one of the most beautiful times of the day, but we had dressed during the day when it was warm. You can’t really tell but we were freezing once we had set everything up to take the live video. We did it in Jordan’s studio, which had become a sort of second home for us. We love to be there and we feel deeply grateful to have connected with Jordan, he is both an absolute genius and someone we love very much as our friend.
The desert is also a sacred place. The landscape becomes you. And making things together connects you. The music comes through you when making things together. The album came from that space and we all just let things flow through us. We were led to Jordan through a series of uncanny synchronicities and gut feelings. We grew immensely throughout the making of the album together.
When it came time to make a live video, it felt important to us that we sort of put all those feelings and triumphs into a time capsule. Sheva Kafai shot it for us, she is wildly brilliant, lives in Joshua Tree as well, has worked with a lot of Southwestern artists and producers we respect. She’s also a dear friend of Jordan’s and it felt right for it to be all in the family. We love how she is able to capture something both precise and romantic, powerful and vulnerable. It seems like we find ourselves living in the tension between these kinds of dualities, which, maybe, presents a new kind of space that is beyond the duality.
Claire Molek and Jason Savsani
Contributors
Claire and Jason are members of Chicago based band Friend Of A Friend
