Eleanor Friedberger
One-Half of Brother-Sister Duo the Fiery Furnaces Goes It Alone.
By Alexis Swerdloff
Photographed by Christopher Starbody
At long last, Eleanor Friedberger, indie-rock poster-girl
and one-half of the brother-sister duo the Fiery Furnaces,
is releasing a solo album. And girls with messy bangs and
guys who like girls with messy bangs can rejoice: Last Summer
(which, appropriately enough, was written and recorded last
summer) does not disappoint. "It had been years since I
tried making my own recordings," Friedberger says over tea
before a recent Furnaces show at the Rockwood Music Hall.
"But last summer, we had finished touring, I took a break
from my brother, I wasn't in a relationship for the first time
in like ten years and I was really on my own for the first time
in a long time. It was inspiring."
Most of the songs, she says, recall when she first moved from Chicago to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2000, and began playing music with her brother Matthew. "I tried to put myself in a mindset of when I moved here 11 years ago, and I was thinking about things I did then." Quite a lot has changed for Friedberger since then. The Fiery Furnaces have gone on to release nine studio albums, amassed a rabid fan base and played hundreds of U.S. and international shows and festivals.
The result is a jaunty, jam-filled record featuring
Friedberger's frantic, Fiery Furnace-esque talk-singing on
songs like "Roosevelt Island" and "Inn of the Seventh Ray,"
alongside songs which showcase her knack for melody like
the synthy "My Mistakes" (which ends with a surprising
saxophone solo), the sparse and sort of sad "Scenes from
Bensonhurst" and the girl-group-inspired, reverb-drenched
anthem "I Won't Fall Apart on You Tonight."
If you've ever had an Eleanor Friedberger-on-her-bicycle
sighting (is it weird that we've had several?), the
album's lyrics are like thoughts we imagine might be going
through her head as she peddles across the Williamsburg
Bridge; some wistful, some joyful, some purely observational,
like when she asks, "Can I play in your closet? Can
I poke around your drawer?" on "One-Month Marathon,"
inspired by a text message she got from a friend, wanting
to know if she could come over and borrow some clothes.
"The lyrics are kind of goofy at times," Friedberger explains,
"I wanted it to sound naïve and girlish, sort of 'remembering
when.'"
Most of the songs, she says, recall when she first moved from Chicago to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2000, and began playing music with her brother Matthew. "I tried to put myself in a mindset of when I moved here 11 years ago, and I was thinking about things I did then." Quite a lot has changed for Friedberger since then. The Fiery Furnaces have gone on to release nine studio albums, amassed a rabid fan base and played hundreds of U.S. and international shows and festivals.
"I'm excited about being in a car by myself," she says
of her upcoming solo tour this summer. "I haven't thought
about music as much as I do now, which is the best part of my
life right now. That's nothing bad against the Fiery Furnaces,
or my brother or anything, but it just has to do with my own
frame of mind and figuring out what's important."
WHAT'S ON HER SUMMER PLAYLIST
"First Girl I Ever Loved," The Incredible String Band
"Wuthering Heights," Jonathan King
"I Was, You Weren't," Duncan Browne
"Topknot," Cornershop
BACK TO PAPER'S SUMMER MIXTAPE
WHAT'S ON HER SUMMER PLAYLIST
"First Girl I Ever Loved," The Incredible String Band
"Wuthering Heights," Jonathan King
"I Was, You Weren't," Duncan Browne
"Topknot," Cornershop
BACK TO PAPER'S SUMMER MIXTAPE
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