Q&A: Chronically Burnt Out and Nostalgic for the 2010s, Fake Dad Welcomes in a New Era With “How Do I Cry?”

Q&AMusic

Aug 12

☆ BY Steph Dunlop ☆

WITH A SOUNDSCAPE REMINISCENT OF TWO MAJOR MUSIC DECADES — Fake Dad is equal parts fresh and nostalgic. Blending 2010s alt-rock with synths stolen from the ’80s into their latest single, “How Do I Cry?” Fake Dad drew inspiration from a timeless range of artists such as Arctic Monkeys, HAIM, and Tears for Fears.

Producing indie alt-pop tunes entirely from their small Brooklyn studio apartment, Andrea de Varona and Josh Ford formed the duo Fake Dad with the hopes of creating music that understands and comforts its listeners.

Following on from their drum and bass banger “John Cusack,” Fake Dad paints a sonic canvas of ever-relatable melancholy. Lacing 2020s problems into 2010s tunes, “How Do I Cry?” floats in a sea of repressed tears. The track is an exploration through emotional burnout and feeling numbed by an overwhelming cascade of emotions that we’ve been taught to keep to ourselves.

Later on in the year, the duo is dropping a shiny new EP, on which “How Do I Cry?” will feature. Alongside this, the duo is playing a single release show in New York City at the end of the month. Read on to learn more about the creation of Fake Dad, and dive deeper into their latest single, “How Do I Cry?”

LUNA: Congrats on “How Do I Cry?”! What do you hope to communicate through the track?

DE VARONA: In a rather literal sense, “How Do I Cry?” is a song about humanity’s relationship with crying. Crying is so easy, even babies can do it. But over the years, we learn to squish it down. Soon we walk around like a sponge, oversaturated in stale emotions — unable to cry even if we wanted to.

Ultimately, the main thing we are trying to say is that sometimes crying can feel so uncomfortable and even hard to just get yourself to do, but that’s okay. It’s okay to have a complicated — even ambivalent — relationship with crying because frankly it’s not on us. Since we are tiny humans we are made to feel like it is something we should suppress, something that we should be ashamed of and that we can maybe only do privately. We are made to feel like it’s this wrong, irrational emotional response that’s only okay for little kids. And all of that is so fucked and just not true. Crying is essential and actually good for us. It has taken me my whole life to be kind of okay with my relationship with crying, and I just hope it’s something that you too can learn to be okay with and maybe even love.

LUNA: What moments in listeners' lives do you think the song would soundtrack the best?

FORD: We used to want to write music for people to sit on the couch and vibe to. Lately, we’re going for a new energy: We want to make music that you could scream along to with your friends jumping up and down in a huddle but that you could just as easily sing along to while absolutely sobbing alone in your car.

DE VARONA: Yeah, this is 100% a driving alone at 2:00 a.m. blast, through your speakers kind of song. Kind of ironic in a way because we have both lived in NYC for the past six to seven years and I think the thing we both miss about our hometowns is driving. Recently, we’ve been talking about saving up as much as we can to buy a car that we can use for touring and stuff, so maybe we were subconsciously trying to make a driving track.

LUNA: Which lyrics from the track mean the most to you both?

DE VARONA: For me, it’s probably “as I’m getting older this shit just gets harder” because that really sums up everything I was feeling while writing this song. You know that feeling of growing into young adulthood and kind of realizing that your life is never going to be as easy as it was when you were 12? Not to say that time in a person’s life can’t be extremely difficult and that you aren’t going to be sad (God knows I wasn’t the happiest kid) but it’s about acknowledging that those traumas and habits that were formed when we were young don’t ever really go away, and we never really get better unless we face these things head on. It’s all about learning to tame and hopefully someday befriend the two-headed monster that lives inside of all us (metaphorically speaking).

FORD: For me, it’s “normally crying doesn’t need a handbook / but lately I feel like I do.” I spent a really long time trying to compartmentalize my own feelings as a survival mechanism, to the point where I ended up squishing them down and forgetting how to listen to them in the first place. It can be like a language you were born knowing but realize you’ve forgotten. Sometimes when you’re in that position, you wish you could reconnect with the simple, cleansing experience of crying.

LUNA: Sonically, what’s your favorite thing about the track?

FORD: I absolutely love the mixture of our favorite sounds and influences we brought to this track. I think my favorite thing is the sequenced one-note synth line that comes in during the chorus. I think it was designed to play during a high-intensity chase scene in an ’80s cop movie, but the way we incorporate it just brings so much motion and energy into the rhythm of the chorus!

DE VARONA: Agreed! On a more micro-scale, I absolutely love the bass on this track — we’ve been really honing in on creating distinctive, undeniably thick basslines in our recent releases and I think we really hit it right with this one. Also, it’s one that came so immediately and honestly required very little processing and revision after the fact, which doesn’t typically happen with bass in our songs. This track really feels like the epitome of Josh’s and my influences truly melded into one sound that works pretty fucking well if you ask me. I think it combines what we both wish we were making when we were younger, like 2010s alt-rock, Alabama Shakes, Arctic Monkeys, Dr. Dog, and [an] early HAIM thing with some of the deeper ’80s pop influences we share like The Cure of Tears for Fears.

LUNA: What initially brought the duo together? How would you compare making music as a duo to working solo?

DE VARONA: So I guess at the core of what brought us together was falling in love and becoming each other’s partners, not just musically but in life. Music was always at the center of our relationship even in our early dating phase when we weren’t making music together at all — on our first or second date we stayed up until like three or four a.m. talking (largely about music) and showing each other playlists and our favorite bands and artists, kinda trying to fill in the gaps in our respective listening libraries. I think bonding over that and realizing that the thing we were both most passionate about in the world was the same really bonded us together from the moment we met (which was actually at my undergrad apartment, and we danced to “Fluorescent Adolescent” by the Arctic Monkeys).

Prior to becoming collaborators, both of us had primarily worked solo. Josh had been producing his own music all through high school and had even recorded and released a full album entirely on his own, which is super impressive. He doesn’t like to talk about it these days as much but I remember being like, “Damn” when he first showed me. I was lowkey intimidated to show him my own songs early on in our relationship because of that but he was always so encouraging before even hearing anything I had written. And that’s kind of where the seedling of what is now Fake Dad began to sprout — I showed Josh this song called “Damien” that I was working on for a songwriting class and had someone else producing that wasn’t really quite nailing the sound I wanted. I showed it to Josh and we talked about where I wanted it to live sonically and the kind of arrangement I was seeking for it and he was like, “Wait, I can totally produce this for you.” And I was like, “Really? You would actually do that? Like, you’re actually interested?” And the rest is history I suppose. That song that we made together ended up winning this music festival showcase at NYU, so then we had to perform it live and put a little set together with a full band. That’s kind of where Fake Dad (in its very early stages) was born.

LUNA: I love your Instagram posts! They give off a kind of casual Insta vibe. Is a fun and free online presence something that's important to you?

FORD: Thank you so much! Yes, it’s definitely important to us. No shade to artists who do this, but we just don’t resonate with the idea of an artist whose whole thing is how “above” everyone and everything they are. I honestly think the age of the shiny, untouchable celebrity artist is slowly coming to an end. What really resonates with people is something down to earth. We want our listeners to feel like our musical presence is a dialogue between us and them, and that what we’re doing and going through is no different than what they are. A really important part of allowing connection and intimacy is in acknowledging that we’re all kind of just pretending to be anything other than weird, anxious losers.

LUNA: How would you describe Fake Dad’s sound to someone who’s never heard your music before?

DE VARONA: Chill indie pop music that is for sad kids who aren’t afraid to dance a little and laugh at themselves while doing it. Fake Dad is for the kids who were just a bit too goofy and non-self-serious to fully fit into the emo crowd.

FORD: Equal parts nostalgic and futuristic — Fake Dad’s sound feels like something completely fresh yet slightly reminiscent of things you may have loved in a past life. Almost like how the Nintendo Switch felt totally new and inventive when it first came out but a big part of its charm is how it subtly pays homage to the older consoles.

LUNA: What goals do you have for the rest of the year?

DE VARONA: To continue releasing new music — we actually recently decided that we might be dropping an EP near the end of the year that “How Do I Cry?” and our next single (which will be released at the end of August) will be featured on. We are also expanding our collaborative pool in the coming months and working with some producers and artists we’ve never worked with before. On that note, we are actually releasing a remix of “How Do I Cry?” with hyperpop artist/producer Glitch Gum (known for his remix of “Kyoto” that Phoebe Bridgers actually released with her label) on June 21! So look out for that — it’s definitely a bop. Also, be sure to check out Glitch Gum’s original stuff too — that shit seriously slaps. We will also be playing a string of shows throughout the US, so definitely be on the lookout for those dates. And we’re planning to play a couple of cool showcases in specific cities as well. Also, we’ll be playing a single release show in NYC at Mercury Lounge on Saturday, August 27.

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We couldn’t be more stoked to have Suriel Hess as our new headliner for our upcoming LA show 🤩 🫶 Not gonna lie, us & Notorious Noise kinda went OFF with this line up & you’re not gonna wanna miss it - ticket link in bio 🎫