Q&A: Pushing Through Imposter Syndrome with a Collage of Music, Fetch Tiger Releases Debut EP 'Preparation to Pretend’
SEPARATED NOW BY THE ATLANTIC OCEAN — Fetch Tiger was united in 2020 by the reignition of their passion for music. The indie pop duo, composed of Lorenzo Montali and Tanner Davis, created wistful worlds in each song on their daisy-chained six-track EP, Preparation to Pretend.
Originally from two Sunbelt states, it’s easy to appreciate the laid-back and shimmering quality of Fetch Tiger’s music. From the addictive bass on “Moving In” to their melodious most recent single “Peter,” the band’s sonic consistency is complemented by lyricism that’s fit for the silver screen. Stories of high school love, a social media influencer and more are told through the overarching theme of imposter syndrome. A little introspection and ingenuity goes a long way on this debut EP they affectionately call a “collage.”
Efficiency is naturally part of their formula, with Montali on drums, guitar, and vocals and Davis taking the reins on keyboard, synths, and backing vocals. All six tracks are produced by Grace Banks, and mastering was divided between Matt Colton and Katie Tavini.
Read their conversation with Luna below to see how Brooklyn and London influence their work, learn tips on dealing with imposter syndrome, and all the treats they have up their sleeves for this year.
LUNA: First, congratulations on the release of Preparation to Pretend! How does it feel to put out your debut EP?
DAVIS: Releasing our debut EP feels like both the longest time coming but also something that I’d never accomplish in my life until I met Lorenzo. Before heading into the studio for the first time together two years ago, I was a complete novice when it came to making music. So it’s amazing to see how far we’ve developed — both as a band and individually. Although every individual song means something different to us, we love finally putting out a larger, cohesive body of work that tells a deeper, comprehensive story.
MONTALI: We’ve been putting out singles for two years, so to finally be able to have it all packaged in one place felt like the natural next step. We see this EP as the encapsulation of the first “era” of Fetch Tiger — songs we wrote when we were both in London and still experimenting with sounds and energies within the songs.
LUNA: What's it been like working together as a duo throughout the pandemic?
MONTALI: We actually released our first song together in May 2020 right at the beginning of the pandemic, so we actually don’t really know another way. We kind of got in a rhythm in terms of who brings what to the table, and once we collaborated on a few songs, we found what worked and just kept doing it. The bigger challenge has been working in a pandemic and across continents, since I moved to NYC last summer.
DAVIS: Honestly, the pandemic brought us closer together and catalyzed the work in a way. When we were not allowed to go to restaurants, pubs, or stores — all we really had to do was make music. Luckily we lived close enough to each other in London that we could go to each other’s houses to bother each other and make demos. We even managed to perform our first and only London live show during a small window when everything was open. It’s been tricky, but we’ve managed to make the most of it!
LUNA: How did you both know music was your calling?
MONTALI: After I graduated college, I got my dream job — or what I thought it was. But [around] six months into it, I found myself wandering around San Francisco looking for something else. For a while, I wanted to write some kind of novel. I’ve played music since I was about 10 ([I was] a drummer originally), but after college and my college cover band ended — which is crazy to think now — I thought that music wasn’t going to be a thing for me anymore. One day I put up a Craigslist post, found a group to jam some of the songs I had started writing, and realized it’s what I was missing. Since then I’ve just been trying to do it as much as I can and wishing I had dove into it sooner.
DAVIS: Music was something that I — like many of us — was somewhat forced into by my parents as a child. Piano lessons came first, followed by drums, and then guitar. However, once the lessons petered out and the voice crack in my middle school musical bruised my confidence, I sort of left that part of me behind. [But] during college and in San Francisco, I always thought about getting back into music [and] learning production, but never ultimately made the jump — the barrier felt high and I never thought that little old me could be a “musician.”
They had such a different aesthetic than me. But that all changed when I had a one-off conversation with Lorenzo, who mentioned he was looking for other members to join his solo project at the time. I finally realized [that] if I had someone to work together with, hold me accountable, and bounce ideas off of, the whole thing would feel less scary. So what did I do? I went to buy a keyboard, started to relearn the scales I practiced as a child, and asked to join the band. So in short, meeting Lorenzo reminded me that this was a calling of mine. All I know is that I wish I had started earlier!
LUNA: Does being based in Brooklyn and London influence you both as creatives?
DAVIS: London is an amazing and enchanting place to live on so many days, but at times the city has been home to very lonely and dark days, to be completely honest. I’d say more than anything else, living here has defined less of my sound and more of the stories that are told through our lyrics. Although perhaps I gravitate toward the ethereal synths, because they make me feel like I’m transcending the loneliness of this place sometimes and entering into my own atmosphere. Beyond the music and lyrics, the UK offers a very nostalgic and cinematic landscape and aesthetic that we try to shine a light on through our content and photography.
MONTALI: The songs we were writing in London — for me — felt more earthy, cinematic, bigger. And it’s probably because London has that allure and elegance to it. For me, my time in London (as an American) felt kind of like this extended scene in my life that I knew was going to end eventually, and so it had this extra sense of weight and pressure to produce something magical from my time there. Now in Brooklyn, where things are stereotypically grittier, I feel like some of the most recent songs I’ve been working [on] in the last couple months [are] based more on the bones — the groove and feel more than sparkle and magic.
LUNA: I was really excited to listen to the whole EP in one go and loved the first track, "Clementine." How long did it take to perfect that song?
DAVIS: Wow, thank you. That honestly means a lot! When I open up the Files app on my phone and type in “Clementine,” 21 different .wav files appear. This just tells you how many versions and tweaks we made from demo to final master. “Clementine” was the first song we’d ever done that truly started with and became dominated by layers of synths and keys, so it took a while to figure out how it fit into the “Fetch Tiger universe,” per se. Luckily we had an amazing producer and engineer, Grace Banks, help us hone in on how to dial up the unique, experimental elements of the track whilst making sure it didn’t feel a million miles off from our sound.
Honestly, writing the lyrics took longer than anything else. Initially the song was very obviously about mental health, but we ended up shrouding the song in a bit more mystery because, for one, we liked the word “clementine” — we thought it evoked a lot of colorful imagery — and two, we wanted to write something a bit more poetic. We do appreciate that someone needs to be mindful whilst listening to fully comprehend the meaning.
LUNA: What was the creative process for the whole project like?
MONTALI: We didn’t really record this as a traditional EP — it’s kind of the combination of various recording sessions/locations over the course of 2020 and some of 2021, really, recording two songs at a time. We’ve been referring to it as a collage. But then we realized that a lot of the songs were coming from the same place thematically, and figured it would be a good time to release something bigger than singles.
In terms of process, on this EP I would lay down melodies and lyrics and maybe some basic guitar and send [it] to Tanner who would add synth, keys, and do a lot to define the “vibe” in terms of sounds and the “world” the song lived in. On a song or two we’d kind of switch, and Tanner came with lyrics and I would add more of the instrumentation. I tend to gravitate more towards lyrics and the story, and don’t have enough patience and attention to detail to try hundreds of combos of sounds and stuff — which is something Tanner loves doing and is awesome at, so it all works out!
DAVIS: If you listened to the EP all of the way through, you could probably tell that a lot of our songs have a similar structure, but not one sounds like the other. We spent an entire two years experimenting and honing our sound, trying different techniques and methods until we landed on ideas we liked. The best part is that whilst we are getting closer to the sound we love as a band, we never feel like we have to do things a certain way to achieve that same result. It’s this constant evolution of trying new things and being randomly inspired that makes the project eternally interesting.
LUNA: The storytelling on each song is really fascinating to me. If you could turn one of these songs into a film, which one would it be, and who would you cast as the leads?
DAVIS: This is actually an amazing and extremely difficult question. I’d probably have to say “Moving In.” The song honestly has this such a mob crime boss-eque vibe to it, and it’s shrouded in a lot of mystery. With that, I’d definitely have cast Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as the leads — name a better mob crime duo!
MONTALI: I would say “All I’m Really After.” Just ’cause I’m a sucker for coming-of-age films, and this song is about a high school love, aka we jokingly wanted this song to be a
“coming-of-age film for your ears.” I’ve become a fan of Lucas Hedges, so he’d be a fine lead.
LUNA: A key theme that is woven throughout the EP is dealing with imposter syndrome. How do you cope when those thoughts start to creep in?
MONTALI: I feel like a big part of imposter syndrome, for me, is the feeling that someone is out to get you, in a way, to out you as someone who’s not good enough or “faking it.” So I try to remind myself that fear is just in my head most of the time, and that most people — in whatever setting — aren’t thinking about you, don’t care, or actually just want to see you succeed. It takes the pressure off, and let’s me feel less defensive and more able to focus on being and — this is cheesy — [being] the best person I can be.
DAVIS: Honestly, it’s really, really difficult. Whilst I feel this daily at work, I feel this most strongly with music. As alluded to above, I don’t know the intricacies of every indie band’s history or how to read sheet music or every random chord by heart. So I feel intimidated when I’m in spaces with other musicians. I feel as though I need to know how to be an expert in every single thing or even one thing in order to feel like I am in a comfortable space that accepts me and is impressed by me. But when I start to feel the feelings, I literally have to actively remind myself of one or two things that I am good at, that I know I’m good at to calm the nerves, and [remind myself] that we all bring our special talents to a conversation, the practice room, the project, etc. I battle with this every day, so I have gotten better at trying to turn those voices down little by little.
LUNA: Now that live shows are happening again, which song off Preparation to Pretend is the most fun to perform live?
MONTALI: “More Clout,” no questions asked! We’ve been closing the set with this one the last couple shows, and I just love how it starts super soft with the focus on the lyrics but just builds and builds into a blistering guitar solo to send you home (literally). Tanner knows how much we love guitar solos to end songs. The best part about it is [that] I don’t have to play it [live] — I can just play the two chords (another staple of many Fetch songs) and watch Bobby, our live guitar player, shred. He’s a much better guitar player than I am.
DAVIS: Well… I’m going to have to second Lorenzo with “More Clout.” Even though I’m not currently performing with the live band, I loved having both a harmony moment throughout and an easy yet powerful key melody at the end. It’s such a vibe!
LUNA: You've performed in several venues across NYC. What's your dream venue you would love to perform in one day?
MONTALI: Whenever I find myself daydreaming, I have to say it’s usually that we’re playing a cool festival somewhere — Primavera Sound maybe — versus a specific venue, but if I had to choose, I’d say the Hollywood Bowl. Because that was Tom Petty’s last show, and I almost went on a whim because I happened to be in LA that weekend. But ask me again after I’ve had another year in the city!
DAVIS: Similar to Lorenzo, playing at a festival, namely Glastonbury, would be an absolute dream! But I have always been a fan of the Hearst Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California. I saw Lizzo open for HAIM there way back and immediately fell in love with the venue. The space is absolutely jaw-dropping yet approachable and feels both simultaneously regal yet unpretentious.
LUNA: What can you tell us about your plans for the rest of the year?
DAVIS: We are not taking our foot off the gas any time soon. We’re committed to making the cross-Atlantic band thing work, and we’ve already recorded a second EP, which will be released later this year. It’s likely we’ll drop our first single for this next batch in early summer, drop our EP late summer, finish a series of new demos, and prepare to record a full-length album next year. How fun right?
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