Q&A: Fetch Tiger on Their Newest EP ‘Flamethrower’ & Their Ever-Changing Sound
IT’S BEEN A YEAR OF EVOLUTION — since duo Fetch Tiger released their debut EP, Preparation to Pretend. Sonically, Tanner Davis and Lorenzo Montali are embracing their change from lo-fi indie to rock and pop. Personally, they’ve experienced and witnessed isolation and found ways to cope with it. Professionally, they will soon reunite in the same country after two years of working separately across the Atlantic Ocean.
Today, Davis and Montali release their sophomore EP, Flamethrower, a four-track project that weaves together stories from the depths of their personal lives. The title track explores Montali’s mother’s journey emigrating to the United States and how he empathizes with her sacrifices. “Time Alone” and “Best Design,” the opening and closing tracks are respectively melodic journal entries about finding balance and helping a loved one grieve.
The final track to be released, “Strangers,” was written at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Davis’ London apartment. It details the duality of wanting closeness with a community you can be yourself around, but in a brand new place where you don’t know a soul. The picturesque music video that accompanies it — out Feb. 26 — was directed by Elijah Barry.
The duo caught up with Luna ahead of Flamethrower’s release and their EP release show at Arlene’s Grocery in New York City. Keep reading below to learn about their creative process, how they’ve continued making their cross-Atlantic partnership work, and what they’re looking forward to this year.
LUNA: Congratulations on the release of your second EP! How does it feel to get back into the swing of promoting a new project?
MONTALI: Thank you! It feels so weird talking about this EP since it feels like we recorded 15 years ago (but [it’s] only in reality [been] about a year and a half). But yeah, we’re definitely excited. It’s always weird on release day ’cause this secret little orb that you’ve only been discussing with a small group of people in hushed tones in back alleys is suddenly on streaming platforms everywhere, naked and confused! We used to be more precious about making sure every little thing went right during promotion, but this time around it feels more like we’re just playing whack-a-mole and hoping it’ll resonate with people.
DAVIS: We have been waiting a very long time to release this second EP, which feels like a clear evolution of our sound since we formed our band just a few years ago. Most of these tracks are about personal, one-to-one relationships with real people in our lives, and these people were the people to hear the final masters. So it will be nice to finally share these songs with more than just the people they’re about. The fun of promoting this specific project is figuring out how to create that cohesive story across the tracks into a message we want to share with the world.
LUNA: How has life for you both changed between the year Preparation to Pretend was released (Feb. 2022) and now, with Flamethrower?
MONTALI: I have (some) blonde hair now! Other than that, day-to-day it hasn’t changed that much. What’s changed, at least for me being in Brooklyn, is the community around the project and just being in the music scene here in general. Now that I’ve been around for a bit more time, it’s been great becoming friends with other bands, going to local shows, and playing live a lot more around the city.
DAVIS: While Lorenzo’s hair changes color, mine continues to fall out. In all seriousness, since releasing the EP last year, we really started to find our footing and rhythm (pun intended) in terms of our working relationship to try and make a cross-Atlantic project succeed. Most notably, we’ve tried our best to expand beyond just the songs into even stronger visuals, from our cover art, press photos, photography from our live shows, music videos, and merch. Similar to Lorenzo’s local NYC community, it feels like we’ve been able to build this network of amazingly talented and creative visual artists all over the world!
LUNA: You were both working together as Fetch Tiger in two different countries for a couple years. How does it feel now that you're finally reuniting this spring?
MONTALI: Limping to the finish line (laughs). Gasp. Just kidding — after a few months we were able to get in a really good rhythm of writing, recording, etc. between countries, and so while it was tough, we were able to keep building the project and making music we’re proud of. Once Tanner is in the States, I feel like it’s almost like the first day of the next “era” for the band, and this EP is the first step of that.
DAVIS: It’s time — I genuinely cannot wait. In 2022, Lorenzo and I only saw each other in person on two separate occasions, which is as many times as I think I saw my own parents! Getting to be together in person again will make the whole experience of writing, experimenting, and demoing much more efficient and genuinely more creatively stimulating because we can finally create together, simultaneously, bouncing ideas off one another in real time, versus sending files back and forth. Beyond real-time collaboration, I am probably most looking forward to finally getting to perform on stage with Lorenzo and the rest of the live band, which I have only had the pleasure of doing once (last September) since we separated in 2021.
LUNA: Back to Flamethrower, I appreciated how personal the stories behind the songs are. How do you go about deciding which parts of yourselves to share with the world?
MONTALI: To me, the last EP felt like, “Hey, here’s some stuff we’ve written recently all mushed together,” and Flamethrower is [like], “Here are some specific things we want to say.” Usually when I’m writing lyrics, I’ll stumble on a phrase that sounds cool or works well with the melody and I’ll build around that. For the last EP, we would lean on making up fictional scenarios within the lyrics, but for these new songs we forced ourselves to consider situations or emotions we’ve gone through recently, or a story or person in our own real lives that we wanted to write about or for, and anchor in that.
DAVIS: Generally, I share most things about myself with pretty much anyone who will listen (lol), which definitely has pros and cons. Also, I typically only write from personal experience, unlike Lorenzo, who has this amazing ability to create these fictional scenarios and empathize with these characters, articulating lyrics from their perspective. When it comes to deciding which parts of myself to share with the world through Fetch, it’s more about which stories or emotions that I genuinely want to spend the time exploring much more deeply and that feels relatable to others — mainly Lorenzo, since he’s the lead singer.
LUNA: The video for “Strangers” feels like such a supercut of the past few years that a lot of us can relate to. What was the process behind the song and the video?
MONTALI: About a year and a half ago my sister was visiting from LA and took me to a film screening in Brooklyn, where I met one of her friends, Elijah Barry, a really talented director. We got to talking and he sent [me] his film school senior film — after seeing that, I was immediately like, “We need to work together.” I showed it to Tanner and he agreed. So, we basically asked Eli if he would be interested in doing a music video together — we shared the EP with him and said, “Pick the song that you resonate with most.” He picked “Strangers.” From there he came back with the concept, which we loved and talked through a bit, but from our conversation and seeing his past work we really just wanted him to run with it, which he did.
DAVIS: I moved to London in April 2019, roughly one year before the COVID pandemic hit, triggering various lockdowns, which overnight halted my ability to make and deepen new friendships. So many of the people I had just started forming relationships with either left the city or returned home, and “Strangers” was written about the resulting isolation and loneliness I was experiencing in a relatively new city with so many of these relationships in a very fragile state — I just wanted to go back to times when things were easier. “Strangers” developed from a very simple chord progression that I continuously listened to on loop while sitting in my room during lockdown, with the melodies and lyrics coming quite quickly after a structure had been created. Sonically, this track feels very cinematic and anthemic, so it was amazing to see Eli’s interpretation in the music video, which I genuinely believe perfectly captures the storyline and the emotions we tried to articulate.
LUNA: How would you describe your sound at the moment?
MONTALI: This EP feels really inward to me; swelling, almost shadowed. In my head I keep seeing a group of candles wading through a dark forest. Which sounds very melodramatic, but for some reason that’s what my mind goes to! That said, our sound has already changed quite a bit since we recorded this EP. In the sessions we’ve been doing recently for our next project (did someone say album?), we’re getting more upbeat, punchier, more synthy than guitar-y — partly influenced by the fact that we wanted songs that were more fun to play live.
DAVIS: My absolute favorite thing about Fetch is that our sound is a continuous evolution, and we love experimenting with new sounds and instruments. It’s true that this particular EP feels a bit darker, a bit more mature than our first EP, but our next project, which is definitely more current, feels a bit lighter, chilled, and fun, mainly because that’s the energy we’re trying to channel in our day-to-day lives. Particularly excited to share some of the amazing synth work, which feels much more elevated.
LUNA: What's the significance behind Arlene's Grocery, the venue for your EP release party?
MONTALI: Arlene’s is the first venue we ever played when I moved to NYC back in summer 2021. It was our first show in the States and the first time a lot of our friends were able to see the band play live. So it’s super exciting to be back to celebrate this two years later with two awesome bands: Phantom Handshakes and Waterfall Strainer, who we’ve been hoping to play with for a while.
LUNA: What’s one thing you're each looking forward to this year?
MONTALI: Touring. We’ve been playing mostly local shows for the last two years, but now with Tanner being back and a great group that is the band we will be out on the towns (the towns that are not NYC). It’s been something I personally have been looking forward to most so I’m excited it’s finally going to happen.
DAVIS: Writing in the same room. Lorenzo is an inspiration to me in so many ways, from his ability to write from unique, fictional perspectives that are relatable to his unwavering dedication to things he cares about most. In particular, he truly pushes me to be a better, more articulate songwriter, which will now be something we can hone more efficiently and effectively now that we’ll be living in the same city again. I can’t wait!
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