December 6th, 2024, singer-songwriter Amelia Murray, famously known as Fazerdaze, wrapped her tour with Pond and ventured her way to The Loft to headline her show. Fazerdaze is an amalgamation of indie, bedroom pop, and psychedelic sounds. She first garnered attention from her debut album Morningside, which was made in 2017. Now, in 2024, she has returned with her sophomore album, Soft Power, which is a testament to how she has changed as an artist and person. Her dreamy melodies and introspective lyrics resonate with her audience, and as her career progresses, so will her unique sounds and experiments. I was lucky enough to meet up with her before her show to talk to her about who Fazerdaze is and what Fazerdaze is.
A Conversation with Fazerdaze
KSDT: In KSDT, a student-run radio show on campus, we have different people, from undergraduates to graduates, listening in and reading our articles. In this interview, would you like to begin with giving an introduction to what Fazerdaze and this project? What makes what inspired you to create it?
Fazerdaze: I guess Fazerdaze is my bedroom recording project. And even nine years after starting this project, it’s still that at its core. I just make music in my most comfy place, which is my bedroom, and I write, record, and produce everything from the end.
KSDT: I know a lot of people call you a DIY artist. You do it all yourself, and it’s very interesting to see how you compose everything. A big part of you as an artist you’ve been vocal about is your background living in New Zealand. How would you say your background has influenced your creative style and your music?
Fazerdaze: I think maybe being so far away from the rest of the world forces me to just do it my way, and every time I try to do it the “correct” way and go to LA, it just never works. Being so far away, it’s just forced me to embrace my own methods and be very resourceful with the way I make music, the way I tour, and sort of returning to that DIY, hands-on approach which has worked really well for me. Even though I kind of have an upscale phase of days, keeping grasp on that ethos is what keeps me going. Every time I try to do it the music industry way, it flops. It doesn’t work. So I think being based in New Zealand, it’s just the only way I know how is the only way to do it, and that’s the way that works.
KSDT: And doing it yourself is like being rooted in yourself. You’re not controlled by the music industry and you have full control over what you make.
Fazerdaze: Yeah, I’ve come full circle now. I’ve been through that whole machine and, like, it’s almost made me stop doing music. So I’m just, I’m really grateful to be on the other side of it now.
KSDT: When I was introducing my friends to your music, they praised your dreamy and cinematic sonic elements. Were there any artists or albums that helped you shape your sound early on?
Fazerdaze: There’s kind of like two sides to it. There’s the whole bedroom pop scene, like Alex G, Frankie Cosmos, Car Seat Headrest, and Japanese Breakfast. They’ve really influenced me. For some of the more sonic stuff, I was really influenced by Beach House, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, and maybe Tame Impala in terms of vocal effects and stuff. Sort of between those kinds of two sides of things as well.
KSDT: Bringing us back to our conversation about you being your own producer, which is very, very impressive, do you usually start with lyrics, a thematic idea, or melody? And what is your favorite part of this creative process?
Fazerdaze: I love this question. Well, it always happens so differently each time, but I think my favorite part of the creative process is when I can get out of my own way and sort of listen to ideas coming through me, as opposed to trying to control it by writing and making something good. It’s always the best feeling when I step out of the way and allow the creativity to flow through me.
You know when you get into a flow state while writing an essay or something, and it’s just like you’re just in this zone of nothingness, and it’s just like you’re just flowing. That’s my favorite feeling about creativity. It’s kind of challenging sometimes to get into that space. You really have to carve that space, or I have to really carve that space for myself, because life gets so busy. That feeling when I’m in that flow state—generating and flowing with ideas and like lyrics are just kind of coming out of my mouth—that’s my favorite part of the creative process. In terms of what comes first? It’s always different every time. Sometimes, I sit down and I make a beat and that will be the first part of the song. And then other times it’s like something I wrote in my journal or my lyric book or my Notes app. It’s all pretty random what sparks the idea.
KSDT: Yes, there is always a story behind a girl’s Notes app.
Fazerdaze: It’d be so interesting to, like, get access to your favorite pop stars’, or even just your friends’.
KSDT: I’m gonna shift the conversation over to Soft Power, your sophomore album. Could you highlight three songs from this album that you particularly enjoyed experimenting with, whether you were experimenting with the underlying meanings, sonic elements, etc?
Fazerdaze: Well, maybe I’ll start with the title track, “Soft Power.” Sonically, I really wanted to explore groove, because I felt like Fazerdaze in the past had been quite straight for the most part. There’s just a little bit more, like a heave, an ebb, a flow, and the groove. I sonically really wanted it to sound a bit more steady and then big. I just wanted to try and see if I, one girl, could create that sound, so that was a real experiment for me. I’m just glad I’ve tried that. I grew up going to festivals, and I love to see acts like Tame Impala, I love Gorillaz, and LCD Soundsystem, but so many of the bands I listened to as a teenager were guy bands. With “Soft Power”, what would I do if I had that same sonic punchiness that the boys do and what would I write about?
Writing “Soft Power” was like my experiment with concepts that are really personal to me and really resonate with me. With “So Easy” I really wanted to experiment with lots of groove again and distortion because it’s such a pop-leaning song. The structure, the melody, and everything; I was like, “Can I push distortion harder on this, since there’s such a pop aspect anchoring it?”
And then, “A Thousand Years” and “Purple.” I just wanted to be a bit more experimental in general. Like, what happens if I don’t think about structure? What happens if I just play with beats and let them repeat longer than a pop song?
KSDT: Another question about Soft Power. In an interview from 2017, you said that Morningside to you symbolizes coming home and feeling at home for the first time in a long time. What does Soft Power symbolize to you?
Fazerdaze: I think Soft Power symbolizes stepping into my own frame as a woman and on my terms, not what I felt was projected onto me. Yeah, Soft Power is really just about coming into my own frame as I’m now at 31—just defining what womanhood means to me.
KSDT: Speaking of stepping into your own frame, your fans applaud you for creating Soft Power after your hiatus. How would you say this album changed your artistry and you as a person?
Fazerdaze: Well, I think as a person, it taught me a lot of lessons that I needed to learn about self-worth and how to find it within, as opposed to constantly looking beyond myself to get it from other people. This record taught me that profoundly. Now, I hope in a very unshakeable way because it was such a hard journey. This definitely gave me that strength and fierceness—that reawakening of the fierceness in me—this record.
As an artist, I think this project helped me bring back both the edges of my fierceness and strength, but also this desire to stay soft, to stay open, to stay kind, and to stay true to myself. It’s almost like the fierceness and the edginess I’ve had to adapt on this record have now allowed me to protect the softer sides of Fazerdaze. The records taught me so much. I’ve learned how to go into the studio and be the head producer and step into bigger spaces that I hadn’t in Morningside. So yeah, so much stuff.
KSDT: It’s like a lot of creatives in the art world. They focus on adhering to the standard, and many lose that fierceness along with their authenticity. But you stick to your authenticity and you can see it in your music.
Fazerdaze: That’s a real fight. Beacons of the world and the industry are a constant work in progress along with protecting my authenticity, which I’m trying to listen to and trying to honor.
KSDT: Next question I wanted to ask: is it hard to balance life as Fazerdaze in Amelia Murray?
Fazerdaze: Yeah, big time. I feel like I got that success before I felt worthy of it. I think Amelia totally got pushed to the side, and Fazerdaze became my source of worth and validation as a human. I also didn’t really have the right support around me to navigate that stuff. I just felt really alone and more confused by the people who were meant to be looking out for me and their agendas. Now, if anything, I’ve kind of swung the other way around. I’m like Amelia Murray first. I need to look after myself first. Fazerdaze is second to that.
KSDT: Could you walk me through the process of reclaiming your identity as Amelia?
Fazerdaze: I mean, one of them, like the breakup, was really the signifier of the changes I had to make to reclaim myself. Do you know about Saturn returning around? It’s like a concept in astrology, where around 29 to 31, Saturn returns back to where it was when you were born. With that return, you need to shed everything that’s not authentic to you. That means relationships, jobs, and I had to shed a lot of false relationships that were just not built on authentic connections.
There were a lot of dynamics that weren’t aligned with the person I needed to become. I guess that period of reclaiming myself was actually just about shedding. It wasn’t about finding something, but actually just about getting rid of so many stupid expectations of myself and letting go of all of that stuff. I came out of a nine-year-long relationship, and I just had to reclaim Amelia to go through that process.
KSDT: You’ve been pretty busy recently supporting Pond, and now you’re about to headline at the Loft. So congratulations, excited to see that! How has touring influenced your music, and were there any particularly memorable moments from being on the road?
Fazerdaze: Right now, everything is such a blur, because I’m so tired. I feel like I’ve been eating one meal a day for the last three weeks, and the rest of the time is like snacking on carrot sticks at the venue. But I mean, I think the most memorable thing about touring is always the human connections and relationships—just getting to hang out with Pond after the show each night, and hanging out with my bandmate, Dave, and our tour manager, Charles, who’s not with us at the moment. He had to go to another tour. It’s always just the people that I get to encounter the most.
As for influencing my music, playing the songs live. I chopped up a lot of the stems, so it’s a little bit more electronic playing this duo show, but I guess because I don’t have the whole band playing with me touring, we’ve kind of had to adapt the music to a two-piece set up. Touring in itself is actually changing the way I’m making music. Now I’ve got this electronic setup and I’ve learned so much with this new tool. So there’s definitely this constant conversation happening between what I’m playing live, what I’m doing back home, what works live, and then what I want to do back home.
KSDT: I was wondering, is there something specific that you hope that your audience learns from your music, whether it be about you or life in general?
Fazerdaze: I mean, I always just want to give people an experience, and just the fact that people show up means so much. I just really want to give them a chance to be part of the crowd and be connected to something bigger than themselves. Maybe it’s my music, maybe it’s something that’s going on in their lives, I just want them to feel safe, fulfilled, and nourished from the show. Life gets really busy, and then to go to a show, I just hope that recharges the existential kind of feelings that we all feel. In terms of learning, I don’t know. I just feel like I’m always learning, and I can’t figure it out, but I just want to give people the space to be themselves at a Fazerdaze show.
KSDT: Here is the second to last question. But are there any collaborations or dream projects that are in the process of making right now, or you’d like to pursue in the future?
Fazerdaze: I would love to make music for a film one day. Like, write the whole soundtrack. Do you know Submarine? That kind of thing. Alex Turner wrote all the songs for that, and it’s also a great album. I’d love to do something like that one day. And then collaborations, sometimes people hit me up, and sometimes it feels like a real business thing. I get it; it probably would be really good for me, and I love doing collaborations when it just feels like you just hit it off and doesn’t feel like some sort of business exchange. It’s like we’re friends, we’re in the same city, it’s not about the publishers and the freaking managers or whatever—which I don’t have any—but then, at the same time, also, it’d be really cool to do a collab one day with someone unexpected. I think there are definitely obvious collaborations. I feel like Fazerdaze could do it with this person who also does indie pop, but I’d love to do a collaboration with a rap artist, or a hip hop artist, or an ambient artist! You know what I mean? That makes me feel quite excited and scared, which I think is quite cool for collaboration. I like it when collaborations are kind of unexpected.
KSDT: I’m looking forward to it. Now for the last question, I’m going to rewind the conversation back to Soft Power, being an album that explores womanhood and identity. To the women and girls reading this interview, what is something that you want to say to them?
Fazerdaze: Yeah, there’s so much that I’m like blanking, but I guess I would just say trust your intuition. And when I say this, I mean it in a way that sometimes it’s going to be disruptive, and sometimes it’s going to offend people around you, but listen to it and do your best to follow it. It’s not always your responsibility how other people react and, I think personally, I just spend a lot of time absorbing situations, but that’s not all you can or have to do. It’s okay to make things work for you. It’s okay to voice yourself, and it’s okay to take up space.
KSDT: Well, thank you so much for this interview. It was really a dream come true.
Fazerdaze: Oh, I really loved your questions. It’s just been so fun chatting with you!
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
A Night with Fazerdaze:
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