It’s never easy to guess what a new halfnoise record will sound like. Since Zac Farro — a longtime multi-instrumentalist and Paramore member who's produced records for artists like Becca Mancari and Elke — launched the solo project in 2010, his full-length releases have explored synth-soaked electronica (Sudden Feeling), dancey, groovy garage rock (Natural Disguise) and ’70s-style soft rock carried by lush string arrangements (Motif).
But the title of the forthcoming City Talk — out Friday, Nov. 17 —gives a clue as to Farro’s influences this time around. This is a city pop album, inspired by the preternaturally slick, Western-influenced tracks that Japanese artists produced in the 1970s and 1980s to provide the soundtrack of that country’s booming urban areas. The genre has captured the imagination of American audiences in recent years via compilation albums, YouTube playlists and online music platforms like NTS Radio.
"As artists, we're always ever-changing, and new things inspire us,” Farro says. “I think it's half what I'm inspired by at the time and half trying to almost test the waters of what sticks with a halfnoise record. People will sit on demos or sit on songs for years and never release things, but my M.O. is just to release it and make it part of the journey."
“Love & Affection” serves as a strong opening statement for the album by blending bold Roland synth sounds with airy wind instrumentation that might sound at home on McCartney II or David Bowie’s Young Americans. “Snip Snap” features more jazzy dissonance than you might expect from a halfnoise track with a tinkling piano part that gives way to crunchy chords just before the choruses.
There are familiar halfnoise sounds, too, especially on lead single “Baby.” Farro says the song was written and recorded in just over a day, and that speed suggests that he’s honing his sense of what a halfnoise track can sound like even as each album swings into vastly different genres.
“There's a few others that are just kind of like a lightning bolt,” Farro says. “All of the things culminate after they've all been simmering for a little bit. Then the water starts boiling, and it's like that perfect moment where all these things you've been working toward pay off.”
halfnoise at Bonnaroo 2019
For the most part, City Talk brings the kind of music that makes you want to cruise around a huge metropolis late at night and soak in bright lights and the hustle and bustle of a city. If that doesn’t immediately conjure images of Nashville, there’s a reason: Farro wrote and recorded most of the album in sprawling Los Angeles. Living, writing and recording in the city, he says, has provided a different kind of inspiration to Nashville’s immediately obvious surplus of singer-songwriters and country and Americana artists.
"I never really felt connected in that, so going back to L.A. was kind of like, 'Oh, we're all kind of on the same speed,’” Farro says. "I always made it a point to at least go out and mix out in L.A., or do something, because I definitely feel a different energy out there. Which, I know, that sounds 'L.A.' to say.”
The urban character of Los Angeles itself was also a key ingredient for City Talk, and tracks like “The Dove Has Flown” seem tailor-made for late-night city driving.
"I feel like L.A. and New York are very inspiring all the time,” Farro says. “You can go out and sit and people watch or go to Washington Square Park or something, and you're just like, 'Wow, there are people everywhere. There's life happening everywhere. What is everybody's story? How did they get here? Are they visiting? Do they live here?' There's so much going on.”
That’s not to say Nashville didn’t help shape City Talk, as Farro recorded “Snip Snap,” “Cool Cat” and a video for “Love Fire” in the city. Congrats Records, Farro’s own record label that has released every halfnoise full-length along with other Music City projects, is also based here. While Farro openly draws upon the long-established indie music scenes and urban fabric of New York and L.A., he says making music in a place that’s still evolving provides its own creative energy.
“I'm not going to say there's no one doing indie music here,” Farro clarifies. “There's a ton, especially with WNXP, WXNA, and a lot more things that are active now. But I definitely feel like Nashville is a little bit more like found inspiration, so I think it's cool. For me personally, I have to go to these places [like New York or Los Angeles] to come back and then mix that in with my world here. And then the byproduct is music that I make.
"I still believe in Nashville a lot,” he continues. “I believe there's still room for it to turn into a city that I relate to, and I think more people coming here only helps that. And the bones of it are still in there, you just have to look a little harder."
