“Real ass shoegaze,” is how the vocalist of San Antonio/Austin quintet, fawn, jokingly categorized their sound, a remark notable when acknowledging the more recent fudginess in the genre’s definition. But beneath the humor, fawns three EP discography is just that: indistinguishable barriers of noise, fueled by distorted guitar experimentation atop submerged, dream-laced vocals.
Opening for Knifeplay at Hotel Vegas, I sat with the group just before their 9pm set began. Our conversation drifted through what ‘shoegaze’ means now, the making of their latest EP Paper Thin, the excitement leading up to East Coast touring and the early outlines of a debut album.
You guys are based in Texas. How do you feel about all of the big cities’ scenes?
Enrique Bonilla (Guitar): I like them all. Austin and Houston are definitely punk central. Houston and San Antonio are metal, and there’s shoegaze everywhere. I like playing everywhere. I want to play in more small towns.
Gio Campos (Guitar): I think the Texas scene is pretty cool right now; we’ve got a lot of hardcore bands. You could find something in any part of Texas. There’s a little bit of everything for somebody.
Do y’all feel like you fit in as a band here in Texas?
Trevor Humphreys (Guitar & Vocals): Uh, not quite.
Why so?
Humphreys: I think people really like riffs, like, headbanger shit. There’s a lot more alt-rock, sort of shoegaze, happening right now. That stuff’s all cool, just not what we do. But people seem to like us.
Bonilla: We’re going on tours soon, too, so trying to get it out there.
What genre or sound do you feel fawn identifies with the most, then?
Humphreys: We’re shoegaze, just in the more traditional definition of the term.
Were y’all fans of or familiar with Knifeplay before the show today?
Humphreys: I think they’re one of the best bands in the scene right now, for sure.
I just interviewed them when they were super cool, and I was fangirling the whole time.
Bonilla: They seem super sweet. Very excited to catch them live.
Humphreys: I’m trying not to glaze them.
Bonilla: Shoeglazing.
How has the rollout and performing and such been since releasing Paper Thin last September?
Humphreys: I like playing the songs a lot. There’s a lot more pedal work and noise now than there was previously. We’ve stepped it up a lot from when we started.
Olivia Jacome (Bass): It’s the first time we’ve ever had vinyl too, so we’ve had a pretty good representation of how people are consuming it, and that’s actually been super surprising in a very positive way. The fact that people are still interacting with us after multiple releases is really cool and a special thing.
What differentiates Paper Thin from your previous two EPs?
Humphreys: Well, we weren’t drunk as fuck writing this one.
Jacome: You can’t say that!
Humphreys: I would say that if we were interviewing for Rolling Stone. There definitely was more of an emphasis on creating interesting guitar textures and really honing in and developing the songs, both compositionally and production wise. With everything that I write, there’s a very intense care for it. But specifically for this one, when I was listening back on previous stuff, I felt it could be a lot better and more focused, artistically. There’s a lot of things that I wanted to try out that I hadn’t for various reasons. I would say Paper Thin is a taste of what I would want people to hear going forward.
Jacome: Trevor records and mixes all of our stuff, and you can hear the difference between the first EP and Paper Thin. Not that the first one sounded bad at all, but you can hear a difference, and I think that’s cool to see your progress as an engineer. It’s a really cool time capsule that we get to have.
Campos: This was our first EP with Jes on drums, and I felt like that added a lot to it.
Whenever I talked to Knifeplay, they emphasized how they’re trying to step out of being titled a shoegaze band. Would you say you’re the same, or do you think it’s helped you find your audience?
Humphreys: For us, absolutely not. I have an intense passion for the genre. If you asked a lot of other bands right now, they would probably say the same thing, that they want to move away from being titled shoegaze. I think that’s because it’s become this all-encompassing term for guitar music that people like. I’ve seen people call bands like Basement shoegaze, and I could see how the term, being so misused, could make some bands want to shy away from it. But I love the genre, and bands like My Bloody Valentine and Ride are top-five bands for me. It’s a form of rock music that prioritizes expression through experimentation, so I feel like shoegaze is an appropriate term for us.
Bonilla: It fits the definition very solidly.
Jacome: It doesn’t have any negative connotations, unless they’re calling themselves shoegaze because it’s popular.
Campos: It’s trendy right now.
You have a tour coming up in May, can you tell me about that?
Campos: It’s gonna be fucking awesome.
Jacome: We’ve done the West Coast twice. This is our first time we’re on the East Coast, and it seems like people are excited because we haven’t done it yet. We have a really good lineup of where we’re going. Bonilla: Really stoked for all the shows and all the lineups, and I think we’re all going to a handful of places we’ve all never been to.
Jacome: It’s our first tour as a band with this lineup, and so I’m really excited for that. On tour, you do a lot of bonding and giggling.
Bonilla: This group meshes very well.
Humphreys: We’re playing with some great bands, too. I mean, Daze that’s coming with us is awesome. Shame Chamber and Funeral Commercial are really good from Dayton. Excited to play with Doused and Slide in Philly as well.
Jes Morales (Drums): Just really excited to be on the road because we all live so far from each other, so it’s hard to hang out outside of practicing and shows.
Beyond touring, what else are you guys working on, if anything?
Humphreys: We’re in album mode right now. We haven’t been ready for that for a really long time, and now the vision’s really clear. I think it’s going to be miles ahead of what we’ve done so far, and it’s really going to push the envelope.
Jacome: It sounds really good. Every time I listen to it, it’s just really exciting. I felt like that about all of the fawn releases.
Humphreys: Very cohesive songwriting on the new album. Very excited to hear it all as a body of work.
Bonilla: Still a little bit of work to do, but the blueprint’s there.
What was the vision or the inspiration behind it?
Humphreys: Two big inspirations for me is m b v by My Bloody Valentine, their 2013 album. I think that one’s awesome. There’s so many cool chords and weird music theory shit that you don’t normally hear in any rock music. Another inspiration for me in an abstract way is ‘Ultra truth’ by Daniel Avery. He makes very ambient, breakbeat music, but there’s a lot of stuff in that album that really speaks to me and makes me want to write music.
Do you see that as something coming out this year?
Bonilla: Next year, for sure. We’ll probably get it all done, but then get the marketing and music videos and everything. We’re all involved in other projects, too.
Jacome: We all live in different cities. It’s a little bit slower going, but it works for us the way that we have it right now. We’re going to play a new song on tour, probably, so even if it’s not released, we’ll probably play those songs within the year.
Any new songs tonight?
Jacome: No, we’re not ready for that.
Bonilla: Y’all ain’t ready for that.
What are you hoping the rest of this year looks like for fawn, with the tour and working on a new album?
Humphreys: I really just want to hunker down and write new stuff. I’ve vaguely thought about another tour, but we haven’t even done this one, so I don’t even want to really do anything with that yet.
Bonilla: I think the tour is going to go great, and I would love for us to fly out and play some fests or just some one-offs on the weekend. Not have to be gone for a whole week or two, but still play some cool shows, hang out with some friends and then fly back home. I think that would be cool and manageable with all of our other things going on and the record.
Do you try to write whenever you’re on tour, or are you just focusing on performing?
Humphreys: I always bring all of my shit, and I’m like, ‘I’m going to go crazy in the van and write five songs.’ I’ll never touch it, so I’m not even going to try on this upcoming one. For the last five or six years, I’ve always had a dedicated room that functions as my studio, and if I don’t have that, I can’t write shit.
Jacome: Plus, we’re just trying to focus on surviving. Eating, sleeping and then someone’s driving. So it doesn’t really fit in very well.
Bonilla: With this band, there are so many layers and stuff, it would be hard to get a good idea of it in the van.
Jacome: If we had a tour bus, that would be dope.
Bonilla: We’re only taking the airplane this time around, and there’s not enough room on the airplane.
Morales: If anyone traps us in the cabin for two weeks, that could really help out.
Bonilla: Yeah, if you’re a millionaire and want to put us up in a cabin, we’ll put your name on the record.
Humphreys: Maybe I should try on this upcoming tour. It’s harder to write when you’re drunk every night like I’ve been on past tours, but I plan on being good on this one. We’ll have a whole day in Chicago.
I feel like being in a new place and getting to have new experiences would be very inspirational towards writing. And also good bonding!
Bonilla: The bonding is the best part. You get to come home with all the memories. Even when the shows are soul crushers, as long as you got a good squad, it’s fine.
Is there anything else you guys wanted to talk about or finish off with?
Jacome: We’re just having fun, being friends and chilling.
Morales: Just happy to be here.
Campos: Shoutout my homie’s Ferment in New York.
Bonilla: Check out Sacrificial Ecstasy, Calico Bonnet, Acaustix, and Fear of Loss. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.