FAYE WEBSTER SHARES NEW SINGLE & VIDEO 'A DREAM WITH A BASEBALL PLAYER'

Image Credit: Pooneh Ghana

"Faye Webster's particular strain of sad-girl loneliness hits a little differently in the pandemic era”
– PITCHFORK

“Webster breaks musical barriers in such a way that musicians rarely do these days” 

– ROLLING STONE

"One to bare in mind when album of the year season comes around.” 
- MOJO

  “Webster has an undeniable knack for extracting seemingly mundane details from a situation and making them sound profound.”

 - MONSTER CHILDREN

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Today, Faye Webster shares the video for her new single ‘A Dream With A Baseball Player’, directed by Matt Swinsky. It is the fifth and final single (following ‘I Know I'm Funny haha’, ‘Cheers’, ‘Better Distractions’, ‘In A Good Way’) from her eagerly anticipated new album, I Know I’m Funny, haha out tomorrow, June 25th via Secretly Canadian. ‘A Dream About a Baseball Player’ is Webster’s oldest song on the record and a snapshot of her one-time teenage crush on Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr.—who she met when she was invited to sing at a Braves game in 2019.

Faye Webster says about the song, “Off tour I spent so much of my time watching baseball that I thought I wanted to be a baseball player. But I’m not, so I guess the next best thing was having a crush on one. I guess this song explains what having a crush feels like. Having made up conversations with them in your head even though you don't speak their language, wearing their team jersey every day, things that make you feel closer to this person that you don’t know at all. But I sang at the Braves game, and they let us meet so I think I got that one out of my system.”

The follow up to her 2019 breakthrough and Secretly Canadian debut Atlanta Millionaires Club, I Know I’m Funny haha is Webster’s most realised manifestation yet of her emotional and musical alchemy. Her poised and plainspoken music channels emotions that are so aching, they seem to be coming into existence at that very moment. And her unique sound draws as much from the lap-steel singer-songwriter pop of the 1970s and teardrop country tunes as it does from the audacious personalities of her city’s rap and R&B community, where she initially found a home on Awful Records.

In the time since Atlanta Millionaire Club release, while Webster’s profile has steadily risen - she also fell in love. “This record is coming from a less lonely place,” Webster says of I Know I’m Funny haha, which finds her sound fuller, brighter, and more confident. “When I wrote AMC, I was living by myself and on some don’t-know-what-to-do-with-my-own-time type shit. But now I’m living with my partner; I’m happy most of the time. I’m in such a different place. These songs aren’t necessarily happier, but it’s a different vibe.”

Webster started recording I Know I’m Funny haha before the coronavirus pandemic, but with the 2020 shutdowns, she had to switch up her typically spontaneous song-by-song studio approach for most of the album. She tried recording with her band for a COVID-safe two-week studio stretch, but ultimately left, recording vocals at home on Garageband: “I did the rest of the vocals in my bedroom, which is what I’ve done and what I’m used to, and what I prefer,” she says of her intimate singing style. And the uncertainty of life in 2020 also seeped into some of her lyrics, as on the gorgeous 'Better Distractions' (which landed on Barack Obama’s 2020 year end playlist), a song about missing a loved one and wondering “What’s next?”

The brilliantly colloquial title of the album is an indication of the humor and personality that shines through Webster’s music (This is also the case with her work as an accomplished photographer of portraits who has shot Killer Mike, Offset and D.R.A.M among others.) Many of her songs contain bits of girl-group-esque talk-singing, which colour her atypical story-songs. “One of my favorite things about songwriting is taking thoughts that people don’t really think are worthy, or might overlook, and highlighting them,” Webster says. (She also comes alive when describing hobbies like chess and yo-yoing.) “I like saying things that everybody thinks, but nobody’s saying. Sometimes you can’t really sing them, or make them pretty. So I’ll just say it, just talk. I’ve become more purposeful with it.”

Accepting the challenges, Webster says she’s in a growth mindset, pushing herself to learn more, to be more vulnerable. “Growth is really important to me,” she says. “I hope people will relate to my songs, and not just be like ‘this is a good record’ but ‘this makes me feel something. This is making me think differently, this is making me question things.’ I told myself a few years ago that I was going to be more honest in my songwriting, that honesty is the best route to take with music. If I have a voice and people are listening to me, I’m not going to waste it.”

FAYE WEBSTER
'I KNOW I'M FUNNY HAHA' IS OUT JUNE 25

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