Four Become One - FIZZ speak to press on the joys of collaborating on new album

FIZZ - comprised of solo icons Dodie, Orla Gartland, Greta Isaac and Martin Luke Brown have unleashed their inaugural album as a band to the world. The Secret To Life is out everywhere now, and MoveOnUp have been lucky enough to hear from FIZZ themselves on how the album came to be.

In an industry rife with huge egos and discontent between bandmates, it was great to hear that FIZZ are a group who actively enjoy collaborating and bouncing ideas off one another to strengthen their resultant releases. The band seem to have a genuine connection as a group of friends, and as such treat each other’s ideas equally.

Citing their album as a retreat from the music they usually make, the band said the art and vibe of The Secret To Life were inspired by their own childhood classics like Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka and Tim Burton’s films. The charming whimsy you’d expect from work with those inspirations cited is definitely audible in their music. Notes of Burton-esque psychedelia are sprinkled over their tracks, which on their own sound fantastically unique to each member’s solo works. The band themselves used the phrase ‘circus-adjacent’ as the best way to describe the motif in their artwork and music.

A new experience has also been a breath of fresh air, as the band members recall their ‘dimly lit London rooms’ they are used to working in compared to the new space provided for them to create together. FIZZ describe the change in environment as a definite help to instil the vibe they want in their music into themselves.

This change in environment created a completely new era for FIZZ’s members, leading to them describing the album as their own ‘Time Capsule’. With ‘no time to overthink’, the quartet said they disregarded the meticulousness of music production in favour of more ‘organic’ production styles. A fruitful and experimental two weeks encapsulated by a debut album.

FIZZ describe the process of writing and recording as blissfully easy, emphasising the role of their friendship in making the project flow without difficulty. Stronger people than me, if I’m honest. I’ve been through too many group projects that nearly made me lose my head with my own closest friends.

Each member of the band disregarded right and wrong, saying they trusted

each other enough to know the direction of the project...

Maybe I could learn from them.

In spite of the ambition and drive to do something different that went into this project, the members of FIZZ acknowledge the influence their own upbringings and back-catalogues have on producing as a group. The choral parts of their songs contain Greta’s self-proclaimed ‘ugly notes’ alongside Luke’s ‘Sunday schoolboy’ choir voice. For fans of each individual artist, there is a little bit of each of them dotted throughout the soundscape of their tracks to keep them happy.

The Grand Finale is the song that Luke Brown says he is most eager to perform. The band labelled the song as ‘their Bohemian Rhapsody’ for an age where no one has an attention span remaining. Mighty words, but if this writer’s opinion is anything to go off, maybe the Queen song they should have compared this one to is Killer Queen. Don’t pick your magnum opus after your first release guys, your ceiling is so much higher.

However, FIZZ’ organic production style coupled with their collective musical wit and genuine personalities will surely make them a force to be reckoned with, especially once they can bolster their discography with another release. They’ve already got four fandoms’ worth of followers from their members’ solo escapades, and I’m sure new fans will emerge in their droves.

If you like the sound of FIZZ and want to see them live in action then their 'Secret to Life' tour dates are listed below!