NEWCASTLE duo Foemen have released a single Queen and Country from an upcoming full-length, debut album to be released before the end of the year.
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Foeman are Ruth MacDonald on keyboards and Brendy Cann on guitar and vocals. The couple, who are also in a relationship, write their songs collaboratively.
“Brendy will start the process of writing a song and putting it together, when he gets a bit over it he will ask, ‘What do you think about this?’” MacDonald said.
MacDonald, who is a classically trained pianist, will then work on the song bringing it to completion.
“She usually comes up with something really good,” Cann said.
The Foeman was formed in 2014 while the pair were travelling through Europe.
“You can't visit Europe without seeing and feeling the incredible impact of the war,” Cann said.
They had taken a small keyboard with them and spent much of their time on the road writing songs for the album Detritus City.
“We were so inspired by the devastating events that took place in the cities we visited, such as Budapest, Krakow, Berlin, and it poured from us furiously as we transferred our emotions into song structure,” Cann said.
“The devastation through Europe, Detritus City refers to that devastation.”
Cann said Detritus City could be considered a concept album covering the themes of love and war as a narrative strand running throughout the 10 songs.
“It’s a made-up story, a bit of a love story and [about] the impact of war,” Cann said.
MacDonald said the album was influenced by their shared love of post-apocalyptic film, such as The Road.
“Those themes, families being torn apart and that longing feeling,” MacDonald said.
The duo cites David Bowie, Depeche Mode, New Order and synthesiser driven 80’s music as influences. So far, Foemen has been a recording project but the duo is also working on a film clip for the single with Newcastle’s Andy Grieves at Rolling Ball.
“We have come up with a really good concept that has that war-ish futuristic feel,” Cann said.
The video is expected to be completed within the next few months.
In order to play live Foeman will pull together a band, although the final line-up is still to be set.
“In the next few months we will start fine tuning the live show,” MacDonald said.
They are working with Sydney-based producer Dave Hammer at Def Wood studios to complete the album.
The single Queen and Country is available for free on SoundCloud.
Follow: facebook.com/foemen