Letting the music guide, through a series of deeply personal reflections on adulthood and uncertainty about progression in life. Ziggy Lebon captures the enchanting mood of indie rock and shoegaze’s past, with the three-track EP FOOA (Fear Of Old Age).
The opening song Farewell leads with an instantly likable riff, a soundtrack pairing lighter solo notes with deeper distorted power chords. Then we get our protagonist’s voice, distinct but quiet within the mix, and a clear sense of emotional longing in its connection to the lyrics.
The sound is hazy but evocative, intense but calming, and hypnotic as Ziggy allows the instrumental to works its magic just as much so as the lyrical depth. This quality continues throughout the project, the songs consistently providing the comforting embrace of fully-loaded rock, alongside the intimate, revealing sentiments of a singer songwriter unafraid to go there. Farewell’s final third in particular welcomes a rise in passion, an energetic crescendo, and ‘with or without you’ resounds quite beautifully.
The title track FOOA is next, a heavier hard-rock dose of distortion and pace, snappier vocals backed by a fierce bassline. The style is fresh but the voice is still recognisable as Ziggy Lebon. The song feels nostalgic in tipping its hat to the era of Placebo, Deftones and the like, but vocally and conceptually Ziggy continues to carve out an original lane.
Despite the darkness of the music, the opening line is delightfully relatable in its realism: “My favourite childhood memory is my back not hurting.” – a reference both comical and quite heart-breaking in its unignorable truthfulness.
Wrapping things up is the dreamier descending riff and fully-loaded fuzz of Ibogaine, a personal deep-dive that’s impressively poetic but also poignant in its relaying of ideas like the storm inside the mind, the substances we use to escape, and the inability to deal with what’s expected of us. This particular track was inspired by Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly’s novel Someone Who Isn’t Me. Ziggy essentially re-writes the story from a new perspective. The creativity allures in itself, but the literary aspect adds a whole new level of contemplation and appeal to proceedings.
As mentioned, our protagonist is unafraid of taking things to these piercingly genuine depths, and the weight and embrace of the music backs up that relatable melancholy quite beautifully.
There’s a lot to love about this project, its reach is vast but in reality – this is only three songs, making up a short journey that openly reflects upon the one fate most of us will (hopefully) share.
EP out everywhere December 13th. Find Ziggy Lebon on Instagram & YouTube.
