Lindsay Powell, more commonly known as Fielded is just out here making the music they love to make with the artists they love. It’s as simple as that. The Brooklyn-based singer’s new album, Plus One, is a celebration of the incredible artistry coming out of the Backwoodz Studioz label, who have been releasing gem after gem for quite a few years now. I have been a fan of their work for a while now, and Fielded’s contributions on billy woods’ Terror Management as well as their recent work with Armand Hammer have made me a fan of their hypnotic voice and penchant for the more experimental and noisy sounds that we’ve come to love as fans. Plus One, their new album on the label, is an incredible body of work, with themes of self-love and reflection, and asking deeper questions about self. Produced by Locust, Kenny Segal, Child Actor, Fines Double, DJ Haram, The Lasso, ELUCID and Steel Tipped Dove, it does not only sound absolutely incredible, but it’s sequenced to perfection, flowing perfectly from track to track. Featuring a plethora of talented artists, including the likes of billy woods, Felicia Douglas, Teether, Pink Navel, PremRock, Fatboi Sharif, Wolf Weston, ELUCID, They Hate Change, A. Billi Free and Fat Tony, the album is an eclectic and diverse one, with each musician adding their unique and important voice to an already colourful-sounding body of work.
The opener “Windbreaker” featuring billy woods sets the tone perfectly with eerie chords and a haunting voice from Fielded. As the beat kicks in and woods starts his verse, I could tell this album would be an experience. As Fielded herself says, her tastes are quite varied as she loves venturing into darker, noisier and more experimental sounds. The album is exemplary of this. The rich textures on “The Way It Is” featuring Pink Navel are stunning, while the incredibly dense production on “I Saw You” includes an incredible verse from PremRock, who complements Fielded’s utterly haunting voice. The chemistry they have with each feature feels so natural. The soul, love and pain of their voice is captured perfectly on tracks like “Waves” featuring ELUCID, with its slow-paced yet groovy tone and introspective energy. It’s contrast as it flows into “Freakyextendooooo” with They Hate Change is crazy, as the beat (produced by ELUCID) is the most sonically jumpy and disorienting on the album to me, making it one of my favourites on the album. The dynamic, dance-groove of “Move It Like” with A. Billi Free is infectious and fun, while Fat Tony and Fielded both share their hearts on “Where I Came From”, reflecting on the past but triumphantly moving forward from all the struggles to a moment of peace and acceptance, with the album coming to a haunting close with “Worlds Away” featuring billy woods again. The album, executive produced by woods himself, is an incredible one, and a project I foresee being one of my favourites of the year. I felt genuinely grateful to Fielded for allowing me to ask them questions about the creative process behind this album, and to woods for the initial reach out. Check out my interview with Fielded below.
Martin: First of all, the album is exceptional. It’s sonically cohesive, incredibly written and to me probably your most complete project to date. First question I wanted to ask is, how are you feeling ahead of the release of Plus One?
Fielded: Thank you for that. Well, it’s funny – I definitely think this album is the whole package: great features, awesome production, beautiful songs, great mix, etc. However, in making it I wasn’t approaching it expecting anyone to regard it as my best or “most complete” work, as you say. It feels like a great album that I got to make with a bunch of friends who also happen to be artists I really like. It was woods’ idea, a great one, really, and I approached it with way less weight and intensity, scrutiny and particularity that I usually approach my most personal projects with. So to answer your question, I feel easy breezy. I’m honestly just happy we got to make this album with such exceptional people at a very particular moment in Backwoodz history.
What was your creative process for this album, and did it differ from previous albums like Demisexual Lovelace?
My creative process for this album couldn’t be more different than the process I have with my more personally produced and written albums. Demisexual Lovelace took all of me to write; I was candid in ways I blush thinking about, but that’s how I write and that’s how I sing. I wouldn’t say making albums for me is usually “fun” in that it is psychologically challenging and physically demanding because of how much of a perfectionist I am. But I do love it, maybe I’m addicted to it, that’s another answer for another question. I will say that writing the vocals for Plus One was really fun. I didn’t have to think about the production, the chord changes, the instrumentation. I just got to sing over a track, make up harmonies, vibe with the lyrics and bing, bam, boom: we had a song! So, this process was really freeing and I’d love to “just sing” over tracks more often.
“I am channeling a part of myself that feels embodied, powerful, intuitive, communal, all-knowing, all-seeing. I wanted to create a narrative around knowing the truth about someone in a situation where they can’t even see it themselves”
“Windbreaker” with billy woods is a pretty chilling way to start and album off. Could you elaborate on how you approached and wrote that that track?
Well, I mean, in short I wanted woods’ tracks to bookend the album. “Windbreaker” is naturally a very strong track sonically, so I wanted it as the opener. It’s probably my favorite song woods and I have done together. We each somehow wrote our parts simultaneously and with no knowledge of what the other person was going to write. The spookiness of that alone matches the track’s vibe. If I’m thinking beyond that, however, it makes sense as a way to welcome the listener to the album. woods and I are both intense artists, and it’s setting you up for the lyrical intimacy of most of the other tracks. I know it’s jarring subject matter but I like setting up the listener for honesty that dips into a world of fantasy at the same time.
There are notably quite a lot more features on this album than your previous projects. When you write and come up with the themes and concepts of the tracks, do you prefer to do this independently or in direct collaboration with the featured artists throughout the album?
I’d say for most of the songs I wrote my parts first and then sent them over. It’s interesting how intuitive everyone was, how we found a way to embody certain artist’s spirits on certain songs. I wanted Sharif on the DJ Haram track because it has a foreboding quality, which really aligns with his love of horror. And getting ELUCID on “Waves” just added to this narrative I was spinning about cult-like worship of coolness, he just embodies it, full stop. Wolf and I have a connection already around feeling a certain way within the industry, which really came out on “Goddess Woes” – she just really picked up what I was throwing down and then completely made it her own.
“I Saw You” with PremRock is another fascinating track to me. There’s a level of acceptance about the inevitable fall of civilisation, in which you seem to draw parallels via a poignant metaphor about a relationship that has gone sour, at least that’s how I interpret it. You sing ‘que sera sera’ like you really mean it. Are you at a stage right now, looking at the world around you, where you just hopelessly accept all the shit happening, or do you still have hope that things will get better?
To me, this song is about betrayal and the self-realization that follows. I was fantasizing about a time and a place when a betrayal would result in excommunication. There is a thread throughout this album that is rooted in my connection to the Witch archetype, definitely beginning with “Windbreaker”. I am channeling a part of myself that feels embodied, powerful, intuitive, communal, all-knowing, all-seeing. I wanted to create a narrative around knowing the truth about someone in a situation where they can’t even see it themselves. I guess it does tie in to the state of the world. I fear, for the state of the earth, I pray for the shortcomings of humanity and I hope for more for the people I love and for the people who do not get the respect and resources that they deserve. Unfortunately, that does not guarantee change, and in my darkest moments I see what is happening to the world and feel my anger. That anger definitely rose up in these lyrics for sure – but yeah, I don’t always know what to do with it and whether or not I can change a damn thing about anything or anyone. So I created an archetype through lyrics who can change things.
“Fielded started as a noise project. I’ve always been drawn to darkness, heaviness, drone, grittiness, dissonance, etc”
“Waves” with ELUCID is another standout for me. I love your lyrics about encouraging and embracing more danger in your life, which often also means being comfortable being vulnerable. Would you say you’ve embraced this both in your art and personal life, or do you feel like you’ve got a way to go in getting to that point?
Funnily enough, I don’t really interpret this track the same but I also live inside of it so I am not sure what it looks and sounds like from the outside. I was thinking of this more as a track that borders worship and a cult-like following of someone who is on the same level as you but may have more of a clue on how to let go even more and be free of the burden of self-sabotage. But to answer your question: I lived incredibly dangerously throughout my twenties as an undiagnosed bipolar person, ha! I did a lot of things I would never, ever do again. In fact, thinking about doing them, just thinking about them makes me feel nauseous. These days I like an early night, my dog and my partner and maybe one good IPA. But on a less literal level, I feel like I live dangerously musically every time I make an album. I’m always taking chances, I’m always challenging myself. My goal is never to make the most listenable album, it’s to document my experiences and allow them a place to live in the divine. I want to be honest, I want to be raw, I want to be personal and direct. If that ever aligns with making an album that slaps well then, Amen.
A lot of your lyrics throughout the album are so unapologetically blunt and direct, which is something I’ve come to love about your songwriting in general. Did this always come naturally to you, or did it take time for you to gain that confidence in your writing?
I have been writing lyrics and recording songs since I was probably fifteen, so about twenty-one years. Was I honest in my early stages of writing? Hell no. There was truth bubbling under the surface begging to come out, and the mood of the instrumentation of the songs was honest, but besides that I didn’t know how to be truthful in my writing. It was because I’d had such traumatic experiences that it was far too scary to ever talk about those let alone sing about them. Eventually, when I started going to therapy, started working through hard experiences, I started writing more “bluntly” as you put it. But that took years – I’d say up until an album called Ninety-Thirty-Thirty from 2012. Look, I mean, there is always going to be a level of fantasy to my lyrical world, but I’m also trying to say, “hey. I felt this. Oh, you felt it, too? guess what? You’re not alone, even if it seems like the most specific and incomparable experience in the world.”
“My goal is never to make the most listenable album, it’s to document my experiences and allow them a place to live in the divine”
As for the production, it’s incredible, with so many talented musicians contributing with some incredible beats. It also includes some of the darkest and most experimental sounds you’ve sung over, in my opinion. Was this your vision from the start? I’m curious to learn about how the choice of beats came about, and whether there was some external influence with the selection and sequencing.
I mean, Fielded started as a noise project. I’ve always been drawn to darkness, heaviness, drone, grittiness, dissonance, etc. Combine that with being a trained vocalist and I am eager to sing over anything at any time in any place, period. I want to make the most strange and seemingly unmelodic tracks beautiful, that was my goal with working with the producers I worked with on Plus One. That was my goal with the first tape I ever released (God rest its soul). Making this album felt a bit like a full circle to me, a bit of an homage to the intentions I began Fielded with thirteen years ago. In some cases, I chose the tracks that haunted me and brought me immediate but strange melodies. In other cases, like with Kenny Segal, the tracks were born for a vocalist, ready to be brought to life with melodies of molasses. In all cases, I’m very, very picky about the tracks I choose and the people I work with, so all of it was thoughtful and I often only choose a track or a collaborator if I get that little intuitive ping in my soul.
Lastly, what’s next? Do you have any live shows coming up? You gotta come to Europe (and London) soon! For the people!
I’m finishing an album with a full band that I co-wrote with my sometimes collaborator on Demisexual Lovelace David Lackner. Lyrics are always all mine but I wanted to see what it would be like to just write the songs acapella and find the instrumentation underneath them. I’m headed to Geneva next week for KorSonoR Festival where I’ll be collaborating with Naama Tsabar, Wolf Weston and Rose Blanshei on a performance piece. I’m hoping to play some shows around this album and headed to Berlin with another performance with Naama Tsabar in the spring. I’d happily tour the UK and Europe if I have (a lot of) help in setting up shows!
Sounds really exciting. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, it’s been a pleasure. Good luck with everything and I hope to see you around in London soon!
Thanks for having me!
Go listen to Fielded’s incredible new album Plus One below and do support! Released via Backwoodz Studioz.
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