Q&A: Dylan Fraser explores the electronic and the emotional on his inward-looking latest EP, The World Isn’t Big When You Know How It Works
IN THE LAST DECADE, the evolution of pop music has seen artists tampering with ideas of introspection and melancholia in a genre that James Parker once characterized as “an ecstatic and superheated Nothing.” Some names that come to mind as the vanguards of this cultural shift are Lorde, Lana Del Rey, and most recently Billie Eilish. Pop artists who wade in self-awareness and grapple with ideas of internal perception: these are the artists that have seemed to capture the imaginations of audiences across the world. One such artist is 19-year-old Dylan Fraser. Continuing in the vein of this current era, Fraser’s catalog explores ruminative pop that is unafraid to experiment with distortion in all of its iterations and unequivocally embraces vulnerability. Following the success of 2020’s The Storm (which was later expanded in February of this year with “Gucci Sweater”), Fraser has quickly caught the attention of the industry, and with his upcoming project, he is ready to cement his position in the new pop canon.
His latest offering, The World Isn’t Big When You Know How It Works, contains some of Fraser’s most impressive work. He focused on developing a rock-based wall of sound that experiments with guitar-heavy production while maintaining an uncompromising edge. The EP constantly oscillates between intense electronica and sweet indie-pop with a touch of folk and showcases Fraser’s artistic development. With the beautifully paced “I’d rather be here”, incredibly vivid lyricism of “Nightmare”, and the rich synthetic layering of “Mantlepiece”, The World Isn’t Big contains striking earworms and observes Fraser’s moving towards creating undeniably singular pop music.
The 7 track project is set for release on the 20th of August and is accompanied by a music video for “Nightmare” as well as a set of live performances for the lead singles. In preparation for the EP’s release, Luna got to chat with Fraser about The World Isn’t Big, the last year, and his musical journey thus far.
LUNA: So, you started off the year with a bang. “The Storm”, and now mere months later you’re releasing another project. How are you not tired?
FRASER: First of all, thank you. And I, I mean, I definitely do get tired and drained and I sometimes take a couple of days off just to recharge after being in the studio and stuff. But I think in the music industry, it takes so long to actually get a project over the line and released into the world that by the time I actually released The Storm EP, I already basically finished my second project. So, before The Storm was even out, I was already recording new material because it just takes so long to actually get it over the line. But I mean, I think for me, I just love doing it so it doesn't feel like a job to me. It's like my hobby and my whole life as well. But also I'm super grateful to be able to do it as a job. And I just know my limits. Whether I'm feeling drained, I'm feeling tired, I kind of take my foot off the gas a little and just recharge. It has been a hectic year, but it's been super fun.
LUNA: Yeah, because I first heard about you on the Travis Mills show, which in itself is already just major. How has it felt to get that level of recognition from so many other radio vets?
FRASER: This has been crazy because I grew up listening to these people, like your Annie Macs, Zane Lowe, and Travis Mills and all these people, and to hear them playing my music, even just when I hear them say my name because I know their voices, it's like such a surreal experience. I'm like, wait, are you sure? Did you really just say that? But it's been crazy. I just didn't expect people to get on board so quickly with [The Storm]. And it's just been awesome to see the people connect with it and want to play it on their radio shows.
LUNA: With The World Isn’t Big, I think a lot of people are going to resonate with it because it is such an emotionally raw project. I wanted to know what was the driving force while making the project and how did you decide what the message was.
FRASER: I wrote this project at the start of the first lockdown in 2020. And when the lockdown happened, I was like, fuck. What am I going to do? I've just signed a record deal, I'm about to start releasing music. Like, what is going to happen? How am I meant to navigate this? It was weird because I went from being in London all the time and like in the studio and everything and I ended up getting signed, which was mad. But then I was back in my childhood bedroom in Scotland and it was very weird. I think it gave me a lot of time. And one thing I would say about this next project is, I'm actually really grateful for the time that I had to kind of just reflect. I think everyone just had so much space to actually sit with themselves and their emotions and figure everything out. I think for me, I just went deeper into everything and really managed to sit with myself and figure out exactly what it is I wanted to say before I even put pen to paper and wrote a song. And in this next project, I talk about me, I talk about my emotions, my anxieties. I also talk about other people in my life and their lives and how it's affected me.
LUNA: How much more different do you think the project would have been if there wasn't a lockdown period or a pandemic?
FRASER: That's a good question. I think it would have been very different because I would have had different experiences. I think if the world was open and I could have just done anything, I would have been doing a bunch of stuff in a bunch of new places, all those kinds of things. So, I think what I would be writing about would take on a different tone and take on a different journey just because I've been experiencing completely different things. I only had one experience and that was in my room and Scotland trying to figure out what it was I wanted to say what I had done in the last year, what interesting conversations, experiences I’d had, what could I write about. I think that project kind of came together in a way it that wouldn’t have if it wasn't for me being lockdown.
LUNA: And you work with Jonah Somerfield a lot on your other work. How was it working with other producers for this current project?
FRASER: Me and Jonah were doing FaceTime sessions for most of this project when it was lockdown, and I was recording my vocals at home – which was really weird. And we’d basically done all of the project and got all of the demos together and we were like, oh, it'd be fun to involve some other people in the project and see what kinds of sonics they can bring to the table. I mean, I'm a big fan of the 070 Shake album (Modus Vivendi) and I know that Dave Hamlin produced on a lot of that. So, I was like, I really want to see if he'd be up for doing some bits on one of the tracks. We managed to get him on “Supersonic”, and he added some really cool sonics that we just would never have thought of as just me and Jonah. And then we got Johan Lennox, this amazing producer, and string composer, to do some strings for us on “Mantlepiece” as well, and it just really took that track to the next level. It was really interesting and really exciting to involve these people in the project. I was such a big fan of their work beforehand.
LUNA: One of the standout tracks for me was “I'd rather be here”. It is definitely such an important track for the EP and I think it sets like pretty interesting tone. In pre-chorus one thing that I noticed was that you had almost a rap-like delivery. I wanted to know what your worlds of influence were for the entire record because that was such a specific moment that showed that you were drawing from so many different places.
FRASER: I'm glad you picked up on that because I’d done that subconsciously, then I realized after that this does have a bit more of a rap or spoken feel to the pre-chorus. I just grew up listening to so much music and I loved Tyler, the Creator when I was growing up, I'm a huge fan of Kanye and his creative process and all the sonic choices and people that he brought on board his projects. And I've listened to a lot of hip hop and rap growing up as well. So, I think I subconsciously took influence from those places. I knew that I wanted to have kind of indie sonics and production to the song, but I wanted to have non-typical indie melodies and I wanted to be a bit more playful with the way I phrased stuff and the way that I sang it. I wanted to feel a bit weirder. I definitely like people from so many different places. But that track really came together easily and it just felt good from the get-go. We didn't actually add that much production after the first day that we wrote it, we kept it pretty stripped for the most part. But yeah, I think I think you're totally right about pre-chorus
LUNA: With the influences, there is a very specific type of vocal manipulation that I kept on hearing, and it's quite reminiscent of what's happening right now with the hyperpop movement and everything in music. Did that have any bearing on how you decided some songs would have certain kinds of vocal manipulation and how the production would have those glitchy sounds that were all over the EP?
FRASER: I don't think it was like a choice or like something that I set out to do. I knew that every time I get into the studio, I just know that if I'm doing an indie song or if I'm doing like an acoustic guitar song or any kind of song, I just want to find a way to make it a little bit different, a little bit unique, or bring in a sound or some sort of sonic influence that you just wouldn't expect to go with that sound. And that's one of the things I enjoy the most: experimenting and seeing how far I can push genre and, on this project, I really wanted to play with vocals and vocal sounds. I also wanted to play with production, glitchy the elements, and just kind of level up from my first project. Obviously, when it's your first project, you’re still figuring everything out. You’re still figuring out what you're trying to say and what you're trying to do sonically and I think this second project still has so many different sounds and not one track sounds the same. But for me, the second project feels a little more cohesive and feels a little more like you can almost pinpoint or have a better understanding of what my sound is or where it can go, or what it can be if that makes sense.
LUNA: Definitely, and “Only a fool” is exemplary of that aim that you had when you were making the whole project. It treads this weird line between being so emotionally vulnerable and then you get like these weird electronic sounds and vocal layering which is just so rich, but then also so electronica. I was wondering, was it difficult to try and find a balance between the extremely vulnerable indie side and the hyper-technical electronica and aspect of everything?
FRASER: Yeah, I think it is that fine line of you don't want to go too electronica on a song that really should be stripped back and emotional. And I think it's about really knowing what you want to add and it being very subtle choices and not huge big sonics. I was really inspired by Bon Iver, for example. I think he's done that really well where he can have really emotional folk music, but have these electronic sounds come in. And I think Frank Ocean also does it really well. For example, on White Ferrari, it's one of my favorite tracks and it's a ballad but he uses these warm synths and all these amazing sonics. I think James Blake also is another reference for that song. He makes these emotional ballads, but he can add more interesting production to them. And I knew that I wanted to do a ballad because I've not really done one yet but I wanted to do a more stripped-back and emotional song. I knew I didn't want to do just piano or just guitar, I wanted to bring some sort of dark distorted synths and moments to it because I love those sounds and I love to take people on a journey. My favorite artists take me on a journey through the songs and it starts somewhere, then it can end in a completely different space, in a different place. I think I really want to always be kind of pushing it with everything that I do and see what I can bring in.
LUNA: And those very dark, melancholic, moody, sounds, they're very evident even in the visual language of your videos and cover art. Were those choices very deliberate or was it kind of stream of consciousness, like, I'm going to make everything red, grey, white, and black?
FRASER: I think I just gravitate towards weirder and darker sounds and visuals; I always have. When I listen to a song, it gives me some sort of feeling, I can see a visual in my head, or even just a rough visual of what I want something to look like. I have ideas in my head, and then in real life, they end up being something completely different from what I imagined, but still weirdly fits. Like the EP cover, for example, was not exactly what I had in my head. I actually wanted the cables to be black because I thought that would be more striking. And then I was working with Daisy King and Ed Tritton (who basically helped facilitate and bring my crazy ideas to life on artworks) [and Daisy] wanted to try making them red, then I was like, hmm, I'm not really like a color guy. I really like muted and neutral colors. Then I was like, sure, give it a go, see what it's like. I actually ended up loving it and thinking it was way more striking than the black cables that we originally had. For me, music and visuals go hand-in-hand and even fashion – the whole thing. They all go together and I just love being able to create worlds around my projects and the music that I'm making. I love looking at other artists and how they create a world and how it can feel cohesive. I just have all these crazy weird ideas and like 12 million Pinterest boards of music videos. I have music video treatments written for songs that are going to have a music video just in case we have a music video at some point.
LUNA: Do you have more music videos planned for the upcoming EP?
FRASER: Um, I think I've got some more visual content coming in. I don't have any other official music videos planned yet, but I guess we'll just see what the project does. Maybe there'll be some room to do another one but I've got something cool visual stuff coming up.
LUNA: As a selfish music listener, obviously, I want to see if there's going to be more Dylan for the rest of the year. But like I said at the beginning, there is a lot of work you’ve already produced, so is a full-length LP in the works, or is that for next year?
FRASER: So, I have been in the studio a lot recently and I'm working on my third project. And I don't know, I don't really have the wording yet. I don't know if it's an album, I don't know if it's an EP or a mixtape, but I've got a bunch of songs that I really love. I think it's some of my best work that I've done today and I wish I could really start now. Maybe I'll release some bits towards the end of the year. But if not, definitely next year I've got so much new music ready to go.
LUNA: Last question: if you could sum up the entire EP, let's say in a sentence, what would it be?
FRASER: An enigmatic, dark, warm, chaos.
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