“I was having a lot of conversations with my friend about her marriage difficulties,” Farideh tells American Songwriter. “As I reflected on their love story, I saw her experience through the lens of a mythical fable.”
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Like many songwriters, the Canadian synthpop by way of folk artist couldn’t help but begin to put the pieces of her freind’s story together as a song in her mind. She had been writing since she was a kid, so that kind of creative reflection was second nature.
“My dad was a roots musician, so I grew up sitting in the corner at rehearsals hearing the three-part harmonies, walking basslines and the chorus of guitars, mandolins and banjos,” Farideh explains. “At the age of 2, I was already singing on any coffee table I could find—by 12, I started writing songs. Writing songs and performing was my only desire for most of my life.”
So, when her friend came to her with romantic woes, Farideh’s brain started ticking… in the end, she poured his “mythical” ideas onto the page and ended up with “Otherside of Truth,” her latest single. Out July 13, the tune is an ingenious blend of folky melodies, mesmerizing vocal layers and irresistible synth-pop grooves.
“If my friend was a Greek god, she would be eternal springtime—everything she touches, she brings to life,” Farideh says. “She doesn’t just light up a room, she lights up the heart of every person in a room so the whole place is aglow. Yet, as luck would have it, she falls in love with a man who had no life or emotion in him, in a fable he would be a corpse. As much as she tries to breathe life into him, she cannot bring him back from the dead. With each failed attempt, a part of her dies and she is slowly becoming a corpse herself. To save herself, she has to let him go and hope that he will find his own way back to the land of the living.”
With the echoing refrain, I can’t help you when it hurts me, the song is a catchy and empowering anthem of self-worth. “I have earned the wisdom of that lyric,” Farideh says. “I have stayed in harmful relationships thinking if I could only change myself or change them, if only I had a thicker skin or a louder voice maybe they could hear me, maybe they would stop hurting me. I told myself I had to keep trying, I had to try everything before I could give up. ‘I can’t help you when it hurts me’ is not just a truth, it’s also a boundary. It’s a healthy reminder to myself that my first responsibility is to my own well-being.”
Coming after Farideh’s debut single—“WaveForms,” which dropped in May—“Otherside of Truth” is an exciting peek into Farideh’s world, and a stellar preview of what’s to come from her. With a modern style and a timeless sensibility, her songs capture something ripe, strong and fresh.
Farideh’s new single “Otherside of Truth” is out now—listen to it below:
