If you ever wondered what a band with production input from both Jerry “Wonda” Duplessis (The Fugees, Miguel, Carlos Santana) and Peter Katis (Interpol, The National) would sound like, meet Color Fields.
Videos by American Songwriter
Comprised of John Torres (guitar, bass, vocals, production) and Scott Packham (keyboards, synthesizers, programming, production), it’s a combination of viscera and virtuosity that makes this tandem so intriguing to the ear. And one such track that personifies the homebrew of EDM rhythms and modern guitar pop sensibility is “Pendulum,” the title track for the duo’s upcoming EP and whose video American Songwriter is premiering today.
“John and I had gotten together for a writing session,” Packham explains. “I had a certain melancholic mood I was feeling at the time and started playing these minor descending chords. John tried singing a few things over the top of it and the first thing that caught my ear was when he sang, ‘I remember when…’ and then sang what would end up becoming the verse. That pairing of this feeling I had seemed to get picked up immediately by John in that moment.”
“Lyrically, I revisited the perceptions I had of love when I was maybe 10 or 11,” Torres adds about the song, whose video–conceived by the band’s keyboard player Scott Packham–is visually reflective of its theme. “My childhood was characterized by being often let down by reality because of my outsized hopes and expectations. In my daydreams, I had developed a very concrete vision of what love would be like, and of course, that vision never actually materialized, but for the purposes of this song, I decided to try to go back to that place as if it were real and write about it. The rest flowed from that place. I didn’t arrive at the pendulum metaphor until the very end. But once I wrote the chorus, I started seeing the pendulum swing everywhere. In and out of love, from old to young, from major to minor.”
For “Pendulum,” the duo worked with Duplessis on the track, giving the song that same cinematic scope he brought to such 90s classics as The Score by The Fugees, albeit formatted in a way to fit the individualistic style of the Color Fields sound.
“After holding this production so close to my chest, we got into the studio with Jerry,” Packham tells American Songwriter. “And within 10 minutes he completely revamped the vibe of the beginning of the song in a way that got even more to the core of that initial feeling I had had when first writing with John. Over the next few sessions together we produced what’s on the track now. It’s a song we feel really represents the band.”
“Jerry definitely has a very unique process and vision, but most of all he has an innate ability to uncover the most impactful elements of a song,” adds Torres. “Scott and I were both a little taken aback at how much he had removed as we’d definitely grown quite fond of the arrangement. In the end though, we’re ecstatic with how the song turned out.”
Color Fields’ Pendulum EP will drop September 18. For more information, visit them on their new, super fancy website.
