Friendly Giants Releases Haunting Call To The Past With “Dancing By Myself”
Friendly Giants boomed to life during the mandatory lockdown of 2020 when John Wittmayer and Shawn Fisher met and workshopped each other’s songs. As bands go, the duo added more talent to their collective, adding James Stephan, Barry Jones, Amy Heasman, and Holly Schweitzer. Trevor Yost incorporates drums into some of the band’s discography. Each member lends their respective talent, be it Fisher on violin, Jones on trumpet, or Wittmayer on vocals.
“The sum of our parts creates music that we all identify with, and this sharing is what thrills us to keep creating,” Wittmayer says.
On their new track, “Dancing By Myself,” Heasman leads the vocal track with a dark, haunting call to a past lover or close friend. She croons, “What do you see when you look inside me? What do you feel when you brush up beside me? Why can’t you know if you can dance by my side? I’m not a muse for your own gain. I’m not a fool to play your games.”
The revenge saga crescendos into a brooding synth wonderland full of hollow bass drumbeats and consistent hi-hat hits. Jones’ trumpet licks mesh with Heasman’s croony questions throughout the outro, where the title comes into the spotlight.
“I’m dancing by myself,” Heasman exclaims while Jones trills through his trumpet melody, pungently trilling under the pensive refrain.
Although Heasman contributes her evocative lyrics to “Dancing By Myself,” Wittamayer conceived the tune.
“I had the initial idea and music for Dancing by Myself. I was awkwardly trying to learn Cubase 10 during the long dark winter months of the Great Covid Lockdown. I was exploring electronica and beats and worked at composing semi-organic melodic statements accompanied by hypnotic beats on a computer,” he said.
Wittmayer added the band prides itself on running an open and non-judgmental environment where each member can pitch their ideas. “Our musical collaboration allows room that no idea is not worth exploring. We try it out, and if it sticks, we all embrace it. So far, so good,” he said.
Once Heasman penned the perfect lyrics for the tune, Fisher and Jones took to production, and Wittmayer recorded his “delicious, dirty guitar riffs.” The band stated this single elicits a “gypsy influenced-polyrhythmic Moroccan groove, with a powerful homage to a Bulgarian sounding women’s choir.”
Friendly Giants favors a genre-blending atmosphere of indie tones and free-sounding hippie-pop.
“The band is endlessly inspired by the Slocan Valley’s lively artistic communities and their surrounding landscape where music brings people together,” Wittamayer said.
Listen to “Dancing By Myself” below and learn more about Friendly Giants via our mini-interview.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hello! I’m John Wittmayer from the Kootenays in British Columbia. Some friends and I started up a musical collective during the Great Covid Shutdown called Friendly Giants and began to share our songs and ideas with each other. We made the best of a very challenging time in everybody’s life. It was a perfect time to look inward and connect with our Muse. It’s been an amazing journey with a group of very talented and sweet-natured musicians. All of us are songwriters, a couple of multi-instrumentalists, a couple of producer/engineers, vocalists, and there’s never been a lack of inspiration when we gather together. And it’s been a terrifically fun collaboration. The world needs more fun, right?
When I’m not wearing a fuzzy and furry musician hat, I work as the Film Commissioner for the Kootenay Region, and I own and operate a film studio located in Maple Ridge, BC, called the Ridge Studio. When I’m not doing that, you’ll find me outside riding my eBike, kayaking, adoring nature, admiring wildlife, gardening, raising goats and chickens, enjoying the local community, and homesteading on 155 acres of beautiful land in the Slocan Valley.
Tell us about the process of writing “Dancing By Myself.”
I was finding my way and fumbling about Cubase 10, recording and having fun with electronica, beats, and synths, and I wrote quite a few strange and weirdly good songs. Most didn’t have lyrics, but over the last year I dug out a few lyrics that seemed to fit well with some of these songs. I played one of these songs to our vocalist Amy Heasman, and she said, wait, she’d like to write something for the song, and she thought it would fit musically. A while later she sent me the mind-blowing lyrics to Dancing by Myself. She had been going through some emotionally difficult times, and her raw and honest lyrics acted as a catharsis of sorts. I think she speaks for many women as she describes the slow-burn frustration and heart-wrenching challenges of relationship. It was perfect how the spirit of collaboration can bloom before your eyes. When the rest of Friendly Giants began to weave their magic, the song really came alive.
What’s it like being a musician in Winlaw/Slocan Valley?
You can’t throw a stick in any direction without hitting a musician in the Slocan Valley! It’s an incredibly creative and fertile place where music is made, played, danced, and part of everyone’s life. We are honoured to be part of it.
Who was the first Canadian artist to blow you away?
I love Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Bruce Coburn.
In recent decades, Arcade Fire went off like a bomb, so unique, and Fiest. But, yeah, Joni. Genius.
You’ve been making music for while now. What’s one piece of advice you can offer to those starting out?
Never give up! And the music business is not music.
Music comes from a completely different place. When you tap into the source, you’ll know it.
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