Faye Webster

Atlanta Millionaires Club is in Faye Webster's feelings, and that’s the way she likes it. "Everything is way personal," Webster says. "I have to write about very personal things for me to even want to write." On the 21-year-old Atlanta native’s new album, the omnipresence of pedal steel eschews bluegrass trappings, exible under Webster's genre-bending direction. Webster didn’t set out to make it sound like any artist in particular, but she cites Aaliyah as her main musical inspiration for how she uses sound. "That's where I first heard, 'Oh, there's this weird guitar that's bendy and it could totally be in a country song,' but the way she's using it is what makes her music so special to me," Webster explains. "I try to do that. I try to change the way pedal steel is supposed to sound, or keys, to make it more R&B." Pulling from a familial lineage of folk storytelling and time spent in Atlanta's hip-hop scene, Webster's work is a study of duality, weaving through her own introversion and heartbreak; it's an idiosyncratic sadness punctuated by fleeting observations and an unexpected, sly sense of humor. And like the way Webster takes the traditional instrumentation of Americana and ips it into something else, she uses her own calm, laid-back demeanor to say you can be boldly and unapologetically yourself in a quiet way, too.

About the album
“Webster explores themes of different relationships through her
broody tunes, tackling the notion of writing only sad songs by writing
her “saddest song” yet. In a way, the record feels like a comingof-
age for the singer-songwriter into her own perfectly curated
moment, which surely will lead to bigger and better things.” (NYLON)
“Faye Webster is filled with lush bluegrass sounds, featuring plenty
of slide guitar and the occasional trill of a fiddle, which Webster’s
fragile voice flits through like that of a younger Natalie Prass.” (W
Magazine)
“…a soulful offering heavily inspired by the country and western
music she grew up listening to.” (Pitchfork)
“Her self-titled record will win fans across the musical spectrum for
its left-of-center approach to folk. Webster is a lifelong student of
country-western songwriting and Americana sound (her mom plays
fiddle; her grandfather is a bluegrass guitarist). But she punctuates
her own tunes with subtle flourishes of funk. Her voice hits a sweet
spot somewhere between bluegrass powerhouse Alison Krauss,
Natalie Prass, and Tennis’s Alaina Moore, whose light vocals glide
across any melody.” (VICE)

I Know I'm Funny haha is Webster's most realized manifestation yet of this emotional and musical alchemy. Continuing to bloom from her 2019 breakthrough and Secretly Canadian debut Atlanta Millionaires Club, Webster's sound draws as much from the lap-steel singer-songwriter pop of the 1970s and teardrop country tunes as it does from the audacious personalities of her city's rap and R&B community. The album began for Webster with the stirring ballad "In a Good Way," as in "You make me want to cry in a good way"-an instantclassic Faye Webster one-liner. It's beguilingly simple, the kind of melody and arrangement that seem to have existed forever. A sense of relief charges the neo-psychedelic pop of "Cheers," where Webster experiments with an overdriven guitar tone. She also collaborated, on "Overslept," with the Japanese artist Mei Ehara, who she calls the biggest influence on her new music. Webster's music is full of personality. Many of her songs contain bits of girl-group-esque talk-singing, which color her atypical storysongs. Webster says she's in a growth mindset, pushing herself to learn more, to be more vulnerable. "Growth is really important to me," she says. "I hope people will relate to my songs, and not just be like 'this is a good record' but 'this makes me feel something. This is making me think differently, this is making me question things.' I told myself a few years ago that I was going to be more honest in my songwriting, that honesty is the best route to take with music. If I have a voice and people are listening to me, I'm not going to waste it."

Tracks

• 1 Better Distractions
• 2 Sometimes
• 3 I Know I'm Funny Haha
• 4 In a Good Way
• 5 Kind of
• 6 Cheers
• 7 Both All the Time
• 8 A Stranger
• 9 A Dream with a Baseball Player
• 10 Overslept (Feat. Mei Ehara)
• 11 Half of Me

Faye Webster's songs are direct lines to the human subconscious, and Underdressed at the Symphony documents what happens once you begin to build a new self from the ashes of your old routines. This rebirth isn't flashy or definitive, but is instead a series of seemingly mundane moments that, scattered across weeks and months, sneak their way toward something like healing. Yes, there's a breakup in play, but Webster is not documenting the heartbreak of a breakup so much as she's navigating the contours of heartbreak itself. Recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios in Texas with her longtime band, Webster is accompanied on Underdressed at the Symphony by Matt Stoessel's arcs of shimmering pedal steel, the plaintive, unhurried drums of Charles Garner, and, occasionally, additional guitarwork from Wilco's Nels Cline. The title of the album refers to Webster's post-breakup compulsion to visit the symphony on a whim, usually buying a ticket at the last possible second.

Track List

1. Thinking About You
2. But Not Kiss
3. Wanna Quit All the Time
4. Lego Ring
5. Feeling Good Today
6. Lifetime
7. He Loves Me Yeah!
8. Ebay Purchase History
9. Underdressed at the Symphony
10. Tttttime