Volume 5 of Hot Sauce Singles is finally here! This time around we have a folk duo named Fawn and their hauntingly beautiful new song "Chance Creek" from their soon-to-be-released album Fog Area. Give it a listen:
We paired this song with Avocado Lime. Like the song, it's got a slow, low heat profile (2 on the 1-15 scale) but its' flavor 'melodies' stick with you. Check out the twitter contest at the bottom of the post for your chance to win a bottle.
We got a chance to talk with Fawn and as them a few questions. Here's a bit of the conversation:
DBE: For the readers, Fawn is a duo composed of Anne Malin Ringwalt and Will Johnson. And Anne Malin and Will are dating. Ok, so how'd you guys meet? When did you decide to take it to the next level...and make a band together?
AMR: We met when we were sixteen. We were both studying/living at an arts boarding school in Northern Michigan. I was reading at an event that Will happened to be playing guitar at. At that point, I was writing songs, but wasn’t a confident guitarist, and had a fevered-teenage-crush on Will. So I asked if we could develop my songs together. We were close friends for a few years, and eventually started dating. Once we moved in together, Will suggested we create a musical project together instead of just collaborating on each other’s work.
WJ: Yeah we were collaborators for four years before we became parters. It’s great having something like music to ground your relationship. I think this album we made in 2012 might be the best thing we ever made, excluding our upcoming LP, of course.
DBE: Cool, cool. And you guys are out in South Bend, Indiana, but you recorded your first album (Neither Dog Nor Car) up in Medford, Massachusetts, right? Did you guys used to live in Boston? Why the moves?
AMR: We did live in Boston. I was there for school, and Will and I started dating when I was halfway through. Will moved to Boston during my last year and worked at a handful of recording studios (including the Soul Shop, in Medford). I’m also a writer, so we decided to uproot temporarily for my MFA in Poetry. Another move will be in store soon, though we’re not sure where yet.
WJ: Yeah Boston was awesome, but so expensive. Indiana, if nothing else, has afforded us the ability to rent a bigger place and have a dedicated space to work on our music. In this space, we created our first LP: Fog Area. I know it would be a much different record if we were still in Boston, and it probably wouldn’t be finished. We expect Fog Area to be out late 2018.
DBE: Around this time last year, Fawn got a nice feature on NPR's All Things Considered. Now you're getting interviewed by a hot sauce company from Woodstock, Connecticut. How's it feel to hit the big leagues? haha just kidding...but for real, as a new-ish band, has it been hard to get the word out in this day and age of music overload with the internet?
WJ: Most of the time it feels impossible. We probably get back one email for every one-hundred we send out. Plus, when we started recording as Fawn, we were still living in different cities and couldn’t practice, much less perform, regularly. I’m hopeful that momentum will start to build as we tour and try and build Fawn into our everyday routine.
AMR: It has been hard, but very worthwhile, especially now that we’re settled somewhere. The longer we work at our music, the more deeply interested listeners we find—their attention is encouraging. We’d rather have depth, anyway.
DBE: Yeah that makes sense, it's kinda the same way with our marketing and our hot sauce fans. At our size, a smaller number of superfans with a bunch of repeat orders means we're doing something right in our eyes. Speaking of hot sauce, I gotta ask a sauce question here at some point...so here's a few fastballs down the middle. Are you guys hot sauce aficionados? Where'd you come across our sauces? Favorite food for a hot sauce?
WJ: I wouldn’t call us aficionados, but we definitely put hot sauce on pretty much everything. You can usually find Cholula or Tapatio on our table, but we’re trying new stuff any time we can.
AMR: I once saw Will drink Cholula out of the bottle. You made an awesome looking hot sauce for our friend Audrey Harrer. (ed. note: Audrey Harrer's song "Easy Tiger" was volume 3!) She’s a great musician, and we love hot sauce, so we started wishing for a Fawn hot sauce. Seeing how you interpret sounds into tastes is pretty radical.
DBE: Aw thanks! And yeah, Audrey was awesome to work with. Okay, Fawn's ramping up a bit of a tour this spring...shows in Ohio, Charlottesville, NYC, Kentucky and more. Is there a stop you're looking forward to most? Best on-the-road food?
WJ: Personally, I’m looking forward to our upcoming shows in NC and VA with Hayden Arp. He’s an amazing performer and friend of Fawn, and we have some amazing locals lined up for that stint, as well. Indiana is so flat, it’s exhausting.
AMR: We’re playing two shows, and recording some records (ed. note: pre-orders available here) in NYC over my birthday weekend. It’ll be a special time to see friends converge and share some meals with my brother. We love vegetables.
Okay! Hope you enjoyed the song and the interview, here's the tweet you'll need to retweet for your chance to win a bottle!
Hot Sauce Singles VOLUME FIVE!! @fawn_duo is up with "Chance Creek" from their upcoming record Fog Area. Followers who retweet will be entered into a drawing for free sauce! https://t.co/KlZVnbpRkZ pic.twitter.com/wLyxRABeXB
— Dragons Blood Elixir (@Dragons_Blood) March 13, 2018
Fawn's website
Fawn on Bandcamp
Fawn on Facebook
Fawn on Instagram
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As of June 2018, Fawn now goes by Anne Malin, here's the updated bandcamp link: https://annemalin.