Photo by Tessa Smith
Members of Moss Lime, Each Other, Sheer Agony, and Soft Cone have come together for Phern, a new jangle-pop band with a single, "Pebble," premiering today on The FADER. Crispy, anxious guitar feeds Hélène Barbier's temperate vocals orbiting around one distinctive phrase: Next thing you know I've got a pebble in my brain.
In an email to The FADER, Phern repeated something my aunt has been saying for years: just because you're on the sidewalk doesn't mean you're safe. "Pebble is a song about being a pedestrian, day-to-day in Montreal avoiding death. We are all afraid of dying so we drink a lot of smoothies. Right now we are in Halifax and cars are nice. We realized the song would have never existed if we were living here. 'The pebble in my brain' is the fear that seeps into our mind just after a close encounter with a crazy driver."
Listen to "Pebble" below and pre-order Phern's cool coma album here.