FRND (aka Los Angeles-based musician Andrew Goldstein) has announced his new EP, Before U I Didn’t Exist will be out September 28th via Crooked Paintings / BMG. Today, he has shared his new single, “Erase”, which an upbeat melodic track that is his first new offering in nearly a year and the first song taken from the upcoming EP.
According to Goldstein, “‘Erase’ is about someone coming into your life and wiping out lingering sadness from the past. When you realize the effect they have on you, you can’t help but fall for them.”
To fully experience the intriguingly glitchy pop of FRND, you need to understand his obsession with koala bears. As surrogates in his videos re-living his experiences, they are depicted sweetly, soulfully, even hallucinogenically. “The koala is almost like an alter ego who represents a version of myself,” explains Goldstein. “They might be chill on the outside, but there’s a lot of emotion. It embodies this journey I’m going through.”
This has culminated in FRND’s much-anticipated follow up EP, Before U I Didn’t Exist. A collection of melodic, nuanced tracks, they sort through the disenchantment that permeated In Your Dreams. “You erase/ Erase all the hurt that I felt before,” he sings hopefully on Before U’s first single “Erase,” all percolating beats and sweet nothings. “You replace/ Replace it with something I can’t ignore.”
“I called my last project In Your Dreams, because I dreamt about some of these songs over and over again,” he says. “It was an awakening that I didn’t feel until I had those experiences.” Before U I Didn’t Exist attempts to exorcise those ghosts. The intoxicating title track (“Stay with me/ Hold on tight/ Fill my heart with pretty lies…”), for instance, is a relatable portrait of escapism. What it doesn’t deliver in closure, it does provide in a contact high through singsongy vocals and bright synthscapes.
