Fialta

By William June (Contributor)

We all want to do the best we can, don't we? I'd like to think so. I've been doing the best I could to find you the best Summer Pop Song of 2016. And as of today, the honor goes to California's Fialta. The band is made up of two married couples. The men are also members of Aught alt-rockers Sherwood. That band is back together and touring the west coast with Fialta, this summer. Check out the dates below to see if they're coming to you.

Fialta's new long player, Shadow Of A Drought, will see the light of day July 15th.

07.13•Chain Reaction (Anaheim, CA)
07.14•Brick By Brick (San Diego, CA)
07.15•The Grange (San Luis Obispo, CA Record Release Show)
07.16•The Boardwalk (Sacramento, CA)
07.17•Backbar Sofa (San Jose, CA)
07.19•Analog Theater (Portland, OR)
07.20•Nectar Lounge (Seattle, WA) - Paste Magazine

California-based indie pop quartet Fialta make pleasantly sardonic, synth-soaked pop reflections on life with catchy melodies that belie the gravity of their lyrics. They’re set to drop their sophomore full-length Shadow Of A Drought next week, and today they share the video for “Another Lonely Heart.” The song is an anthem of romantic solitude with bending synths wrapping around steady drums and intricate work on the keys. The LAMP Films-directed visual accompaniment is the perfect compliment. As Parisian fashion blogger Marion Gruber wanders through her native city alone it accentuates just how much more piercing loneliness can be in one of the most romantic cities in the world. Watch. - Stereogum

Musicians have a thing for dating fellow musicians. Cases in point: Gwen Stefani dated her fellow No Doubt bandmate Tony Kanal before marrying (and eventually divorcing) Bush guitarist and lead singer Gavin Rossdale; Nicki Minaj is dating fellow rapper Meek Mill; Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez had a thing; and Taylor Swift has a long list of past lovers who are also musicians.

That said, it's not earth shattering when a band consists of two musicians who are in a relationship. Multiply that by two, however, and the situation gets a bit more rare.

Such is the case with the San Luis Obispo quartet, Fialta, which consists of — you guessed it — two married couples! Today, we're premiering the five-year-old band's new single, "Another Lonely Heart," off their upcoming second album, Shadow of a Drought, out July 15.

The electro-pop ditty is woven together with danceable, guitar-laced rhythms interspersed with ukulele, synthesizer, and glockenspiel, and overlaid with Beth Clements' and Sarah Shotwell's crystalline vocals. As the title suggest, the song explores themes of loneliness in both life and in relationships, and, says percussionist Mike Leibovich, pertains specifically to the loneliness one can feel even if they're succesful in other areas of life.

"Having worked for a Bay Area tech company myself, I've seen firsthand how chasing success is not without its consequences," he says. "The song is about someone who has lost personal love in the midst of gaining public love." - SF Weekly

Fialta is a California-based foursome composed of two married couples. The men, David Provenzano and Mike Leibovich, are also members of power pop mainstay, Sherwood. The resemblance stops there, though. Fialta traded the earnest emo sensibilities of the aughts for a balanced sound that evokes the touchstones of mixed male/female indie rock, namely The New Pornographers and The Decemberists.

Today Nerdist is premiering the band’s video for “Do the Best We Can,” a single from their upcoming record, Shadow of a Drought. The album’s name is derived from the oppressive drought that has been debilitating their home state for years. And that’s where the video begins. “California, I’ve always loved California,” says our narrator in Spanish. “Such a fascinating people! All those charming little half-baked anxieties. California.”

California’s drought is hardly one of those half-baked anxieties, though. The tragedy serves as the centerpiece for this entire album, in fact. “Shadow of a Drought wrestles with the implications of drought in our lives — spiritual, relational, environmental,” said Fialta’s Beth Clements. “With this in mind, the music video for ‘Do the Best We Can’ is a slightly satirical comment on marriage.”

Set in gorgeous San Luis Obispo, California, the video follows the two couples while they’re on vacation. It’s not some hackneyed portrait of Lady and the Tramp dinners and walks on the beach, though. It’s realistic. “Do the Best We Can” includes the full-on panoply of emotions that arise when couples go on vacation: “ennui, confusion, jealousy, boredom, passion.”

The music, too, conjures that same arsenal of feelings. Textures oscillate from sparse to dense as the song heaves onward, slow and steady, like the barren weight of drought. Vocal melodies, sung both apart and in unison, sing provincial quips like “beyond a shadow of a drought” and, all the while, Fialta is impressing upon us that fact that we must simply do the best we can.

“Do the Best We Can” is an excellent merger of two precious entities that require an open heart and vigilant attention: marriage and our environment. “The neon green landscape and wet, cloudy skies were key to getting the mood across,” Provenzano said of the video. “But what you can’t see is that just two weeks after we filmed the video, all that turned to brown again. We had this little gift of a wet winter. The footage captures a moment of healing, however brief, in the middle of a looming crisis.” - Nerdist.com

By James Christopher Monger

"Lovingly detailed, erudite indie pop..." - All Music

"On 'Do the Best We Can,' Fialta cull the sum of their considerable powers to build shimmering structures at a stomp pace as the group’s greatest strength, their harmonies, soars in the chorus." - Speak Into My Good Eye

"Powered by its glistening, sun-drenched production, and wonderfully catchy foot-stomping mid-tempo song structures, “Do The Best We Can” is the indie-pop anthem that we have been waiting to fall in love with this Summer." - Striker Bill