I'm pretty honest with myself, I can acknowledge that with most music and other art forms I consume, I lean towards the heavy, the brooding, the gory, and the darker corners on all levels. It's been a cliché for years that every music critic or fan will say that they're "a fan of everything," when in reality we all deviate to our little corners of sub genres, styles, and tropes which often showcase significant portions of our identities and personalities. And as long as you're not an elitist or a gatekeeping asshole, I think it's a beautiful thing to hold your preferences to art close.
That being said, there are always bands and releases that come around that can remind you that what matters most in music is authenticity, originality, and good songwriting. Whether it be an indie pop artist, singer songwriter, rapper, or whatever the case may be, a good song is a good song, and a great album is a great album, full stop. The instant anyone accepts this fact, a world of jaw-dropping musicianship opens up to them across the genre spectrum. And if you're looking for a clinic in genre-blending and great songcraft, look no further than nu pop sensation Cheem out of New England with their second EP of the year, Faster Fashion.
If you're not familiar, Cheem combine influences and genres unlike many other bands in the scene today. From Y2K pop and R&B influences, to bending riffs and progressions reminiscent of CHON, you're never quite sure what Cheem will bring to the table, but regardless it's all part of the unique style and songwriting that puts them in a virtually singular category.
I was fortunate enough to sit down with Skye (Vocals, Guitars), Sean (drums), and Prince (bass) to discuss the influences, songwriting, lyrics, and production behind the 6 track release, "Faster Fashion."
According to vocalist and guitarist Skye Holden, "The second EP wasn't actually planned until, like, really late in the process... So, with the first one, the idea was sort of... it was almost like a sampler of Cheem stuff. It's like, here's some not-super-long tracks that showcase five very different aspects of the sound we go for, but they all still kind of fall under the Cheem umbrella. And then, essentially, how this happened was the song "Faster Fashion". I had written it exclusively for a compilation record that ended up falling through, so we just kind of had it. I thought it was a throwaway song, and I showed it to Sam, and Sam was like, 'That is a very good song. I don't know what you're talking about; you're stupid.' And I'm like, 'All right.' Then Sam wanted to plan an EP around it.
I just happened to have some other songs lying around that were also similar vibes, where it's like we're just taking some new avenue with the Cheem sound—like some new inspiration or genre—and applying the Cheem tactics to it. So we ended up with six of those, and we're like, 'Wouldn't it be funny if we just named the EP Faster Fashion?' because I already wanted to name the song "Faster Fashion". I thought, that'll be funny. It'll be a cool little callback. And it's like, well, then if we're gonna do an EP, that has to be the name of it.
Then, at that point, it was like, 'Right, well, now we just got to really play into it.' So, we made the cover the same, we did the photoshoot the same way, you know?"
While there wasn't a plan from the get-go for Faster Fashion to connect to the earlier EP Fast Fashion, there is an aesthetic throughline, and consistency in the production, songwriting, and genre-blending the band is known for, along with an approach to utilizing shorter song lengths and structures.
Every song on Fast Fashion has unique influences and production, which kicks off with the previously-released single, "WTFU (Wake The Fuck Up)", whose title comes from a comical soundbite from a trucker. The song clocks in at under two minutes, but feels like a fully fleshed out and dynamic track, a common ground for the entire release.
"Our guitar player, Gabe, had shown me a beat he made that sampled the same truck driver video where he says, "Wake the fuck up!" and hits the horn," Skye explains. "I thought it was cool, but he never did anything with it. I figured I could use it in a song, so I took these three drum beats I had saved in a GarageBand folder called 'Travis Barker beats' or something like that. They were all the same tempo, and I thought, 'We need a cool intro track.'"
The main riff in this song, as well as in Faster Fashion, uses the same technique—kind of like how bands used to have the bass follow the guitar. Here, it’s like writing a bassline and having the guitar follow it exactly. Using single notes with an octave pedal, it creates a 311-style classic sound. It makes for chunky, heavy riffs, almost like a bassline feature."
Drummer Sean Thomas adds, "It packs so many punches in such a short timeframe. The whole song feels frantic, and I especially love playing the verse groove. It almost feels like it's going to fall apart at any moment—that's the best part. Even live, I'm thinking, "Holy shit, we're actually playing this right now!" It feels unstable, and you don't know what the song is building to until it hits that drum fill near the end—boom, boom—and then a breakdown kicks in.
As a drummer, it's incredibly satisfying to hold back my energy throughout the song, keeping it within a certain range, then fully releasing for that ending section. It's a strong way to open our sets, and it was so powerful that we decided to open with it on tour in June, even before it was released. We thought, 'Let's road-test this,' and it was a success."
Next up is the title track, "Faster Fashion", my personal favorite on the record. With many releases, I often think the songs that artists spend less time scrutinizing, and instead just use a free flow of consciousness and creativity tend to be the most authentic and the most refreshing. "Faster Fashion" is arguably the most straightforward on the release, and the energy and delivery really ring home what makes Cheem, well, Cheem.
Holden elaborates on the background of the song. "[It] was originally written for a compilation, so I felt free to take a different approach. Usually, I write songs with the expectation that they'll be played live and need a good hook to be popular. But for this one, I figured it was just going on a compilation and we’d never play it live, so I thought, 'let's just do whatever'. One thing I’d always wanted to try was to have verses that really lean into a swing rhythm and then shift to a completely straight beat for the chorus, going back and forth between those two feels. That was the main idea here. After that, it was just me experimenting on guitar until I found something cool. The chorus, to me—though it might not sound this way to anyone else—has a bit of a trance vibe with the single notes and chord bends going back and forth. That was the inspiration.
There’s also a heavy Jamaican music influence, like dancehall rhythms in the chorus, while the verses lean into hip hop. As for the lyrics, it’s a song about frustration, like, 'Fuck every pretentious indie musician and the critics who worship them until they get canceled, and then pretend they never liked them anyway.' It’s just... nobody's a winner in that situation."
To quote Thomas, Holden "went hater mode," on this track lyrically, and it's quite enjoyable. Anyone that takes a step back from the cesspool that is toxic positivity and lets loose a little on the aspects of the music industry and discourse that infuriates them is welcome in my book. Bassist Prince Porter points out that the more straightforward instrumentation of the title track is a welcome relief. "When I was approaching that song, I was just giving it what it needed. I think I heard Skye playing the riff on Gabe's drop-tuner pedal at practice one day, and I was like, 'Yeah, what's that?' He said, 'Yeah, it's just a really sick riff.' It was giving a little 311 vibe, big time. So I played it with him in the basement and came up with a part pretty easily, especially after cross-referencing it with the demo Skye sent. It's basically the same thing but in C# minor. Vibing on that verse is all about the groove. Notes or technique weren’t really on my mind—it’s just about locking into that groove. I really respect a song that can vibe that hard; it’s easy to play, but you can lose the groove if you’re not locked in."
One thing in general about Faster Fashion and Cheem's music in general that I've grown to appreciate over the past year is the pocket and groove that Thomas and Porter bring to the table for each one of the songs, which provides a lot of space, attitude, and overall vibe for Nazaretian and Holden to go over the top of. This element is showcased on the third track, "Slushee." Another track that clocks in under two minutes, "Slushee" features a massively head-bumping groove in the chorus and big dancehall jams. As an confessed angst-and-breakdown connoisseur, I was instantly pulled in by the rhythm and pocket through the track as well as Sam's instantly-in-your-head catchy hook. As Skye puts it, "This one is really one of the more straightforward tracks on the EP. The production process wasn’t that intense; it was more about letting the song write itself.
I think it’s a feeling everyone’s had at some point—when you’re close with someone, and then you’re hanging out with people they’re close with, and you realize, 'This isn’t the type of scene I want to be in. I feel like I'm becoming a worse person being around these people all the time.' The song then takes on an escapist fantasy of just getting in a car and driving away, like across state lines, just putting yourself across the country from this and leaving it all behind. That kind of escape has been a solution for a lot of people I’ve known in similar situations, sometimes to a much more extreme degree, like with substance abuse, where it’s necessary to get far away from certain triggers or influences."
This is, at least lyrically, where Cheem shines. As someone who consumes a lot of heavy, often political or existentially-focused songs from a lyrical vantage point, I always appreciate when I find music that can both have a vibing groove and cover universally gut-wrenching and relatable topics, such as in "Slushee". Who hasn't felt like they needed to get out of a friendship, relationship, or social group for their own sanity and well being?
Toward the back half of the EP, we get to "Unlimited", the longest song present, clocking in just shy of three minutes. A Juke-influenced song with a lot of auxiliary and electronic percussion that brings in a slightly darker vibe. Thomas details this further, stating, "'Unlimited', in tandem with the final track on the record, "Instinct", explores some new moods for Cheem. I think most of our fans associate our music with upbeat, energetic vibes, but "Unlimited" and "Instinct" are a bit more brooding, maybe a little darker, which creates a really neat contrast to Fast Fashion from earlier this year.
I love the way "Unlimited" progresses, especially on this EP as a whole. I’ve never been more okay with only playing drums for 30 to 40 seconds, which is the case for three of the songs on the EP. But, once again, it serves the song; it’s a build-up, and it makes that part at the end more impactful. It also challenges me as a drummer: how can I make a statement in such a small window of time? I have to be really choosy with my fills and how much I choose to show off.
Hopefully, that comes across in those songs on the back half of the EP, where I’m only playing drums for half or even a quarter of the song. No bad blood there, though—promise."
Track 5 is "Kinetic Energy", the most recent single from the EP prior to the release. Clocking in at 2 minutes and some change, this song has a lot of enjoyable, frenetic energy, and to quote Skye, who writes the lyrics for the band, "This song is about fucking."
Thomas elaborates on the instrumental aspects. "First and foremost, I'll say in Sam's absence that the music video he conceptualized and created for this song is my favorite Cheam music video of all the ones we've done. I'm really proud of him for seeing that project through. It’s become a new passion of his, and now he’s even entertaining offers from other musicians in our network to do music videos for them. He’s started a whole production company around it with our roommates, so it’s cool to see that both the "Kinetic Energy" and "WTFU" music videos helped launch that passion for him. I’m sure he’d be talking all about it if he were here. As for the song itself—yeah, it’s another track where I only play drums for about 40 seconds. But I’d been working on this one in preparation for the music video. For the first three-quarters of the song, where there’s that club beat, I came up with a live arrangement that weirdly enough requires a lot of limb independence; all four of my limbs are doing different things to replicate the electronic drums. That’s kind of been the theme of my last six years with Cheam. I’ve been in the band for almost 10 years, working on this vision we have, but the past six years have really been about learning to replicate programmed and electronic drums in a live setting, bringing in more hip hop, funk, and electronic elements to balance my background as a heavier drummer."
The final track, "Instinct", was clearly a band favorite, and for good reason. The groove at the end of the song alone makes this a unique coda and was definitively set up for people to ask, "What's next?" for Cheem, with a sort of open-ended finale that both encapsulates what any listener would love about the release, while also--even from the band's own words--leaving them questioning where the trajectory of the act leads. Spoiler-alert; they're already cooking up new music.
Lyrically, "Instinct" covers a very honest, relatable, and troubling experience between friends. Explaining the premise of the lyrics, Holden states "That song is about when there’s someone in your life who really needs help that you can’t provide. You’re not equipped to deal with the problem they have, and you wish you could, but all you can really do is be a shoulder to cry on or offer emotional support. You wish you could fix what’s going on with them, no matter what it is, but you feel powerless—like when you’re in a dream and can’t walk right. You just don’t know how to do any of it."
Thomas continues, "Instinct is my favorite track on the EP. I love the vibe it brings and think it closes on a really unique note. The way the song begins is just an all-time cool Cheam moment. I also love the tonal shift in the middle when Skye's rap part comes in—that’s a really neat switch-up to me.
The groove I play at the end wasn’t originally planned, but I insisted on adding it. I sat down and wrote the part to match the MIDI drums that were going on. We put it to tape, as they say."
Porter adds, "I just love this song as a final song for the EP. Like Sean just said, it does end on an interesting note. I think it's a happy, sad question mark and it just alludes to ... I feel like it's alluding to more. Whenever I finish that song, I'm like, wow, it's a good song, but what's next? I feel like more people were going to expect that."
Faster Fashion is Cheem at the peak of their growing powers. They continue to hone their craft and put on a clinic in the art of creating short songs that have more substance, transitions, groove, and lyrical universality than a lot of bands can pull off in double the time. Whether you're a fan of intricate musicianship, lyrical deep dives, or just want to vibe to some rhythmic, syncopated tracks, Faster Fashion has something for you. And Cheem continue to show that their unique genre-blending style isn't just accessible and intricate, it's formidable.
