fuvk is a songwriter who is continuously releasing engaging and personal music to every season of the year. We tracked her down to chat about her work.
What is the intention of your music? Is it simply a personal journal or do you want to grow an audience at the same time?
In the beginning, it was a coping mechanism. It helped me put words to thoughts, and I threw them on Bandcamp for organization. It’s more of a personal journal than anything so any sort of audience comes as a surprise to me.
What’s your motive behind keeping your anonymity and zero social media presence? Do you feel a pressure to conform?
The anonymity is something like this: I don’t want people I know personally to be able to recognize the music as mine. It’s kind of a privacy thing. The lack of social media presence was not an active decision. I started this project for personal reasons so I never had reason to promote it. I’ve gotten messages asking about social media, but I think I’ll go without it for now.
The four EPs you recorded over 2016 are mostly linked to the seasons. Will this be something that continues every year?
Yes, I think so, at least for the first half of 2017. I’m a student so my life is largely split up by semesters. Each semester and break contains its own unique set of experiences/feelings/people/locations so I section a lot of my music into these time-frames.
“Each release is kind of like a chapter in my life—it represents a particular time period or sentiment.”
Do you see each recording you do as an EP, an album, or just a collection of songs? Do you plan on recording a full length album?
Each release is kind of like a chapter in my life—it represents a particular time period or sentiment. I start a new EP/collection when I feel that a chapter has ended. So I suppose a full length album is possible. I’d just have to feel the same way or experience one thing for an extended period of time.
You mention North Lamar Boulevard on the track “Michael.” Was this a conscious reference to a part of Austin to show your listeners your songs are grounded in reality? As in you’re not simply writing about your personal feelings but telling a story of something you physically went through?
It wasn’t a conscious reference to Austin so much as it was just a general reference. A lot of my lyrics already tend to contain references to specific moments and things, however, I find that a lot of my more recent songs lean towards storytelling. The track “Michael,” specifically, was written about my experiences with one person so it’s a little more literal.
Are all your songs new songs written between each season or do you have older songs that you sometimes draw from?
For the most part, they’re new songs. Sometimes I have tidbits hanging around, and I’ll pull bits and pieces from those. For example, the guitar part for “anywhere” largely comes from a song I wrote at the very beginning of 2016 but shelved because I was dissatisfied with it. A couple months later, it came up again in a jam session with my friend Clint, and I ended up building the song on top of that. But generally, I’ll write a song in one go and won’t fiddle with it too much after that.
What’s your expectation to pronounce your name? F U V K or just straight up drop the F bomb?
The expectation is for it to be read as the F word, but it was never my intention for fuvk to be an artist name in the first place. My friend sent me a message and typo’d the F word as fuvk right as I was creating my Bandcamp page. I thought it’d be a funny URL and didn’t think anyone would take an interest.
Interview by Joel Greatbatch
