fine, fine, fine out now <3
at the stroke of midnight, our first single in 3 years, fine, fine, fine, was released to all streaming everywhere. fran and andrew and i sat in fran’s office and uploaded its accompanying music video to youtube all the while sipping orange wine and perfecting our captions and uploading our ads until it became midnight and we streamed it for the first time. we have the first of our fine, fine, fine show series tonight in new brunswick, the second on fri feb 7 at swarthmore’s olde club, and the third and final on tues feb 11 at baby’s all right in brooklyn.
i’ve been genuinely emotional about this for the past few days. 1.) this is our first music in 3 years and it is now here - no longer must i promise that things are coming they will be good now they are here now you must decide. 2.) i’m thinking about the young person i was writing this album - the bulk of it happening between 2020 and 2023 - and the things that moved her and carried her through was the promise of this piece of work and how it would give cohesion and explanatory value and narrative to the life and narratives and promises that were crumbling through her fingers - i go back to the girl at 16 who wrote this guitar riff in my parent’s house in philadelphia, to the young woman who began to write the words of this to other chords in her dorm so very alone in dublin, ireland before COVID-19 sent her home, to compiling the story all together for the first time in fall 2021 while softly losing her mind, to finishing the song a year or so later with the whole band and their linking parts, melodies that loop and soar and rhythms that ground the dizziness and numbness that is the story of being at the end of your rope and having to go on and on and on 3.) i feel a part of me (literally, my voice and figuratively my soul) has truly been severed from myself and sent to infinity through the digital landscape visiting you whenever you call (stream) and without any ability to stand or personify anything i am just a voice in your phone i am just my hands playing guitar or piano or wurlitzer and it is up to you to connect to love to use to abuse to hate to celebrate to do truly do whatever with me now and me then and this alienation and fracturing is simply just how this labor is structured and that’s it.
all this to say:
thank you to everyone who helped us make this possible, from every live show attended to every dollar given to our album fundraiser, from all our loved ones who have heard us plan, and fret, and stress, and cry, and celebrate, and cheer every step of the way of this release to all those who worked on this song and video with us… it is an honor to be able to make music at all and on this day of our first release in 3 years. we feel very grateful to be able to do this at all. thank you for everything, but especially for listening.
let us know what you think <3 thanks to deli magazine for already posting a lovely write-up.
❣️ song & video credits ❣️
fine, fine, fine (single)
Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Piano, Wurlitzer: Pagona Kytzidis
Lead Guitar: Francesca Pastore
Drums: Jonathan Ashley
Violin, Backing Vocals: Claire Lin Jenkins
Bass: Andrew Jordan
Alto Saxophone, Flute: David Mirarchi
Backing Vocals: Lotus Rogers
Lyrics by Pagona Kytzidis
Music by Pagona Kytzidis, Francesca Pastore, Jonathan Ashley, Claire Lin Jenkins, Andrew Jordan
Produced by Francesca Pastore
Engineered and recorded by Jeff Berner at Studio G
Mixed by Francesca Pastore
Mastered by Carl Saff
Album art by Natalie Tischler
fine, fine, fine (music video)
Filmed, edited, directed by Sydney Tate
Story by Pagona Kytzidis
Produced by Claire Lin Jenkins
Creative Direction by Pagona Kytzidis & Claire Lin Jenkins
Set & Prop Design by Caitlin Eder
Set Design and Prop Styling by Lisi Schauer
Prop Design by Vic Ingram
Production assistant and BTS by Isabelle Fama
Clown/star - Pagona Kytzidis
Hawk - Francesca Pastore
Cat - Claire Lin Jenkins
Frog - Jonathan Ashley
Fox - Andrew Jordan
Rabbit - Jenna Love