Fowl Play Launches R&D EP

Written by: chris.

If you have spent any time in the swamps of Suwannee during the last 10 years of TNF, there is a good chance you’ve met Fowl Play. Since everyone is heading down for one last hurrah, we wanted to cover a perfect companion for your travels to the swamp.

R&D, the new EP from Fowl Play, is a 4- song banger that moves from dripping wet murk, like Suwannee itself, to surgical precision, and back again, in tides.

“Klaus” starts off like you’re powering on whatever extraterrestrial artifact we are to be researching. The album art, done by the legendary Hindsight, immediately makes sense. The album as a whole, especially “Klaus,” feels like we are poking and prodding at some alien lifeform.

“Switch” follows “Klaus” with more of the same feeling, wet, squelchy, glitchy, with so much ear candy floating around the space, it feels like my ears are getting cavities. When “Switch” switches to uptempo, the real mastery of Fowl Play’s precision comes in. It’s like micro DNB, not a single sound taking up more space than is absolutely necessary.

“Groucher” is my favorite track on the EP. Starting off similarly, like exploring some artifact, when the artifact cracks open, we are presented a complete and utter BOP. It’s everything I want in a modern DNB track, infectious grooves, deep, minimal, and rich in textures.

Finally, we get to “Groovtoob,” and it’s difficult to not comment on the coherence across the whole EP. Every song sounds like the successor to the song before it. It’s as if each new discovery made while researching the artifact, allows further development of the next exploration. There is not a single sound out of range or out of place across the whole album. Again, surgical.

After listening through the entire EP, thrice, I was curious about a couple things, so I hit up Fowl Play, for a little more insight.

Synapse: Can you give us a little backstory on how Fowl Play came to be? Like, were there any key moments that pushed your sound in this direction?

Fowl Play: I’ve always been drawn to the off-kilter type stuff in life - things that make you feel ok about being weird or a little different from the “normal.” I downloaded Logic Pro on my laptop and started making some truly terrible music on a Block Rocker speaker. Thankfully, things have evolved a bit since then.

It’s tough to name one defining moment, but Tipper & Friends 2016 at Suwannee had a huge influence on my creative process. The whole vibe - visual wall, artists playing off to the side -

was fully centered on the audio-visual journey. I remember thinking, “Yeah… this is tight.” I haven’t missed a year since (Suwannee’s only a few hours away from my homestead). Actually getting ready to head back in a few days.

S: I gotta ask… Where did the name “Fowl Play” come from? It’s got this cheeky, chaotic energy. Is there a story behind it?

FP: Haha, yeah - Good question with a silly answer - Back in the early high school days of partying / attending shows, I used to wear this ridiculous chicken hat. When I decided to start doing my own thing, my buddy Victor suggested the name and it just stuck. It’s a bit goofy but, life’s too short to take everything seriously (I have to remind myself of this sometimes).

S: “R&D” feels both experimental and intentional at the same time, as the name suggests. What was the core idea or feeling you were chasing when you started working on it?

FP: A while back, my friend Jack (Relatively Lounge) mentioned experimenting with different BPMs and tempos helped him break through writer’s block, and that stuck. The EP began with two tracks - “Klaus” and “Switch” - both outside my usual “box”... Playing around with faster and slower(ish) tempos, along with some fun sound design sessions, helped me get out of a creative rut. I think that was the main driver.

S: There’s a sense of contrast throughout the EP. Light vs. dark, clean vs. wet. Was that something you were consciously leaning into?

FP: Not consciously, but I definitely see what you’re saying. It’s a cool interpretation, and honestly, really refreshing to hear. Life’s all about contrast - happy/sad, good/bad, slow/fast, etc. Without the opposite, those things don’t really exist. That perspective has been helping me a lot lately, both creatively and with overall mindset / mental health.

S: Were there any moments during the making of this project that surprised you or shifted the direction of the whole thing?

FP: I can't remember any specific moments. The idea for “Switch” came from wanting to bridge the slow and fast sections of my sets - that concept felt cool and ended up sparking some new inspirations. When I’m building a release, I sort of have a direction… and sort of don’t. Probably a double-edged sword, creatively wise. Looking back now, the “chaotic and cheeky” description you mentioned actually fits it all pretty well.

Check out R&D, the new EP from Fowl Play, and if you see Joey in the swamp, make sure you share how much we all love his work.

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