Fresh from a mind-blowing performance at Rocking the Daisies, that some are calling the best of the festival, PHFAT releases the dark and unrelenting Running in my Mind, complete with a lyric video crafted by the duo at Studio Dassie in Cape Town.
Running in my Mind’s ominous tone and unconventional sequence, render its commercial appeal questionable, which is why PHFAT’s Smooth Mike predicts that “it will do terribly on local radio.”
“I’ll be lucky if even a few student stations pick it up. It’s way too dark and doesn’t fit the pop format. I’m not too concerned about the commercial viability of this one though. I’ve been dropping it at shows for ages and it’s been leaving cracks in the concrete. Commercial appeal kinda stops mattering when a track can turn a room upside down. At Daisies that first drop swept through the crowd like a wake up slap.”
Speaking of Daisies, PHFAT recently put together a spectacle of a show at the electronic arena and dragged filmmaker Chris Rogers along for the ride.
The Lyric video for Running in my Mind was crafted by the duo at Studio Dassie.
“In a way working with Studio Dassie was the kick in the ass I needed to get the track done. They popped through to my studio one day and we flipped through a couple of unfinished tracks and they had it locked-in in like a week and a half. I was probably a bit of a nightmare to work with on this one to be honest. I was on tour while they were stitching it up and I kept changing my mind about the visuals and the sequence because I didn’t have the track in front of me,” says Smooth Mike.
Sasha Benjamin of Studio Dassie says that "Mike is a perfectionist. I’ve got like 12 versions of the song sitting on my computer. Some have more bars, some less, a whole bunch of different mixed versions and even one with a whole new song at the end. When I’d get a late night voice note from Mike I knew there was going to be a change. The track’s a banger. I think the fans are going to dig the grimy vibe we know and love about PHFAT.”
So what does the future hold for PHFAT?
“I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that I like both very dark and very light music and I’m finding ways to marry the two. I needed to get something dark and scary out, up next I think will be something a little bit more easy listening…” says Smooth Mike.
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