Hannah Judge takes us track-by-track through ‘Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines,’ an intimate, angsty indie rock record built through community and connection that marks fanclubwallet’s ascension into bandhood through five vulnerable, visceral, and vibrant songs.
Stream: “Picture of Her” – fanclubwallet
Hannah Judge’s art will always have a layer of angst in it – consider it one of her many superpowers, if you will – yet on her latest fanclubwallet release, a once-angsty artistry feels more at peace with the world than ever before. Perhaps it’s because what was once a singer/songwriter’s bedroom project has blossomed into a full band affair; working together with three close friends-turned touring band members-turned permanent band members, Judge found new sources of inspiration and collaboration.
What was once an insular, isolated musical identity is more shared than ever before, and while she is still very much the “face” of fanclubwallet, Judge is no longer alone in that world – and you can hear it in the music. An intimate, angsty (but less so than normal) indie rock record built through community and connection, Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines marks fanclubwallet’s ascension into bandhood through five vulnerable, visceral, and vibrant songs. Judge and co. are in their element as they capture the joy, and the journey, of living a life of music.
It’s happening all too fast
Open up the car door
Roll out onto the pavement
Our bodies paint traffic lines
Our bodies paint traffic lines
It’s happening finally, at least
Open up the club door
Fall out of the balconies
Our bodies make new noise
Our bodies make new noise
– “Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines” – fanclubwallet
Released March 29, 2024 via Cool Online, Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines is as enchanting as it is exhilarating: Arriving two years after fanclubwallet’s debut album You Have Got to Be Kidding Me (which Atwood Magazine described as “feverish outpouring of angsty alternative and slacker bedroom rock” and “a beautifully cathartic pop-fueled chaos”) and less than six months after last October’s EP Small Songs, Vol.1, the latest addition to the fanclubwallet repertoire marks an indisputable evolution.
Originally a DIY solo project founded in 2020 by Ottawa, Ontario-based singer, songwriter, cartoonist, and label founder Hannah Judge (she wears many, many hats, and she wears them well!), fanclubwallet has long been a vessel for unapologetic self-expression, reckoning, and release. Judge’s innermost thoughts and feelings have come to life in songs like “What’s Up,” “C’mon Be Cool,” “That I Won’t Do,” and “Car Crash in G Major” – the latter of which facilitated her breakthrough four years ago, and currently sits at over 13 million streams on Spotify at the time of writing.
The involvement of Nathan Reid (bass), Eric Graham (guitar) and Michael Watson (drums, production, and mixing) doesn’t take away from fanclubwallet’s intimacy; if anything, their presence adds to the music’s depth, its wonder, and its ultimate impact as, together as one, the fanclubwallet hit hard than ever before.
“I was dealing with some really bad writer’s block, but then asked for some help from my touring band while I was trying to write a song, and it all came together so easily! I wanted to make an EP with them that felt like a really collectible moment in the fanclubwallet timeline. The whole EP is little stories about the different parts of being in a band,” Judge tells Atwood Magazine.
“[The full band] definitely made things come together a lot faster than other times I’ve tried writing music. We wrote the whole thing in like four days – it was crazy. I’m usually pretty bad at relinquishing control, but it felt so easy to do with my best friends.”
Our Bodies Paint Traffic introduces a new chapter in the fanclubwallet story – one that sees Judge more relaxed and in her element than ever before.
“I was able to sort of loosen my grip for this one and have a little more fun,” she smiles. “I think this EP really captures the fanclubwallet full band sound exactly how I was hoping it would.”
She lovingly refers to the record as cartoonish Canadian indie, explaining how its title came from a joke made in passing one day while on tour.
“My friend Sean had made this grim joke one day about falling out of the van and rolling down the highway and arriving dead at the venue,” she chuckles. “That’s kind of where the words came from. But the actual meaning behind it is that me and the band have traveled to all these new places for music, and so much has changed and these highways we’ve travelled on have sort of paved the roads of our lives.”
Clocking in at a cool twelve minutes, Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines is an easily digestible experience with plenty to write home about.
Highlights include the dreamy atmospherics of the opening title track, the mesmerizing, hypnotic groove and smoky vocals on “Picture of Her,” the glistening guitars and dreamy production of “Easy,” and the propulsive yearning that constantly pushes EP closer “Band Like That” forward.
“I love ‘Easy’ and ‘Band Like That’ a lot,” Judge smiles. “I feel like they came out better than I even expected. Her favorite lyric can be found within the catchy folds of “Complex Weather”: Now I’m rolling sideways, down the stairs by my place, my future wrapped up inside a rug.
But when it comes to an EP like this, the best way to experience it is in its entirety, from front to back… maybe three or four times over. fanclubwallet is unleashed in a new way on this record, and candidly, we can’t wait to see where they go from here.
“I hope people are inspired to make something, or just enjoy the silly little stories I’m telling,” Judge tells Atwood Magazine. “Even though the EP is about being in a band, I think a lot of the songs could be interpreted in different ways too – so whatever people feel about it, I’m excited. I think I learnt a lot about collaboration, and I’m excited to use that in future projects.”
Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside fanclubwallet’s Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines EP with Atwood Magazine as Hannah Judge goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of her band’s new angsty and impassioned release!
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:: stream/purchase Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines here ::
:: connect with fanclubwallet here ::
Stream: ‘Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines’ – fanclubwallet
:: Inside Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines ::
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Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines
“This song was written after my friend Sean had made a weird joke about “what if he fell out of the moving van.” It got me thinking about all the places we’d been on tour, and how fast things started happening for us as a band. Touring was something I’d never expected to happen to me – so the song basically chronicles the idea of our constantly moving bodies and how using them to make music has created all these new memories and taken us to all these new places.”
Complex Weather
“’Complex Weather’ was written the night our van finally broke down. We had all been feeling real sorry for ourselves, and I was sort of totally losing it. The lyrics are a bit of a stream of consciousness about feeling like my life was falling apart, which I think a lot of people can relate to. Writing this song helped me pick myself up and say “ok no ones going to baby you through this – you just have to get up and deal with it.”
Picture of Her
“This song started with that guitar riff, we were all together trying to write some songs and Eric and Michael just busted out with this awesome riff. I felt really inspired by Metric for this one – lyrically the song is about a creepy photographer who will do anything to get the photo of the lead singer.”
Easy
“Easy is all about growing pains. I had been thinking about my younger self, who was so debilitatingly shy, and wondering what she’d think about me now playing music on a stage in front of so many people. It kind of bounces back and forth between me and the younger me’s perspective. Contemplating the differences and wondering how things have changed as I’ve grown up. I think a lot of people wonder how their younger self would feel about them now. I think the chorus guitar swells on this song sound like a rusty swing set dug up from the past.”
Band Like That
“After months of writer’s block and self doubt, I found myself on my longest tour ever stuck in an airbnb finally writing again – but this time I had the help of my whole touring band. I had spent months studying everyone else’s bands; what made them so good? Why couldn’t I be like them? And that’s where “Band Like That” came from. A song about when you see a band that’s just SO good you wish you could be in it. Maybe the answer was right in front of me this whole time – and the answer was my own band.”
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:: stream/purchase Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines here ::
:: connect with fanclubwallet here ::
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© Cole Yearwood
© Cole Yearwood:: Stream fanclubwallet ::
