Lontalius Shares New Single And Video 'Faint'

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Lontalius creates a beautiful fusion of acoustic and electronic elements in ‘Faint’, the follow up single to ‘Someone Will Be There For You’ from his forthcoming album of the same name.

‘Faint’ saw the songwriter and producer return to his roots - writing music on an acoustic guitar in his bedroom, in his hometown Wellngton. The video, by Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, is similarly simple.

“Coming out of an electronic-based project with Singular Balance, and coming home from the world of big studios and producers in LA,” Lontalius explains. “I hadn’t touched an acoustic guitar in a long time until I came home to NZ and it was all I had to write with. Back to basics,” Lontalius says.

“As long as I’ve been making music, I’ve wished that I could do something with my hands. Make something *real*. For a while I tormented friends by saying I wished I was a florist, despite never successfully taking care of a single plant or flower. Ceramics seemed like a great option, too.

“Phoebe and Arty suggested the idea, I think in the vein of a video we’d already done together, ‘All I Wanna Say’ where my friend taught me how to ride a bike. Why not try and make a bowl for a few hours while singing the song and see what happens?

"I really like how it came together. The space is beautiful and obviously I had a great time trying to master a craft in one day, but I think the pairing of the video and the song came out more meaningful than we’d expected. The song is about understanding that love can come in different forms, sometimes it’s bright and exciting and sometimes it can be faint. Singing about the delicate nature of things, while physically handling clay to try and make something beautiful. It’s a good pairing!"

‘Faint’ is out today on streaming services via Kartel Music Group. Side A of Someone Will Be There For You will be released on 25 November, with Side B and the full 10 tracks on vinyl out in the first half of 2021.

Watch 'Faint'

Video by Phoebe Gittins & Arty Papageorgiou
Made with thanks to NZ On Air

About Lontalius

My first motivator behind this record was the idea of refining and simplifying my creative process. No more spending 3 years on a record - act on instinct, use what I learned in LA but don’t overthink it. Back to basics, in a way. I have been thinking a lot about what the songwriting of Lontalius means to people and how it relates to myself. My music has always been emotional and honest, but I felt I had been writing in a way that was too insular. I wasn’t really letting other people (the audience, or collaborators) into the songs! A discussion I’ve had with friends and every collaborator is “Where is the entry point for the audience? Am I singing to them or at them?” And of course musically it is a little different to the last record. More acoustic guitar, more natural sounds, more dynamics. Let the songwriting shine and keep the life in the music.

It’s difficult to believe that Eddie Johnston is just 23. The songwriter and producer behind Lontalius has already released three EPs and two albums, plus several more EPs and many remixes as his electronic producer alter-ego Race Banyon. More than many artists will release in their careers.

His music has attracted many millions of streams, with over 200k monthly listeners on Spotify, and yet Lontalius is better known in America than his homeland. He was signed to Brooklyn-based indie label Partisan Records for his first album I’ll Forget 17, then spent five years in Los Angeles, collaborating with the likes of Grammy Award winning producer Om’Mas Keith (Frank Ocean, Erykah Badu) and Jim Fairchild (Grandaddy, Modest Mouse) on his sophomore album All I Have, which he released in late 2019 upon his return home to Wellington, New Zealand.

The homecoming allowed Lontalius to begin a new season of independent songwriting, with the knowledge gained from his collaborative projects embedded in his mind to draw upon. Moving to Auckland in March 2020, he almost immediately went into lockdown in his new home, emerging two months later with a new collection of songs. He took these songs into studio 4 of Stebbings Recording Centre to develop and record the songs with musicians including Alex Freer and Tom Healy, who also feature in his live band.

The studio space has given Lontalius the luxury of a creative space with no hard deadlines, allowing him to lean into his craft, and self-produce his third and most ambitious album to date. With the release of Someone Will Be Here For You, Lontalius will demonstrate why he’s one of New Zealand’s most exciting musical talents, an artist with an astonishing set of skills and talents, and the ability to write a song that will stay with you for days.

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