For Brooklyn-based musician Tom Fattorusso, composition comes first; deciding what to call it can wait. For his pioneering musical project, Tomás Tomás, Fattorusso and co-director Jaeden Martell set out to create a visual companion for the song “I Gotta Look Up More.” Culminating in a scene at a mystical waterfall in Connecticut, the expedition adhered to one rule that the creative duo had imposed: nobody on set was allowed to call it a music video. It wasn’t a film, either. It had been decided that they were making a “thing.” The distinction became a running joke, but the intention was clear: the visuals were to tell a story of their own. In fact, the song was not even played while filming. It wasn’t until the edit that the music and visuals came back together as a narrative where not every shot deliberately follows the beat. As Fattorusso recalls Martell describing the thing, “it’s like a movie where you made the score before you made the movie.”
In similar fashion, the song’s name came about one day on a walk when Fattorusso pointed out something in a building window to a friend. Could the thing have been born before it was given a name? Back in New York City, the story had taken on a life of its own. From beneath extensive prosthetics, a notoriously handsome friend, George, performs the part of a senior citizen aged by the trials and tribulations of city life. Anyone who has lived in the city for a prolonged period of time can attest to feeling that way at one point or another. That feeling can be easy to bury, too, which may be why it is only in the end, beneath the waterfall, where George finally has the epiphany.
Chasing an ambitious concept seems to come naturally for these two friends and collaborators. Fattorusso initially had sent the song to Martell, only to learn they already had the same thing in mind. With a small crew made up mostly of friends and with the backing of a supportive label, Keep Good Company Records, those creative conversations cascaded into the expedition. Yet, even this thing had a deadline. Although it was originally conceived as one continuous score, a press obligation prompted them to release the visuals as two parts: “Brought It Down” and “I Gotta Look Up More.” Later this year, the collaborators plan to bring it back together for a final cut which is expected to run somewhere between eight and ten minutes.
In the meantime, another project has already come knocking: Tomás Tomás’ forthcoming album, It Came Knocking. Described as an album for taking more risks with his sound, the ten-track album sets out to match the experience of the live sets, moving between songs equally fit for a car ride or an after-party. Those live sets also supply Fattorusso with additional material. Take his saxophonist Daniel, for example. He writes his own parts for the sets, giving each show a slightly different performance. Through videos sent by friends and concertgoers, Fattorusso is able to return to unique moments which can then be used as new material. Even these rough edges of a phone recording add sonic textures to his soundscape that no studio could easily reproduce.
While Fattorusso describes his creative process less as a display of technical ability and more as a prolonged search for a feeling, his output is nonetheless prolific. Yet it is only the songs that achieve that feeling which ever leave the studio. Artists that inspire him, such as Dean Blunt, embody that creative freedom and offer inspiration to release music into the world without treating each drop as a monument.
Ask Fattorusso what his album is about, though, and you may find that the door has only been left open a crack. After all, sharing what it is that comes knocking might help narrow down the possibilities. Some of us prefer to use the doorbell for exactly this reason. His response? “It’s no longer mine, it’s now yours.” That, perhaps, is the thread connecting the “thing” with what comes next. Pursuing an idea closely enough to give it shape, then letting the listener finish it, is central to Tomás Tomás. Music then becomes deliberate without needing to explain itself. And so, as it has for the Pixies and John Carpenter before them, that thing leaves room for the imagination to run wild, and in the case of Fattorusso and Martell, it became a rare creative opportunity to capture it for themselves.
Tomás Tomás on Spotify
