Going back to the 2013 debut Exit, guitarist-vocalist Daniel Fernandez has been taking full measures to bring psych-pop and folk-rock to new listeners under his project The Halfways. Since Exit, Fernandez has recruited five additional members and reformed The Halfways sound to “psychedelic noir”, beautifully blending acoustic and electric, English and Spanish, and folksy and heady.
At the tail end of the past decade Fernandez began experimenting with electronic music (particularly minimalist acid house) under the name Synthemesc, and even more recently The Halfways took a yearlong hiatus. That time wasn’t all spent behind the keyboard crushing beats though, since Fernandez has just shared two songs written while wondering if and when he’d get to play with the full group again, and recorded in a similar air during quarantine, the two new tracks on Your Name are impressive to say the least. They both have a nice bounce to the tempo, a good mix of acoustic and electric guitar, and of course, Fernandez’s pop-influenced, effects-heavy vocals. Check out Your Name whenever you’ve got the 8 1⁄2 minutes, starting off with its title track!
–Jack Anderson
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