Fernie Montreal interview
Music

Fernie works with Patrick Watson, channels Denis Villeneuve and gets vulnerable on his new EP

by Dave MacIntyre

We spoke with the Montreal artist ahead of his local launch show for Hopeless Dreams on Feb. 20.

Brazilian-born Montreal artist Fernie returns with his newest EP Hopeless Dreams, a darker, more introspective prequel to his 2021 debut LP Aurora. 

Released this past Friday on Secret City, the fact that Hopeless Dreams has emerged earthside on Valentine’s Day of all days comes as some kind of bitter irony, given how the EP deals with a devastating breakup.

While meeting with Cult MTL at a Plateau café less than two weeks out from release day, Fernie — real name Fernie Grunau, born in São Paulo to a Brazilian mother — tells us the EP is a project he’s been holding onto for a few years now, and is equal parts excited and relieved it’s out in the world. “Surprisingly, I’m not nervous,” he adds.

A major element in that sense of relief comes from the fact that Hopeless Dreams was made around the same time as Fernie’s 2021 album Aurora. Many songs featured on this EP were initially intended to be included on the album.

Fernie’s late teens and early ‘20s were a formative, if challenging, time for him, as he was grappling with coming to terms with his sexuality and being a person of colour in a mostly white field, leading to a lot of self-questioning and interior conflict. This period of his life serves as a major influence on Hopeless Dreams.

“Those reminders came back, and that’s how I structured (the project) as well,” he continues. “I feel like with this EP, it’s (developed) a mind of its own. I’ve given it so much life that it’s literally become something. 

“Right now, I’m in a place where I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad thing. It’s like a war in my mind psychologically. But I’m just glad that, with creativity, I was able to put it all into something meaningful.”

The project’s role as a prequel to Aurora was borne out of a desire to tell that side of his story, with both projects representing “who I am at my absolute highs and who I am at my disgusting lows,” as Fernie tells us. 

“I felt like Aurora was very celebratory, and it was all about accepting yourself for who you are and all that amazing, positive stuff,” Fernie says. “But I wanted to tell my personal story of how I got to that mindset. With Hopeless Dreams, it was the perfect opportunity to do that. I see these two projects as two sides of the same coin. We can’t just talk about the celebration and all this positive reinforcement without looking back and being like, ‘Okay, but I also came from this place of hurt and this real place of vulnerability.’”

It’s been a long time coming for new material, and what listeners are getting here musically stands in stark contrast to the more joyous feel of Aurora. This is all the way down to Hopeless Dreams’ title track, the first song written for the EP. The tune reminisces on a five-year, on-and-off “situationship” in high school with someone Fernie says “ruined” his perception of love.

We even hear a bit of a rap break during the song, a part where Fernie’s more experimental side comes out. Mind you, he admits he’s not a rapper, even if he’s picked up some techniques from hanging out with rappers over the years. (Similarly, middle track “Open Season” has a spoken word feel inspired by Frank Ocean’s sing-rapping style.)

The title track has already been garnering attention well beyond Montreal, as the song was premiered on BBC Radio 1 in the U.K. — something Fernie still can’t believe happened. The plan is for the EP to be pushed toward British listeners in particular, after Aurora was promoted more heavily in France.

“We’re trying to engage with a community that we don’t necessarily know,” he says. “That’s a great thing to do, because it kind of teaches you how to put yourself out there.

“With the U.K., we are seeing a really nice reception. Right now, it’s really small — it hasn’t come all at once, honestly. But the way we’re seeing the growth is the fact that the song’s playing on this specific radio station, and then there’s other stations that are playing it too, now. It’s been very positive.”

For the single “Pain,” Fernie enlisted the help of none other than Patrick Watson for production. That song “solidified the entire project” for Fernie, an ideal outcome for a song he was initially reluctant to share with others. “‘Pain’ was one of those songs that I never wanted to show anyone,” he continues. 

“I had shelved it for the longest time. This one random day, Pat and I were just chilling. He was just like, ‘Show me all your demos.’ He stumbled upon ‘Pain,’ and he freaked out. He was like, ‘How have you never shown this to me? You need to work on this! This is what emotion is all about!’ I only had one verse written by then.”

Watson then told Fernie to go home and write a second verse, one that came quickly for him. Fernie sent it to him, and Watson asked his string quartet following one of his live shows to contribute to “Pain” before completely rewriting the piano section (which Fernie had initially sampled from Splice).

“It was so life-changing when I first heard the strings,” says Fernie. “I went back to his studio and redid the vocals. That was a crazy process. Patrick’s really good with his ear, he knows exactly what to do. You really just want to do it.”

The EP’s short outro song (and last tune written for the project), “Incendies”, was named for the Denis Villeneuve film — one of the “craziest” movies Fernie says he’s ever seen. This is partly because he wanted a less bland title than “Outro,” and partly out of his love for the film and for Villeneuve himself. 

“I think the movie really aligns with the story that I’m telling with Hopeless Dreams,” he says. “Visually, Denis Villeneuve has this beautiful thing with brutalism. A lot of the visual influences that I wanted (for the EP) was also brutalism — it moved a bit into the mystical area in the end, but it still remained true.”

On Thursday Feb. 20, Fernie will be playing his EP launch show at Ausgang Plaza, as well as two more launch shows in Toronto and Quebec City. Beyond that, he plans on heavily promoting the EP while working on more new music. 

“It’s hard for me to work on a lot of music at once — I have to live my life in order to write,” he says. “I feel it coming now. I want to write as much music and push the project as much as I can, and hopefully start doing shows again. And collabs! I would love to collab with multiple people.

“Kaytranada, if you’re there, hello!” ■

Fernie’s album launch takes place at Ausgang Plaza (6524 St-Hubert) on Thursday, Feb. 20, 9 p.m., free (RSVP). For more on Fernie, please visit his linktree.

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Posted in Music

by Dave MacIntyre

Contributing editor for Music
Dave MacIntyre is a Montreal-based freelance journalist. His primary topic of interest is music, but is equally comfortable writing about sports, current events, and Montreal-related initiatives. Outside of Cult MTL, his bylines can be found in publications like BeatRoute and Northern Transmissions. And no, he is not related to Reba, nor to the WWE wrestler Drew, nor to Joey from New Kids on the Block.