Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham and Mike Haliechuk are this week’s guests on The FADER Interview podcast. The band’s sixth studio LP, One Day, is due out Friday via Merge, and today, they’ve shared its third and final pre-release cut, “Cicada.” The new song — which follows the record’s October lead single/title track and “I Think I Might Be Weird,” out earlier this month — is a characteristically boisterous but unusually melodic jam from the Toronto punk stalwarts.
Though Haliechuk is the group’s primary songwriter, “Cicada” is the only part of the project he helms vocally, trading Abraham’s rough barking for his more traditionally tuneful tenor. It’s a wise choice for the track’s lyrical content, a tender parting message to a lost loved one. (“Give me one more day / Let me hear you say / I’ll remember you my friend / Your song will never end,” he sings in the chorus.)
On today’s episode of the podcast — in conversation with The FADER’s Editorial Director, Alex Robert Ross — Abraham gives a brief rundown of the vocal decision. “‘Cicada’ is one of my favorite songs on the record, even musically,” he says. “When Mike wrote it, I was like, ‘Damn, I want that one.’ Mike claimed it.”
Separately, both band members expound on the song’s tragic but uplifting subject matter. “As much as I didn’t want this record to be about losing things and I wanted it to be about moving forward, it was hard to think of making a record without reacting to certain things that we’d lost,” Haliechuk explains.
“The losses keep coming,” Abraham adds. “And I think losing those people that were close to the band, inspirational to the band, family to the band… makes me more grateful that I get to be here for the time I’m here, and that I get to do this and keep remembering them and bringing their names up and sharing their memories with people. As much as it hurts, I’m grateful that I get to do that.”
Watch the music video for “Cicada” above and listen to the full conversation, embedded below and streaming via this link, wherever you get your podcasts.
