PREMIERE | Foliage, "Can't Go Anywhere"
The wondrous, sensational and sweet synth world of Manuel Joseph Walker, aka Foliage; photographed by Dario Tejada.
Emerging from our humble confines of home and squinting into the sunlight of a new day — we are seeking a reconnection and communion with the world we once knew. Exploring the locales of our familiar and reaching out to folks we have fallen out of touch with and so forth; everything hits and feels different now. Many of the brick and mortars we used to frequent sit abandoned, or serve as the vessel for a rotation of start-ups and pop-ups backed up by whatever venture capital that hasn’t been sucked up the technocratic vultures. Some friends have moved away, found new jobs, or remain unemployed, started new families and have maybe even found new sets of friends. Everyone is rebuilding, from individuals reconciling with themselves to industries evolving into new forms and art growing toward new impactful and more purposeful places.
Returning to the consortium of creative arts is San Bernardino, California artist Manuel Joseph Walker, aka Foliage, presenting the debut of the personal and sharply pointed new single “Can’t Go Anywhere”. A track that heralds news of a new album arriving on the horizon, Manuel sings a song of socially distanced needs. “Anywhere” embodies the feeling of stationary life, where it feels like there is nothing and nobody out there and the closest thing to meaningful exchanges are the automated AI interactions of bots in a stoic digitized void (compared and contrasted to the surrounding strange, new and semi-barren landscapes). Foliage sincerely strums a ballad of warm heartedness that seeks a solid sense of companionship whilst in the throes and cold iron grip of solitude.
"Can't Go Anywhere" is a snapshot of life crystalized in the freeze frame of time at a standstill. A bedazzled blend of post-punk rhythms and chords borrowed from the rogue's gallery of 80s to new millennia dream pop weavers and DIY necromancers; Foliage creates a pop homage to the angst and frustrations of the present day that pays tribute to all the icons that have come before and all that have yet to descend. Manuel mixes the classic college pop sound with a bedroom chamber charmed candid quality that anxiously moves with the dancefloor sensibilities inspired by the collective quarantined state of universal house arrest. The track is a love letter to personal resolution, in the face of a cold industry, the pratfalls of fickle friends and the heartfelt hopes for something of greater substance beyond the lip service and vacuous platitudes that revolve around the contrived semantics of these extraordinary and unprecedented times.
The Dario Tejada-directed visual takes the Foliage aeshetics of relentless romanticism atop the hills that lay high above the world below. "Can't Go Anywhere" is given a place of its own to dwell, where we watch as multiplicities of Manuel emerge from the lone synth pop session. The hills become alive with the frequencies of Foliage, as the artist is seen rocking different styles, self-cloned to be a band consisting of cool looking copies. The lyrics gracefully emerge in a meditation on emotional-motion in still life like a multimedia art installation devoted to the dearly held laws of human longing and discovering places of solace, peace, quiet and calm in a society of senseless chatter (and often dubious truths).
Synths and sentiments from Foliage; photograph courtesy of Dario Tejada.
Foliage’s Manuel Joseph Walker provided the following reflections on the new single:
"Can't Go Anywhere" was born out of a lack of trust, admittedly, from my friends in the music industry.
I had an idea to do a release collaborating with artists I've loved over the years, and have made good friends with, only to be left in the shadows, as my friends have outgrown my musical career.
The lyrics reflect how I feel, and how deep down, I just crave musical creation with those that are serious about making it happen.
Hilltop/synth pop hero — Foliage; photographed by Dario Tejada.
On another note, the mention of a record of pure collaboration is something I still want to do in the future!
From the valleys, the hills, mountaintops and into the stratosphere with Foliage; photographed by Dario Tejada.
In other news, there's a new Foliage record coming very soon, and I think that's something to get excited about.
Foliage’s new single “Can’t Go Anywhere” is available now everywhere.