Photo by Evan Jenkins

“Are you real?,” asks FACs vocalist and guitarist Brian Case in repeat disbelief throughout “Wish Defense”, the lead single and title track from the band’s forthcoming album due out next year. Where the Chicago experimental art-rockers’ 2023 album, Still Life Decay, explored the concept of coming from space dust and leaving as space dust in existentialist terms while equally expanding the vacuum from which they mutate heavy soundwave particles within, the focus magnifies far and away from the cosmos and into the mirror, lookin at someone who resembles you but maybe isn’t exactly you. With that, Case, drummer Noah Leger, and returning bassist Jonathan van Herik articulate the details of the figure in front of them with fine lines and a caution to getting too close out of bounds in order to figure out the answer. “You beside me / The detail / Terrifying / Abject self / Your grief / A public / Performance.” So who exactly is that person staring back at them? They’re probably asking themselves the same thing, too…

Directed by: Joshua Ford

FACS’ Wish Defense will be February 7th on Trouble In Mind Records.