FayRoy’s music rustles not just a listener’s hearing, but all of their senses, especially sight and touch. Be it the sensation of salty, sandy beaches on 2017’s Heaven at Twenty Seven or the kodachrome kaleidoscope on songs from 2018’s Oh no, oh man, a FayRoy tune can send you to the dance floor—but more often than not, it sets your mind reeling.
That’s why it makes sense to find the Indian Rocks Beach-based outfit traveling the whole of the Sunshine State to capture footage for a new video, “800 People.”
The six-minute clip finds an Alabama man caught up in some trouble and headed south to evade capture—but he finds himself increasingly out of his comfort zone as he gets deeper into Florida.
“Kyle [Fournier, drummer] wanted to use very Florida specific imagery. We liked the exteriors of certain bars in Orlando, but the inside of others around here on the beach,” FayRoy frontman and guitarist Zack Hoag told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
The band flocked to the photogenic, desolate beaches around Tierra verde and the out-of-date, creepy neon tourist attractions in Dixie County’s Old Town.
“Very Florida,” Hoag added. “We shot everything with no budget and just politely asking bartenders if we could film in their establishment.”
The cut is the first of three singles FayRoy plans to release ahead of a new album that drops in the fall. Hoag said the record’s title, camp comfort, is a roundabout way of describing a place of solace.
“Most of these songs are about people or situations who are trying to find a solution. Whether it be a quick fix or a full life overhaul. A healthy answer or not,” he said. “‘Camp comfort’ represents a safety net and all you can do is hope the net holds.”
“800 People” was recorded at Sulphur Springs’ Springs Theatre and Steve Connelly’s Zen Studio in St. Petersburg. It finds FayRoy joined by Los Angeles producer Jack Siege, who the band met during a California tour with Bright Light Social Hour and Swimm (stylized “SWIMM”).
“[Siege] was a great collaborator and king hype man while recording,” Hoag said, adding that FayRoy went into the song and video as two different ideas. After Hoag wrote the lyrics, Fournier listened to the song and immediately wanted to create the video based on what he thought “800 People” was about, without any context or definite meaning.
“I think it kinda helped him eliminate any restrictions he would have from the set structure of knowing the intent of the lyrics. It was wild,” Hoag said. “We’re really happy and surprised with the result of the video because we found that it completely shares the same meaning as the song, while being a totally different story.”
See the video below and catch FayRoy twice this weekend.
The band plays Red Star Rock Bar in Ybor City alongside The Drain Outs and Company of Anmls (stylized “CMPNY OF ANMLS”) this Friday, March 6 at 8 p.m. and then joins a killer Gasparilla Music Festival after-party at The Bricks that includes live sets from Charles Irwin and Glove plus a Nude Party DJ Set. More information on those shows—and other concerts—is available via local.cltampa.com.
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This article appears in Mar 5-12, 2020.