Strict Face Made A Track About Being Released From The Claws Of Writer’s Block

There was a time in 2000 when I lost my sense of humor. I was a student at university in Leeds in the north of England and was burning the candle at both ends. After a summer of partying too hard, my sense of self crumbled in on itself; weirdly, what buckled first was my capacity for being social. I couldn't crack a joke, meet an eye, or catch a tone. It was like that part of my personality had been wiped clean. Or rather, smeared. Every interaction came laced with frustration. It only lasted a couple of months, but I remember the relief-fueled feeling of flickering back into focus like it was yesterday. Oh hello, there you are.

The joy of finding your way back to yourself is threaded all the way through Adelaide producer Strict Face's new one, "Honour Avenue," from his forthcoming Rain Cuts EP. As he explains below, it was writer's block that had him feeling out of sorts, and this gently jubilant track sounds out his release from its claws. It opens with that no-go sound that your laptop makes if you try an off-limits command, but then flowers into a synthetic violin dream.

"'Honour Avenue' was made at the very start of 2015, not long after I'd started getting the wheels cranking on writer mode following a writer's block throughout 2014," Strict Face told The FADER. "I think I was listening to a lot of Fleetwood Mac and Future and kept dreaming of these motorcycle riders rolling down highways at the time. Luckily, I'd made or fucked with a bunch of sounds while I was trying to get over my writer's block, so after a few hours straining over a bright laptop late one night, this was born. Pretty uneventful backstory."

Blacklink Sound will release Strict Face's Rain Cuts on September 26; pre-order it here.