One-half of Canadian-Philly duoLantern, Zachary Devereux Fairbrother goes from his typical face-punching rippers to a soft-acoustic ballad with “The Strawman.” I mean, the dude HAS gone a BIT soft before, but this was during a self-admitted time when he was away from the other half of Lantern, Emily Robb. Thus, when I got Zachary’s e-mail promoting “The Strawman” outta nowhere the other day, I was like “Uhhhh-ohhhh.” BUT I’M TOTALLY WRONG! Look how cute the cover art is for “The Strawman” single. And the lyrics pretty much describe the process of me writing about the song. It’s all about interpretation. And potentially, his lyrics of “YOU” can be read into as himself, or Emily, or just [musician/artist/person/YOU].
There’s an sneaky inspiration in Zachary’s “The Strawman” that’s not secretive, but only found upon close listening. No, I’m not talking about inspiration to go out and learn “Classical Gas” on guitar, but if you do, RESPECT. However, “The Strawman” suggests you should challenge what people say in reaction to how you present yourself within this world. Will you choose the way of social molding, or go for the Fleetwood Mac? I’d rather take the Lantern route and have beer cans thrown at me as an honor than be playing some sold-out arena concert to people who own iPods with five of my songs. As well, the whole Tyrannosaurs Rex vibe Zachary is fronting with “The Strawman” currently is illy af too, so let’s hope both this solo project and Lantern continue strong. Check out his solo work below, for judgement’s sake:
• Zachary Devereux Fairbrother: https://soundcloud.com/zacharyfairbrother
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