<\/p>\n

You have to let Charles Fauna\u2019s Yonder<\/em> wash over you. It\u2019s the kind of record that soothes an anxiety-ridden mind. His lush, effervescent soundscape \u2500 extracted from such influences as Kid Cudi, St. Vincent, David Bowie, and Joe Goddard \u2500 numbs you into a meditative state, and you begin a deep probing of your mental facilities to make sense of it all.<\/p>\n

Yonder<\/em> is a monumental debut, expansive yet immersive, brimming with hope and brightness, and it could not have arrived at a more appropriate time. During the massive COVID-19 pandemic, the 12-track collection deals out far more poignancy than even he could have expected. \u201cI do feel as though one of the unintended consequences of the quarantine is a lot of time for self-reflection and reckonings with our internal selves,\u201d Fauna tells Audiofemme<\/em>. \u201cI feel as though it\u2019s the kind of album that wants to help people, so it would be weird to put it out during a gorgeous and peaceful summer, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Based in Brooklyn, the indie-pop mastermind juggles his desire to celebrate such an impressive bow and a new creativity already coursing through his body. \u201cThe moment I finish a body of work, I usually spend a few weeks head-over-heels in love with it and then am on to something else,\u201d he confides. \u201cWith albums, you usually finish them, and it takes half a year or more to actually put them out. I look at this album very fondly and am so proud of it, like a parent watching their kid do a school play for the first time.\u201d Yonder<\/em> sets a high bar, but Fauna eyes even more soaring artistic heights. \u201cWhatever comes next will exceed it in every way,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Part of Yonder’s triumph came from the pressure Fauna felt to make his debut LP memorable. He didn\u2019t want to simply slap together 10 or 12 songs and call it an album. It needed to mean something in the world. \u201cI wasn\u2019t just writing for the sake of writing. I really wanted to create something profound and epic \u2500 the kind of album that might live longer than I would.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than anything, I just didn\u2019t want to do what was expected of me. It was important to me that this, at least in an abstract sense, feel like a real journey,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver Yonder,\u201d a wondrous spoken word introduction, sets the scene like a Greek tragedy. Initially written as a poem, almost as an \u201centity remarking on someone\u2019s mental state,\u201d he says, he soon realized the album needed to be framed through another\u2019s perspective. \u201cI decided then that I didn\u2019t want these songs to be explicitly from my point of view, but rather to imagine the music through the eyes of someone else. A character,\u201d he explains. \u201cApollo\u201d follows, pummeling the eardrums as a rocket ship cruising through the Milky Way. It was within such a synth-y cosmic web that the story unfolded. Centered around the idea of \u201cpeople in the future going to live on Mars because we had exhausted the Earth of resources,\u201d the groovy little number cemented the album\u2019s inevitable story arc in his brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought to myself, \u2018What if the character in the poem was one of these people who was forced to leave Earth and go to Mars? What would that actually feel like?\u2019\u201d Fauna then began piecing together his arsenal of songs and beats into a more focused, streamlined vision, and these common themes emerged: outer space, leaving home, and reckoning with the void. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a bit of a space cadet and am constantly writing and imagining stories in my head,\u201d he says. Fauna shuffles through his own mental anguish and projects his findings through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl. The unnamed protagonist mounts an expedition away from the only world she\u2019s known for a \u201cjourney of self-discovery,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Taking the notion of being a “hopeless millennial yearning for something profound\u201d – an ache most of us feel these days – and reapplying it on a far grander scale, Yonder<\/em> filters Fauna\u2019s personal turmoils and anxieties over political, socio-economical, and environmental issues through a universal lens to tap into today\u2019s swelling fears. \u201cMore than anything I learned how many people feel like I do,\u201d he offers. \u201cI realized that my feelings of existential malaise were in no way unique to me \u2500 that there are so many young people who feel deeply stifled by their lack of faith in humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

From breaking soil on \u201cMars\u201d to the celestial beauty of \u201cThe Divine\u201d and the addicting, syrupy throb of \u201cA Total Dream,\u201d Yonder<\/em> blossoms into a record \u201cabout exploring this lack of faith and trying to understand where to place one\u2019s belief. Ultimately what I came to learn, and what I hope the record expresses above all, is that we place that faith in ourselves. And each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fauna also expresses spirituality in a freeing, unapologetically accepting way \u2500 a threshold which proved to be indescribably healing. \u201cWhen I finished [the album], I felt in many ways that I had said all I wanted to say. It felt complete. That in and of itself was healing for me. I spend a lot of time trying to maintain social equilibrium,\u201d he explains, \u201cI\u2019ve often kept my deeper, more spiritual opinions to myself out of fear of being judged. Expressing these ideas was very cathartic. It also heals me when someone who has heard the music reaches out to let me know that it meant something to them, or that they got something out of it. Even one person having heard me out makes it worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yonder<\/em> is a collective, hyper-realized journey. It\u2019s not just Fauna\u2019s or mine or my neighbor\u2019s. It\u2019s everyone\u2019s, and we\u2019re all in this together. \u201cI want the listener to realize they are not alone. The philosophy behind [this album is] that we can always be better, that we can always improve, be kinder, be more open, more intelligent, more empathetic towards each other. And for them to find peace in searching for something entirely without the self.\u201d<\/p>\n

For much of his life, Fauna has been bound and tormented by his anxiety and, perhaps, \u201cblind to some greater truth just beyond my sight,\u201d he says. \u201cI felt so trapped by the monotony of the everyday. More often than not, my head was tilted downward \u2500 obsessed with my internal world rather than the boundless external one. Where most of my music up to now reflects this, [this record] is my deliberate attempt to look up: to see more, to be open to anything, and to connect with others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunger for human connectivity glues the record together, and such craving has never been felt more right than now. \u201cI can\u2019t speak for everyone, but I can say that for me personally this has been an intense reminder as to the value and importance of my friendships. The next time I am able to meet my friends at a bar, to see them in person, hug them, celebrate being alive, I think I will probably cry,\u201d he says of the ongoing global crisis. \u201cThere will be such overwhelming beauty in doing the simplest of things, in reclaiming normalcy. I will have gained a deep appreciation for things that a month or so ago I would have not thought twice about. I should hope that it expands the quality of our connections with others.\u201d<\/p>\n