I seem to be writing about a lot of solo acts recently, so this is probably the last one for a while, that said, Fiesta Maiden is a nice way to wrap things up. Fiesta Maiden got in touch a few weeks ago and I’ve been listening to the album since, trying to really wrap my head around it. Baby Girl is a dark acoustic insight into life within an abusive relationship, which is some seriously heavy stuff. Despite this FM manages to produce some memorable and enjoyable songs without losing sight of the original message or being depressing or trite.

As an overall sound I would say that FM is a mainly acoustic cross of Funeral for a Friend with Snow Patrol – with just a smidge of the Postal Service. The album in itself ranges from acoustic soft pop to rock, with Secret’s Out being a notable departure from the rest of the album. My personal favourite has to be Framed, which features an irrepressible hook and a catchy chorus, matched with fantastic percussion.

I had a quick chat with Fiesta Maiden earlier, which you can see here:

So Fiesta Maiden, who are you, what do you do, and where’s the name from?

I am Trevin Bartee. I am a 26 year old singer-songwriter and producer. Fiesta Maiden is my solo project that is out of Kansas City, Missouri. I came up with the name in High School, actually. I am a huge fan of Batman, and he defined himself using his biggest fear, bats. So in school, I was always trying to snag myself one of the popular girls, but something was so intimidating about them. They were always going to parties and big social gatherings, and I didn’t quite thrive in the party scene. I basically just found a fancy way to say Party Girl and made that me. Originally, Fiesta Maiden was just an online handle that I used for video games, but when it came time to start my solo project, I thought there was no better way to be true to who I was than to call myself that.

I started off a bass player for a lot of bands, but every time a band would get so far, it would end, and I’d be back at square one. I decide to teach myself chords on a guitar, and buy myself recording equipment. Fiesta Maiden, as a solo project, began in 2008. I would wait until no one was home, and I’d sit at the computer in my parents’ laundry room for 8 hours at a time, until a new song was constructed. I ended up making a very rough first album in about 3 months.

By 2009, I loved it so much that I went to an audio school in Phoenix Arizona to get better at the recording aspect. I quickly found that it wasn’t the career for me, but I still wanted to use my skills on my own project. There was a lot of ego involved with recording, and I just couldn’t fit in with it.

When I returned home from school, Fiesta Maiden had a few songs release, but I just wasn’t really inspired. My production skills had caught the eye of a local heavy rock band, and I was asked to play keyboard for them. Having never played keyboard before, I took the challenge, taught myself keyboard, played with the band for 3 years, and recorded our first album in our own recording space.

Once the band broke up, I decided to give Fiesta Maiden my all and really take it seriously. I had started on a really happy album about this girl. I dubbed it my “sweet sounds of summer” album, but after things started going downhill, I had to stop it. After the whole mess finished, I was feeling so many emotions and inspired that I started on Baby Girl.

I play everything on the album except for the drumset. I was able to boost up my recording set up and really dig in more than I ever have before. I play acoustic guitar, bass, electric, piano/keyboard, banjo, mandolin, any drum programming, and djembe/hand percussion. I was very lucky to be able to get my friend Shea Black, from my old rock band (The Liar’s Scene) to record and provide his own drums for me.

Before I even start talking about Baby Girl, I have to ask – where did the idea for the album cover come from? It’s absolutely terrifying!

Oh man! I racked my brain for so long trying to figure out something that’d make the most sense for this album. I wanted there to be so many little bits of symbolism for my situation. In the long run, I knew it would mainly just be something that makes the most sense for me, but as an artist, you should be making your music for yourself first, right?

Within the whole relationship/breakup that Baby Girl is centred around, there was a lot of reoccurring themes and problems. In the beginning, I was told a lot about this very abusive person from the past, who had died. After some major fights, I was actually told that I was way worse of a person than the one I’ve been hearing about. It had completely shattered my world. Not only had I never laid a hand on her, I did everything to be kind and understanding due to her past.

Anyway, so I decided to make a visual representation of one of my favourite lines. In the song Like The Death of a Friend, I say “I met the ghost that hovers over the left side of your bed. I thought I understood what fear was, until you mistook me for him.” I had planned out this whole multiple picture shoot that was going to show a ghost by the side of a bed (who was obviously a person) and it would eventually show that when unmasked, I was the ghost all along. I hired my good photographer friend Amanda Rose to shoot it, and we had a lot of fun with it. On the back of the physical album the track listing is over a balled up sheet covered in blood, with the gloves on it. Also, the header of the Facebook shows me with blood on my face, while wearing the gloves. The implied act of killing was my metaphor for putting an end to the whole thing by making this album.

This EP is fantastic, I’m a little bit in love with Framed specifically, how was Baby Girl written and recorded?

Framed is my favourite too! So proud of how that guitar came together. I had been playing that riff for months, before I ever got the guts to tackle it. I knew no matter what, that’d be my favourite song.

Something had happened to my recording laptop during my breakup. It just stopped working on me. Knowing that I’d push until the album was a real thing, I decided to treat this recording process differently than I’d ever done. I used to open up a blank project in Logic and start jamming until something clicked, but sometimes that would lead to similar results. Since my computer was broke, and I do everything on my own songs, I decided to split myself into three. 1. Artist 2. Producer 3. Sound engineer. While saving up and working on my much more powerful computer, I was slaving away with my acoustic and a pad and a pen. I’d come up with guitar parts and just spit out what I was feeling as they came to me. I’d record them onto my phone and listen to them over and over again. Sometimes I’d find a word in the music that felt so right, but didn’t make sense, that I’d connect words around it so I could. In Framed I always started with “Open doors.” I forget what my original line was, but I knew I had to start with those two words.

Secondly, I had to look at these individual songs, as a producer would, and think of how I could make each one be different and stand out. I’ve never thought of myself as the best audio engineer/mixer, but I love production and using different elements to add emphasis on what you’re saying.

Thirdly, I had to just not be super biased and just mix the music. As I said before, mixing isn’t my strong suit and isn’t really my favourite. The mixing and mastering was the hardest part for me, but I got it done and I’m very proud of it.

Lyrically. Since I was working on my sounds of summer album, and it got interrupted, I wanted to make the ultimate breakup album. I called it my “Feel bad album of the summer.” I wanted every song to deal with different parts of my particular situation. I wanted it to be 100% honest, and I wanted people to take the journey with me. I always view my music as a daily diary. A situation isn’t done with, until I can record it and come back to it, whenever I want.

Cliché question I know, but who are your biggest influences?

My influences are all over the place! My old music that I recorded used to be a different genre every song. With Baby Girl, I was buckling down as best as I could, but still had to have some electronic drums and weirdness. Haha!

Biggest influences though have to be Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s. This band inspires me in so many ways. Amazing catchy vocal melodies and super cool lyrics. Between them and the band Say Anything, they inspired me so much to be a little more snarky with my lyrics. The solo work of Anthony Green is a big one, and also the band Copeland. Those three are probably the biggest influences for Baby Girl. I’m also a big fan of Beck, Father John Misty, Death Cab For Cutie, and Lydia. Solo acts and bands with one central songwriter are always the most inspiring to me, because they are focused on the song at hand, and less about sounding good within their genre.

What are you working on at the minute?

Right now, I am actually working on two things. I’ve been doing a lot of studying and learning about sound design and creating new sounds from scratch on synthesizers. I’m going to be doing a super 80s inspired, fun, EP called Boombox Avenue. I’ve missed the electronic side of things. It’ll probably be about 5 songs.

And I’m also laying the prep work/writing for my sequel to Baby Girl. I’ve had the concept of doing a whole coming of age type trilogy with my writings. Now, don’t think it’s going to be another depressing and brooding breakup album. It’s just a story that works in line with it. With my final track on Baby Girl, ‘Nobody’s Hero,’ I talk a lot about how my city is destroyed and the good old days are gone. I always picture the ending of those Resident Evil movies, where the final fight happened, just for the main character to step outside and see there’s even more mess waiting. The camera slow pans out and you just see all the destruction. Haha when dealing with that breakup, there was a lot of things I ignored. I gained weight, I let friendships go ignored, I hadn’t made music in a year, and I’ve got to heal mentally from what happened. Add dating again back into that, and you’ve got another journey on your hands. Now that I’ve tackled all of that, it’s time to look back and write about it. It’ll be about the same style of music as Baby Girl, but expect a little more snark and attitude. It’ll be fun. That album will be called Adversity.

You can get Baby Girl here, and do the usual social media stalking here!