Brother-sister duo The Forevers promise to “make some damn good music to rock out to, score on a date to, & chill to after.” Their love of music took hold in a decidedly un-chill place: Communist Poland of the 1980s. Pirate radio broadcasts reached across the Iron Curtain to their starving ears, filling their heads with, among many others, the nothing-to-lose Rock n Roll rebellion of Bruce Springsteen. Mikolaj Mick Jaroszyk and Natalia Safran have since made major moves in the music and film industries: their hit song “All I Feel Is You” appeared in the late Paul Walker’s film Hours. A remix of the track – which was on the soundtrack to Flatliners – shot up to the US Billboard Top 20 Club Play chart, making them the only Polish artist to have a US Billboard chart-topping single. Safran and her husband Peter’s production house, The Safran Company, has produced major Hollywood successes like The Nun and The Conjuring. Mikolaj and Natalia’s latest single, “Frederique,” certainly makes good on The Forevers’ promise.
Inspired by a Parisian friend, “Frederique” has a breezy, bubblegum appeal, with cresting and falling xylophone and vintage synths recalling the best of 60’s French Pop. Its instrumentation and lively four-on-the-floor beat would be the most beautiful part of any other song. But Safran’s otherworldly voice carries the day, naturally switching from French to English with the ease of a citizen of the world. One reviewer gushed that it embodies “the ethereal spirit of 60’s French New Wave movies like Belle de Jour and Breathless.”
The “Frederique” video is certainly breathless, a mysterious pursuit that dashes and weaves among the iconic locations and freak-flag denizens of Venice Beach’s Boardwalk. Safran, a blast from decades past, rollerblades in aviators and a vintage ensemble, giant boombox swinging in her hand. Following her closely yet cautiously, Jaroszyk pedals his beach cruiser by the air-catchers at Venice Skate Park, Muscle Beach’s powerlifters, and the Boardwalk’s countless characters. As the sun sets on the canals and the cafes, Jaroszyk finally closes the gap, and a stealthy exchange is made. It turns out Safran’s boombox is not what it seems. Alone, back at the beach, he opens the boombox and pulls out its turn-of-the-century European ancestor.
In the more musically downbeat, but equally uplifting “Rockets Fly,” The Forevers contemplate our place in a vast Universe. Channeling Portishead and Bat For Lashes, Safran radiates soothing energy, a serene excitement. According to the singer, the track and the video’s epic shots of Earth from afar are meant to instill a “feeling of being understood, connected and lifted into that cosmic sphere we only sometimes get to dwell in.” A fitting lead single for their latest album, Interstellar Dweller, out now on Supersonic Soul Machine Records.
