Fine Life On the Making Of “Moments”
What was the creative process like for this particular single?
Kritty: The song itself started from the synth swell you hear during the pre-chorus. I was messing around and creating a sound on Serum, a sound design plug-in. Usually we’ll work the opposite way, where we’ll try and write a song in a whole before beginning to produce it, but I was just so intrigued by this sound that I immediately started to build off of it. I showed the idea to one of my good friends and frequent music collaborators, Erick Fuentes, aka Kapo, and we produced a demo to send over to Elise. She was in Hawaii at the time.
When she came back, we tracked her vocals, which absolutely blew me away. From that, our drummer Zach added his drums, and I knew that we had something special. The hybrid live/ electronic sound that we’ve been honing in our live sets was coming to fruition in the studio.
Elise: I was visiting my hometown, Honaunau, Hawaii, when Kritty sent me this new production he and our good friend and collaborator, Kapo, had been working on. I was immediately inspired and motivated by the track. It really moved me, and I enjoyed listening to it, which makes it easy to write to. When I hear a track I really resonate with, the top line will come easily. I just went with the initial lyrics and melody that came to my head, and it just snapped. “Moments” was not a challenge to write, it came naturally and almost immediately.
What impact do you hope "Moments" will have on your audience?
Kritty: I just hope that we reach people that we haven’t before, and that our niche sound can influence like-minded artists, and maybe we can create a cool new subgenre. I honestly don’t know where our sound fits, and at first that can make it a bit more difficult to find your particular audience, but I think the payoff will make it worth it. If nothing else comes of this, I’ll always take pride in the fact that people can’t quite pinpoint who we sound like.
Elise: I feel like “Moments” has really pinpointed our sound as Fine Life. It has taken some time to fully harness our sound, and I’m hoping this is the song that can catch the attention of new listeners, and that the population resonates and craves this sound we have created. I want our new listeners to become forever followers and supporters of our musical journey.
What was your favorite moment in making the music video?
Kritty: Probably the pizza we ordered for lunch. (Jk.) It was such an amazing experience. We’ve shot music videos before, but I think production-wise, we really took it to the next level for “Moments.” (HUGE shout out to our videographer and director Ron Geffen of Rockland Studio.)
Elise scoured Peerspace and found a rain room, and I scoured the Facebook marketplace a month before the shoot date to buy a cheap drum set and prop keyboards, because I wanted everything to get wet. The amount of people that commented about the keyboards getting wet and asked if they’re okay has been hilarious. I’m sure some are trolling, but I think other people are genuinely concerned. It was a long day, and the whole band totally got sick after, but it was so worth it.
Elise: I loved playing locations manager and scouting out unique places for the shoot. When we found the rain room in Brooklyn, we were able to truly picture what our music video would look like. It was amazing to see the vision come to life on the day of shooting. It’s always so much fun to be in front of a camera, especially since our videographer is a great friend of ours as well. I love performing to a live audience, but there’s something special and intimate about performing to just the camera. It was such an exciting day that I’ll always remember.
Can you tell us more about you as a duo?
Kritty: We’ve been collaborating on music since before we officially became a duo. We’ve also cycled through bandmates and changed our name a few times as well. It’s been a long process to get to this point, but there’s always been a common denominator when we write together, and I think we naturally gravitated toward each other because the music was always so genuine and original. We both have very different musical influences, so it’s always so much fun to see what happens in a song, and which elements of our influences will be deployed for a particular writing session.
But beyond us as a duo, our drummer Zach Var has been such a huge part of this project. When we performed as an electronic duo with tracks, we were always on bills with bands and we missed playing with a drummer so badly. We never meant to NOT play with a drummer, but finding one with both experience and commitment was such a difficult task, and we really lucked out with Zach. He’s such a talented drummer, writer and such a professional and we absolutely love having him on board. We’ll never go back!
Elise: Most of our songs are about mental health and the plights of our current world. I think sharing these messages through song is so important to promote positive change. This is usually our focus. We even throw benefit concerts for organizations, mainly animal conservation and refuge. We’ve raised $10,000 for these organizations so far. However, with “Moments,” I found myself taking a different route in the lyrics and storyline. This is actually the first love song we have ever written. Sometimes I forget that it’s also important to write about love, which I shouldn’t since love is the ultimate conclusion I want for this world. I actually wrote “Moments” for Kritty. Not only is he my band mate and creative partner, but he is also my husband. We got married in September 2024. It makes sense that we have a love song for each other, and that song is “Moments.”
Can you share a standout moment from one of your live performances that you'll never forget?
Kritty: We recently toured in Hawai`i, and we played at this really cool venue in Honolulu called Harbors Vintage. The venue has a following of itself, and a lot of them are 16+, aka the next generation. They’re known to come through to the venue, no matter what bands are playing, and fully support all the acts and be in the moment. I don’t consider our sound to be heavy, but they started moshing and headbanging to our set and it was just so much fun. They gave me so much energy that night, and it really makes a huge difference when you’re on stage. As a performer, I really tend to reciprocate the energy of the crowd, and so I just had an absolute blast. Also, being the only band based out of NYC that night, we really felt welcomed to their scene, and it was such an amazing show.
Elise: I will always remember our first benefit concert, Shark Show: A Shark Conservation Benefit Concert. After hearing that humans kill 100 million sharks every year, we knew we had to do something to spread awareness on this and help with the cause of banning the shark fin trade. We partnered up with Shark Research Institute, and several other bands and visual artists to create a full experience of live music, an art auction and a shark lecture involving those who work tirelessly to promote shark conservation. I remember how amazing it was to meet the Shark Research Institute in person, and how inspired they were that so many people from our generation had such a deep love for the ocean and its inhabitants. Together, as a team, we produced an amazing benefit show and raised $1,200 for the Shark Research Institute. It was so awesome to see how many of our followers wanted to support this important cause. We all came together and really made it happen.
