Mirror Image: In Conversation with FACS’ Brian Case

On Integration, the opening track from Disappears’ 2015 release, Irreal, Brian Case forecasts that “Anything can happen”. Whether through the lens of Disappears or the equally venerable 90 Day Men, the now FACS leader has always possessed an unnerving talent for the truth.

It continues on FACS’ latest dispatch, Wish Defense. Inspired by duality, a subject the likes of David Lynch explored to generation-defining effect, it’s no coincide that the worlds of FACS and the late filmmaker are closely aligned. (The former, a perfect foil for a Friday night in Twin Peaks’ go to bar/live venue, the Roadhouse.) Last month, just 10 minutes after speaking with Case over Zoom, the news filtered through of Lynch’s death at the age of 78.

It’s not the only death that surrounds FACS’ sixth release. Wish Defense, the final record that Steve Albini recorded before his shock passing last year at age 61, and it’s these distressing circumstances that add further emotional weight to FACS’ latest dispatch.

Like constellations of neglect, Wish Defense sees FACS at their deeply haunting best. Exposing the same truths as Disappears did on Integration, Case’s ominous, abstract storytelling throughout Wish Defense sees the band holding up a mirror to the world’s ills. And who better to frame the dread than the best post-punk band on earth?

It may be an outlandish statement, but during this decade the Chicago three-piece have delivered the kind of bruising hellscapes that back up such lofty claims. Preceding Wish Defense, the Trouble In Mind three-pronged assault of Void Moments (2020), Present Tense (2021) and Still Life In Decay (2023), as good as any run from any band in recent times.

And there’s not let up on Wish Defense, as FACS excavate all the way down to the soul’s dark recesses. Case and drummer, Noah Leger, joined by original guitarist, Jonathan Van Herik, who moves onto bass following Alianna Kalaba’s departure shortly after the recording of Still Life In Decay. It’s this latest iteration of FACS that zeroes in on the tension and doubt of these times. On the creeping opener, Talking Haunted, Case is at his stark and acerbic best (“Love is absolute / History you can’t refuse” and “No feeling is final”).

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FACS’ exploration of duality runs deeper than most. There’s our communication with each other as humans, seemingly eroded by technology, as the line between fact and fiction has become blurred (“I wish I said your name / As a curse / As a revolt against desire” – Ordinary Voices). On the glistening blade that is the title track, Case asks the burning question that forms the thread that runs all the way through Wish Defense: “Are you real?”

It continues on A Room. Underpinned by Ledger’s thunderous percussion and Van Herik’s searching bass lines, Case exposes a mass culture tangled up in its own vanity (“Clueless from privilege / Wasted and content”). You Future follows a similar trajectory. The proof in the title itself, and held together by a melodic, medieval riff, Case probes with more questions (“Are you the same as you were? Erratic, sentimental”).

Sonically, FACS make their greatest leap on Wish Defense. The ghoulish punk-gaze of Desire Path, something that sinks deeper into the bones with each listen, while you’ll be hard pressed to hear a better song all year than Sometimes Only. A menacing swarm of disturbing possibilities (“In what shape is the hate / I feel nothing when you do”), it’s FACS at their blistering, absorbing best.

Parts glacial and galactic, FACS are the architects of a world seemingly built of glass. And on Wish Defense they find just how fragile that world is, delivering something peerless and certifiably designed to combat these times.

Talking to Case at this point is more like a “checking in” exercise than anything else, for FACS have been a central figure around these parts for years now. This time around, we discuss many things, including the band’s steady rise since Void Moments, the state of the world, and the key inspirations behind the latest chapter in the FACS story, Wish Defense.

Sun 13: On Wish Defense, the theme of duality is an interesting one, because it has so many nuances and interpretations. Was this one of the main reasons that appealed to you?

Brian Case: “Yeah, I never really picked anything to start writing with – I just start and see what happens. Musically, we’re writing everything together, but lyric wise, I’m the one who’s coming up with most of the stuff… I just start writing and then connect things. It’s all random phrases and thoughts, and I let it go where it goes.

“I realised that I was writing a lot about seeing yourself in a different way, and I just decided to explore that. I read this book called Doppelganger by Naomi Klein, where she is this political person and social commentary lady. There was a woman named Naomi Wolf who was kind of her opposite, and they kept getting mixed up, so she wrote about how they kept getting confused for each other. I was really fascinated with that idea about the perception of you. Through your online presence… people who think they know who you are, or they start confusing you for someone else. I like that idea.”

S13: It makes me think of behavioural patterns, and how some people operate on a surface level with others without really revealing their true self. Do you see FACS as a portal where you can convey your true self?

BC: “Yeah, I think it’s always been a way to express different things that I think about; or, like, how do you talk about art or music without having a conversation? I feel like the band channels that and lets us express ourselves without having a conversation, per se. There are so many ways you can have a conversation, and I think a live performance is one of those. But the band has always been an outlet for these ideas that we have and these ways that we want to communicate, or ways that we want to be perceived, so I do think that.”

S13: Going back to online presence, and I noticed that FACS don’t tap into it as much as you once did. Was that a conscious decision or, like a lot of people, did you just become frustrated by the levels of toxicity of somewhere like Twitter/X?

BC: “Twitter, especially, just turned into something that I wasn’t interested in, which I hated because I really liked it. I was finding articles [and] reading things. I’m much more into reading about something than looking at pictures on Instagram. Elon Musk is just a horrible person, and I didn’t want to support it. Mark Zuckerberg isn’t any better (laughs), but I just couldn’t do it anymore. [On] Instagram, there seems to be more response there, and I’d rather just do one thing than 10 things. Even the one is becoming such a pain. (laughs) We’re all in this position now where it’s like, ‘What else are you going to do?’ Very few websites exist anymore. People don’t review records like they used to. It’s all about social media, so nobody knows what you’re doing. It’s really unfortunate.”

S13: Talking about the body double aspect, and it feels there’s a similar sentiment to the final track from Present Tense, Mirrored. Did you see that as a through line to the themes that underpin Wish Defense?

BC: “A little bit, for sure. I have this weird obsession with mirrors. (laughs) Just the idea of them than the actual thing… looking at yourself or thinking about what you see. You walk through the world every day and everyone sees you, but you never see yourself. So when you look at yourself, what do you see or what do you think? That was also another thing about this record. Who are you to yourself? The way you present yourself, the way you’re perceived, and where do those two meet?”

S13: How long did it take to write Wish Defense before you started recording?

BC: “We started writing about a year before we recorded. We usually take a lot less time, but Alianna had left the band and Jonathan rejoined, so we were learning songs together. We had shows coming up, so we wanted to make sure we had something new so that Jonathan could feel like he wasn’t just playing in a cover band. (laughs) We started writing and came up with the first two songs, which were Ordinary Voices, and a song that we released as a single, North America Endless. They felt different and new, and that was inspiring to launch into… trying to make ourselves more uncomfortable and try some things that felt a little outside of the box.”

S13: Talking about Ordinary Voices, and it has the same idea that permeates throughout the whole record, which got me thinking: do you see this as a concept album?

BC: “I see it as conceptual, but maybe not a concept. I try to have a theme for everything, because it just helps me finish and stay focused.”

S13: FACS’ music is so filmic. I’ve never really thought about it that way, but it’s pretty obvious. (Strawberry Cough for instance).Are films a vital part of the band’s make-up?

BC: “Yeah, we’re always talking about movies together and saying random lines from our childhood that we all know instantly. All of us watch a lot of movies and talk about it. At the end of the night, the first thing we do is turn the TV on and try to find a movie to watch.”

S13: The circumstances around the record are harrowing with it being the final record Steve Albini worked on. With Sanford Parker stepping in during such a turbulent time, did that give you any degree of comfort knowing that he is such a familiar voice to FACS?

BC: “Yeah, it was. We started recording on a Monday. On Tuesday night, we left at seven o’clock, and Steve was like, ‘Alright, see you tomorrow’, and then he died a few hours later. When I woke up Wednesday, I had a text from someone at the studio to call them. I thought, ‘This doesn’t sound good’. They said that Steve had died the night before. Like everyone, we were in shock, and really didn’t know what to do. We didn’t even talk about the record.

“Everything was set up, all the mics, the tape was on the machine, we were coming back hours later to begin again. Someone from the studio called and [asked], ‘Where are you with this record?’ We were about to finish tracking a few things and then start mixing. They said, ‘Do you want to come back tomorrow?’ This was Wednesday night, so we agreed for Thursday and called Sanford. He was a friend of Steve’s and had worked at Electrical [Audio] all the time and is obviously very close with us. He dropped what he had to do and came and helped us wrap up the last few things, which were some overdubs and vocals. We were there for half a day. It was bizarre.”

S13: That must have felt very strange…

BC: “We cancelled the last day we had, which would have been the Friday. Our friend John Congleton, who we’ve worked with a million times, called and said, ‘Tell me what you need. I’ll come and help you’. He came a month later when we mixed it. It was important to us that we had those two people, who were close with Steve and who we work close with, to help us finish the record. I think it made it easier for us to wrap our heads around the whole situation. It was just such so crazy… so weird, and so many feelings about this guy who spent his last couple days with us. I thought, ‘He should have been with his wife or his friends’, you know? It was hard to get your head around that scenario.”

S13: When we spoke last time about how COVID has fractured friendship groups and scenes, do you think the loss of Steve has brought the Chicago music community closer together?

BC: “For sure. I think it’s definitely made a lot of people realise what’s special here, and he was a big part of that. Being such an encouraging presence, even if you weren’t in his orbit, I think his ethos was extremely Midwestern and Chicago. His death really pushed a lot of people to talk about that again, and to recognise it in a way that… it’s easy to take those things for granted or just assume that you’re an island or you operate on your own. You forget that there are 1,000 tiny pieces spinning that keep everything moving and keep you connected. Like the death of anyone that you know, you reassess and think about the people you’re connected with and how you know each other. It’s unfortunate that it usually takes a death to realise those things, but I guess that’s just part of it.”

S13: With Jonathan’s involvement again, sonically I think this is the biggest jump for FACS so far. Was that intentional or did it just shake out that way?

BC: “We’re always hoping to go somewhere different [and] new. Sometimes it’s really subtle… I think over the course of the last few records it’s been slowly moving into this direction. Jonathan is a completely different player than Alianna. She’s so rhythm focused, and Jonathan has this great, expressive, interesting way with melodies, and has a really good ear. It was cool to have him come in on bass, which is something he’s not that familiar with. I always like having obstacles or limitations, and I thought that was fun with him… to put him in a position where he knows what to do, but it’s an unfamiliar register. He’s a different player, and I think it totally shows in the way that these songs came together. There’s just such a different melodic element there. Whereas before it was much more about really cyclical looping, groove-based things.”

S13: If I were to choose a quintessential FACS song for somebody who was unfamiliar with your work, it’d have to be Sometimes Only. It pretty much has everything…

BC: “That’s my favourite one. It shows everything that we do smashed into one song. I think that was the third song that we wrote. Again, [it was] accidental. We were in the space of trying to come up with something, and I was messing with my pedals and found this weird, pitched guitar part. It all came together quickly after that. I love that song. Wish Defense was written right around that time, too, so we started to get this trajectory for where things were heading and what this record could be.

“It’s always an interesting point for me when there are four songs written. For us that’s usually about half a record – we try to just make 30 minutes of music as often as we can – and at that point, you know what you’ve got and have this ability to think about what the record needs that we haven’t already done in the songs that we have. It was cool to come to Sometimes Only and think, ‘This is an apex in the record, we have to come down from this point’.”

S13: A Room is one where Noah’s drumming is key. Did his motorcycle accident have a big impact on the band’s schedule?

BC: “It did. We had a bunch of shows we were going play that we had to cancel. But it was interesting because Alianna had left at that point, and we had recorded Still Life [In Decay], but it wasn’t out yet. In the meantime, we had these shows we’d already set up. It was funny because Asher, [Case’s son] was going play bass for those shows. We had rehearsed four or five times, and it was sounding really cool. Then Noah got in the accident and we had to cancel all the shows. That’s when Jonathan came back in the picture, and of course, Asher got busy doing Lifeguard stuff, so we never got to play those shows. It was never going to be a permanent thing, but it was a funny little moment in the band. It slowed us down a little bit, but ultimately, I think it was like a good reset.”

S13: Talking in the past about your process and your ideas about marrying things up. Were titles like Desire Path and even Wish Defense informed by that method?

BC: “Wish defense just popped in my head. It was more like the idea of how you keep going or how do you keep your focus on something when everything around you is trying to pull you off it? Desire path is just this thing I’ve been obsessed with forever. (laughs) You know if you see a sidewalk but the grass path between it is all worn down? That’s a desire path. It’s something that makes sense and is supposed to better… everybody knows it. There are people who spend their entire lives designing and building things, and then there’s the everyday person who can see a different way that makes more sense. I like that idea.”

S13: It’s funny that you’re talking about design, because I’ve always associated with FACS and also Luggage in an architectural, sound-design-in-rock-music type of way, if that makes sense?

BC: “Yeah, exactly. I love it. We definitely look at the songs like building, especially because of the foundation of Jonathan and Noah. I just try to stay out of their way or build on top of what they have. I try to keep things a little more abstract and open, and they’re the ones that I think are pushing the music forward. So in terms of how we talk about music, a lot of it is about building and structure and how to keep open space inside of something that’s solid.”

S13: The lyric during You Future, “Eyes the size of an American mile” is great. How did that come about?

BC: “I actually didn’t write it!” (laughs) In the [album sleeve notes], it’s attributed to David Keenan. He used to write for The Wire, and now he writes fiction. He’s one of my favourite contemporary authors who wrote a great book called, This Is Memorial Device. It’s all about his childhood, growing up in Scotland. I feel like it’s imagined and some of it’s real, but he talks about this punk scene and all these bands, and these characters involved in it. He wrote For the Good Times – it’s all about the troubles. I have one of his books I’ve started a few times but haven’t read called Monument Maker, and it’s supposed to be the magnum opus.

“He comes from a similar world of writing about music and wrote England’s Hidden Reverse. It’s all about Coil, Nurse With Wound and Whitehouse. It’s this cool book about these bands and this tiny scene and how they continue to spiral outside of each other. I think I read that line in one of his books, but I’m not sure, so I just attributed it to him. (laughs) It jumped out at me straight away. I think about it a lot, too, because in the U.K. you’re using miles when you’re driving, but it’s not the American mile.”

S13: How does it feel in American today compared to back in November after the election result?

BC: “I feel like we’re on the cusp of something, and I don’t really know what it is. There’s been so much talk about what’s going to happen on the first day or in the first month, and I have no idea if any of it is true or what’s actually going to happen. It just feels like chaos, and it feels intentional… the idea to have no foundation so that everything seems crazy, then nothing seems like it shouldn’t be happening, you know I mean?”

S13: Normalised chaos.

BC: “Yeah, it’s intentional. I feel like we’ve been living like that for a while, so I’m curious if it’s going to feel as intense as I think it is, or if it’s just going to feel like we’re continuing the way we have been.”

S13: Wish Defense feels like a record for these times. I do think that FACS taps into a political element. I’m not sure if that’s a subconscious thing or intentional?

BC: “I think it’s hard not to. We’re just so influenced by our daily lives that making music is a political act at this point. Just waking up and trying to be conscious of other people is a political act. That’s insane to me, but it’s the way it is. I mean, everything has become politicised in some way, even just trying not to be a piece of shit, you know?”

S13: Since Void Moments, from the outside at least, it seems like the band has gained a lot of momentum. Does it feel that way to you?

BC: “Yeah, it feels like things are getting a little easier. We know we can go somewhere and play, and people will show up. For a while it wasn’t like that. I try not to focus on that stuff, because no matter where you are, there’s always someone in front of you and someone behind you. I try to just keep in mind that we’re doing our thing, and we’re moving in the direction that we want, and we’re still lucky enough to be in a position to do what we want. Are we creatively happy? Are we making enough money to continue to do cool stuff? Are we having to sacrifice something that doesn’t feel like we should? [We] look at it more artistically than career wise. I’ve been in so many bands and one day you wake up and it’s just over, you know? I think you have to live in that moment where you’re making sure that you’re happy with the people around you and that you’re doing what you want. Because none of it is going to last.”

Wish Defense is out Friday via Trouble In Mind Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.