Feb 07, 2023
By Mark Redfern
Faith Vern of the Manchester, England punk trio PINS has launched a new solo project, The Faux Faux, and shared its debut single, “Cold Hearted Woman,” via a music video. It’s the first single from the newly relaunched Drowned in Sound Singles Club. Sean Cheung directed the video. Watch it below.
Drowned in Sound was the great British indie music site that was launched in 1998, but ceased posting new content in 2019. Founder Sean Adams is bringing back the brand with a new podcast and a relaunch of the Drowned in Sound Singles Club.
“We’ve always championed Faith’s work in the ultimate punk gang PINS” says Adams in a press release. “We got talking a couple of years ago, when she sang with Iggy Pop at the BBC’s legendary Maida Vale studios and kept in touch.
“When I murmured that I was thinking of bringing back the label, Faith mentioned a solo project… and as I absolutely adored what she sent over, here we are, restarting the singles club that previously kicked off the careers of Kaiser Chiefs, Bat for Lashes, Martha Wainwright, and more. This is track one from what will be a slowly released 10-track compilation of new artists I love, with a new track arriving each month.”
Vern had this to say about the song: “I’ve always been intrigued by Cindy Sherman, Sylvia Plath, Gregory Crewdson, Virginia Woolf, Nan Goldin to name a few, these writers, poets, photographers, artists, who have shown us the beauty and the desperation in the mundane.
“After the birth of my first child I needed more space which meant moving from my one bedroom flat in Prestwich to a ‘proper’ house. Somehow my husband and I convinced ourselves that we should head to the country, little did we know that lockdown was lurking… I was writing about being somewhere and feeling trapped, anxiety and coping mechanisms.
“The chorus ‘I’m a Cold Hearted Woman’ is of course tongue-in-cheek, it’s almost like once everything, all your personality, freedom, joy, is forced out of you, you just sorta go ‘Ok fuck it, you think I’m cold, well yes, here it is…’”
Vern adds about the video: “The music video is our take on an all American road trip if it were in the north of England. Using a place that has often felt like purgatory as a visual representation of ‘Cold Hearted Woman’ felt very apt, for me the video is beauty and torture.”
Jamie Hall (Tigercub & Nancy) and Paul Rawson produced “Cold Hearted Woman.” The song features Buzzcocks’ drummer Danny Farrant. The backing vocals are sung by Victoria Thomas (See Thru Hands), Sam Seth (The Indie Choir), and Caroline Sheehan (The 1234’s).
PINS’ last album, Hot Slick, came out in 2020 via the band’s own Haus of Pins label.