Ruth MacDonald grew up learning piano and dancing around her lounge room to Billy Idol, Queen and the Moody Blues until a chance meeting with a young Brendan Cann lead to her first foray into live music when Brendan asked if she’d be interested in trying her hand at some synths for his current band. That was over 6 years ago now and the talented duo (and couple) have worked together across various bands and musical incarnations ever since.
In January 2014, the couple decided to pack up and spend the next couple of years travelling. It was then Brendan Cann began to write …. and write … and write. Day’s became less about travelling and more filled with the young couple bouncing ideas off each other and some days simply not leaving their hotel room at all, fully emerged in a world of melody, lyrics and bass, writing literally all day. FOEMEN was born!
“You can’t visit Europe without seeing and feeling the incredible impact of the war…… We were so inspired by the devastating events that took place in the cities we visited such as Budapest, Krakow, Berlin and it poured from us furiously as we transferred our emotions into song structure.” – FOEMEN
With a fervor for song structure, Brendan Cann is calculated in his song writing and how each individual note and instrument are layered together to create a sound that in turn, creates a song. Combined with Ruth’s passion for writing dance inducing songs and musical influences ranging from David Bowie and New Order to Gessaffelstein, it is no wonder that Ruth brings the dance to Brendan’s rock and the band’s debut single should be bass driven, hooky QUEEN AND COUNTRY.
“We wrote the music over several months, but the song really came to form when we were visiting Prague in September 2014. That’s when the driving bass line was written – really giving the song some energy & its direction. After finishing the demo & giving it some time to sink in, we finally recorded it with the help & expertise of our producer Dave Hammer. Being the first song from the album we recorded, it naturally directed the sound for the album to follow & we are glad it did.” – FOEMEN