Mark Zito started making music as Fractures the better part of a decade ago. The Melbourne musician and producer has since roamed freely between the worlds of indie, electronic, synth pop, alt-rock and piano folk.
Zito’s latest release, EP III, is his most pop-oriented work to date. EP III – named for no other reason than it’s his third EP – includes collaborations with Melbourne singer Montgomery and Chainsmokers collaborator Rozes. Though, Fractures‘ brand of electronic pop is world’s apart from the Chainsmokers.
The songs on EP III are intricately crafted and not inclined to immediately give everything away. The textures are springy and sun-dappled, but Zito deploys restraint even in the record’s most euphoric sequences.
Tone Deaf spoke to Zito about the history of EP III, his growing interest in collaboration, and his respect for Billie Eilish.
Tone Deaf: You’ve released one album – Still Here in 2017 – and a lengthy cache of singles in addition to the three EPs. Do you view EP III as a platform for the next phase of your work as Fractures?
Mark Zito: It’s a funny one because three out of five of these songs are at least 2-3 years old. There was never necessarily the right space or time to put them out or I had things that I preferred to be seen first, so they took precedence.
These ones were all sitting there in a nice little bundle and I was like, “maybe it’s time to chuck out a pretty straight-up pop release.” It could be indicative of what’s to come. Admittedly what I’ve got next is probably more along the electronic bent, even slightly towards dance.
Was there a turning point that made you want to release pop songs now?
I’ve always strived to show that I’m capable of dipping my toe into many waters as far as styles go and as far as my interests are concerned. So I’ve always had the desire to release whatever I want. Unfortunately the way the industry goes, it’s somewhat treacherous to just release things apropos of nothing and putting my pop songs out straight after an indie rock EP is a risk in itself.
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But ultimately they were just sitting there and I don’t think I had too much more developed that I was comfortable putting out yet.
Watch: Fractures – Chains (ft Rozes)
So despite the various impositions of the industry, it’s still really important to you that Fractures is seen as a multidimensional project?
It’s easier said than done … but that’s the intention. My thinking is, as long as my voice is there, that’s the binding element. I think people are probably pretty open to most things these days, but I’m not about to release a death metal album or anything like that. It’s all pretty palatable because that’s what I like to listen to.
Guest vocalists appear on the first two tracks – ‘Plateau’ features Montgomery and ‘Chains’ features Rozes. Will Luby co-wrote and produced the remaining three tracks. Is this level of collaboration a sign of things to come?
I’m making a concerted effort to write with more people. I’ve been a little bit content in my isolation. I like working on my own, I enjoy it, so that’s always going to be the main thing. But there’s definitely lots of positives that come [from collaboration]. It pushes me in a different direction.
Listen: Fractures – Plateau (ft. Montgomery)
How did you connect with Montgomery and Rozes? Montgomery is Melbourne based musician Phoebe Parkinson. What’s the connection there?
There’s very little romance to both of those stories. It’s just management email shenanigans basically. The difference between the Rozes one and Montgomery was that Montgomery’s in Melbourne so I actually got to meet her, which changes things significantly.
Phoebe came ’round one day. I had the skeleton of a song and we fleshed it out. Within a day we pretty much had what is released.
And this was a couple of years ago?
‘Plateau’ was created a year and a half or two years ago whereas ‘Chains’ with Rozes I wrote about five years ago. It didn’t exist as a collaboration originally – it was just me singing solo and then the suggestion was made that this could work as a duet and then the management and the label went to work and found someone.
You integrate more pop influences on this release than anything you’ve done previously. How much are your views on what you want to be doing with Fractures guided by where your taste is at?
It’s hard to say because I don’t listen to a great deal of music, ever. It’s hard to know where my tastes lie at a particular time, but on the occasion that I do listen to something it’s always a springboard. The stuff that comes out after this EP is a lot more electronic and that was just after a trip away with people where they were playing pretty much exclusively electronic music.
More than anything, the previous release is a certain style and I go, “well I don’t want to do that again.”
You released a cover of Billie Eilish’s ‘everything i wanted’ a month prior to EP III. You described the song as a modern classic. Tell me about your affection for the song.
I just heard it and it was just a really lovely song. I thought “I can do something with this,” so I sat down and went for it. That was one where I had inspiration from another song – a Jeremy Zucker song spurred on the style and then I did my own thing.
Listen: Fractures – everything i wanted
Billie Eilish has incredible boundary-crossing appeal – she’s renowned among mainstream audiences, industry establishment, indie music fans and rock boffins like Jack White and Johnny Marr. But for how successful she is, she doesn’t seem driven by ulterior motives.
It seems all very genuine, like it hasn’t had too many hands in it, which is always nice. There’s not ten writers on the bill. It’s her and her brother and that’s it. It’s appealing. I like her whole set-up.
Are you confident you’ll be continuing as Fractures for a long while to come?
It’s hard to know what Fractures is. If it was just my name, I’d go and do a side project as an outlet. But I’m already using a pseudonym so why would I go and do it again? I’d like to [keep it going], but we’ll see. I’m already mixing the next batch of songs so that decision has to be made pretty shortly.
EP III by Fractures is available now via FADER Label/Caroline Australia.
