Premiere: FRED – “Giving It Up”

Today we’re happy to premiere the new single, “Giving It Up”, from the Seattle-based non-binary indie pop artist FRED. “Giving It Up” is a bright and sunny feel good summertime bop inspired by past summers spent spinning poolside records by artists like Daft Punk and Toro Y Moi, with lyrics about trying your best but still coming up short. It’s the second single to come from FRED, who is set to release their debut EP Creature via Mother West Records later this year.

FRED is a solo project started by keyboardist Gabriel Molinaro, who spent two years on the road with Seattle alt-psych band Motopony and has played with several other projects including Moon Palace, Tenderfoot, and Timothy Robert Graham. The name FRED references Molinaro’s grandmother, Winifred, who they describe as a “sharp-witted and elegant woman who smoked cigarettes and read Sufi poets.”

Molinaro wrote the songs on the Creature EP while grieving the death of their mother, who died in 2019 after a three-year battle with cancer. The EP was guided by Molinaro’s desire to connect with and understand the women in their family, which ultimately led them towards a deeper understanding of themselves.

“I thought this collection of songs would be all about grief,” Molinaro explains, “but it surprised me by becoming so much more than that.” In the year following the death of their mother, Molinaro also came out as non-binary. “I realized I’m trying to understand the women in my family because I’m trying to understand myself.”

The Creature EP was recorded by Molinaro themselves along with longtime producer and collaborator Timothy Robert Graham, and mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis (Dua Lipa, Christine and the Queens, James Blake). The lead single “I’m Not Better” was released on May 26th.

Listen to “Giving It Up” by FRED below.