The greatest thing about all of the FWIS remixes is that all of my friends brought their own idiosyncratic styles to their respective remixes. Hessed brought his flavor of lo-fi hip hop; Connor brought his experimental and adventurous bent; russy brought his indie rock and slowcore sensibilities. Alongside all of these homies, I knew it was essential that I also approach my longtime friend Brendan Principato, who makes incredible music under the name Saapato, to close out the remix series.

I first met Brendan way back in 2017 when I first started at the company at which Brendan, too, was working at the time. I was but an intern and Brendan was a relatively new hire at the warehouse. During those early days we would work together in the warehouse packing and shrink wrapping books, where we fast-bonded over our mutual love of Tame Impala bass tone, as well as urgently rectifying my egregiously erroneous packing of damaged goods… 😅

But my clumsy intern-ness aside, I distinctly remember Brendan having this creative drive which has stuck with me to this day… While shrink wrapping books, noxious fumes abound, Brendan was telling me about how he and his band, Boon, were releasing their new album in a few days, and how he had taken care of everything from distro, press, shows, etc. As someone, who at that time, had only really released music on Soundcloud and Bandcamp with no strategy behind it, I was in awe of Brendan’s ambition and diligence to his musical output… The dude was out here hustling, doing all that he could to give his band’s release the best chance it had, label-or-not be damned. There was a true commitment there to do right by his art, even in self-releasing, which was so inspiring, and has had such a huge impact on me in all of my ensuing creative endeavors.

All of this was only eclipsed by the actual quality of Brendan’s music, which, upon checking it out, blew me away… As I mentioned, with his friends, Brendan co-fronts the band, Boon, and makes incredible ambient-fused indie pop, from the frenetic Dan Deacon style of their album All of Us Laughing, to the more Sun Tongs inspired Mornings. Meanwhile, as a solo artist, Saapato, Brendan makes poignant and deep ambient music, ranging from the spiritual drones of Bird Song, to the dreamy musique concrete of Becomes Clear. That’s all not to mention his side project, Tanklow, which hands down released my number one alb of the year…

Though this remix trickled in a little later than the others, it makes it no less special. With his remix of “Help Me Understand,” Brendan took the song to a brand new space, turning it from a garage-y and washed out shoegaze song with a slightly out-of-tune guitar into a truly expansive and meditative work a la Emily Sprague or William Basinski. Individual components are sampled, stretched, and twisted, creating a soundbath for the listener that is both spiritual and meditative, and at the same time emotional and cathartic… Call me a softy, but I can’t help but tearing up when I hear it. I couldn’t ask for a better way to close out this remix series 😭

Such an honor to work with Brendan on this, and such an honor to call him my friend <3 I’m starting to ramble into full sentimentality here, but I am so grateful to have small community of creative and supportive friends who continue to inspire me. Much love to Brendan, and another huge thank you to all the homies who contributed remixes. And to whomever listened to all the remixes and read through my pontifications insightful-or-not, a huge thank you to you, too 💜