False Tracks returns with their latest album When Fortune Feeds, a record steeped in tension, dark humor, and driving post-punk energy. The album explores the chaos and contradictions of modern life, where fortune and fate collide and protagonists navigate a world teetering on the edge. From the hypnotic opener “Scattered Conversation” to atmospheric guitars, inventive instrumentation, and the ambient sounds of the city that seeped into the recordings, the album balances kinetic energy with moody textures. Recorded in Dan Angel’s industrial loft studio, the process was as collaborative and experimental as the music itself, allowing the band to capture spontaneity and raw emotion.

By Sandra Pinto

In this interview, Greg Pavlovcak talks about the album’s themes, the creative process, the interplay of humor and melancholy in the lyrics, and how community engagement shapes the band’s identity, offering an intimate look at the making of When Fortune Feeds.

What inspired the title “When Fortune Feeds” and how does it reflect the themes of the album?
The lyric from the album track that inspired the album title is “The suffering is thunder when fortune feeds.” It’s a recurring theme through history, but certainly now, that a relatively small number of very fortunate people are turning the screws. But also, Fortune, in a mythical sense, is blind and she brings good or bad outcomes without consideration. We embrace the ambiguity. But the turmoil of outcomes brought on by unhindered gluttony/lust, alien fate, and visceral superstitions run through all the songs.  There is an overall sense of dread throughout the album that something, somewhere, some part of us has crossed a line, some point of no return. The protagonists of the songs are feeling their way through this mess, and sometimes they can’t find their way back.  We mostly push along with them right through to the other side, to whatever chaos awaits and face it with a stubborn humor and a driving rhythm.

The opening single “Scattered Conversation” introduces the album. What can listeners expect from this track and the record as a whole?
We thought “Scattered Conversation” is a proper stylistic summary of what was happening on this album. Thematically, it is inescapable anxiety embodied in an underground entity that solicits, hypnotizes, and consumes. Structurally it is bristling and translucent guitars that climb the compact architecture of the bass and drums and await their moment to launch themselves outward. The video for the song is homemade and spontaneous. It’s a loosely structured tale of a few disillusioned zombies that discover music. There is a jealous but mischievous god made of cardboard that tries to instill its will. But the zombies power through, and eventually they all jam out together.

How does this new album build on or differ from your debut full-length Hymn for Terror?
Some of the dystopian situations facing the protagonists of the songs on the Hymn for Terror have come to pass. The beings in When Fortune Feeds are now forced to come to grips with this harsh and expanding unreality. Structurally, time constraints left us focusing on an economy of sound for this album. We made choices early and structured the songs around an efficient spine of percussion and rhythm and built the guitar and other melodies around, making everything count.

The band mentions confronting the instability of modern life in this record. How did you translate these ideas into post-punk and alternative rock sounds?
I’m not sure if the translation is conscious. The sound, the rhythm, and the atmosphere are just the byproducts of our abilities and tastes. The four of us share many musical interests which probably intersect quite a bit within the post-punk arena, but I don’t think we consciously chose that sound. I’ll often write a few pages of lyrics without a focus and cut and paste phrases until the collage becomes a story. The themes and sound are revealed in the process. Kinetic and moody textures also just happen to lay out a nice setting for these absurdist mini fictions.

You’ve previously said the “first thought is the best thought” guides your songwriting. How did that philosophy shape the songs on this album?
It’s more of a spontaneous mind philosophy, in the Ginsberg-ian/Shambhala sense. Sometimes songs are named before the lyrics are written and those random utterings inadvertently guide the theme. Our personal demos are full of the wonderful accidents that occur in home recording. And then some songs are built on improvised melodies in the practice space. It’s not a mandate, but we try to maintain the original energy in those first thoughts and inscribe them in the songs. There are a few pockets sprinkled through the songs that leave a little room for instinctive interpretation when we play live and that helps keep that first-thought energy fresh.

The songs reflect endurance, unease, and dry wit. Can you talk about how humor and melancholy coexist in your lyrics?
I mean, that juxtaposition is just life. We see it every day when humor is used as a coping mechanism when it hits the fan.  Humor gives us a chance to step back and reflect on a poignant situation without falling completely into despair. And humans are complicated and contradictory. I’ve probably already contradicted myself a few times above, and will again below.

How did working with producer Dan Angel and recording in his industrial studio influence the sound of the album?
Dan’s loft studio is basically the back half of an old warehouse. One must slowly feel their way through dark rooms piled with fabric and mounds of melting bubblegum monsters made of congealed foam or some sort of papier-mâché. It’s like wandering through a disassembled outsider art parade float, which in many ways mirrors the themes of these songs. Once through the doorway, the studio is like a gigantic bohemian garret. On the inside you are temporarily sheltered from monsters and safe to express yourself. And as a musician and a producer, Dan has a tight collection of instruments, vintage mics, and other toys. You just pick something up wondering “what does this do?” And he’s already there putting a mic (or 5 mics) in front of you. Dan encouraged our musical experiments and was a willing participant.  He is also quite possibly a virtuoso rhythmatist with a tambourine or a shaker. That open environment and willing collaboration inevitably shaped the sound.

You’ve highlighted unique elements like a foot-pump reed organ and ambient sounds of Germantown. How important is environment in capturing the mood of your music?
The high ceilings of the loft allow sound to really move around the room. The space lends itself to the atmospheric room sounds that are the settings for these songs.  With the studio being a building in a city, the sounds of the city are there too. The song Last Wave has sirens that happened to make their way into the choruses. We left those happy accidents alone as it lends humanity to the project.  It is a project of these people, in this city, in that space, at that moment. It’s songs we’ve played a hundred times, but they only sounded like this at that moment.

You’ve toured extensively along the East Coast. How do live performances influence the way you write and record songs?Our demos often have unrealistically layered vocals and guitar parts. Speaking for myself, I just stopped thinking about how we might perform something live and tried to get the right impression of the song on tape. We seem to be able to get there by other means even if we can’t recreate 5 vocal parts or 6 guitar tracks.

Proceeds from the album benefit Vamos Juntos. How does social engagement and community activism influence the band’s identity and music?
This kinda relates back to the album title. There’s a whole lot of people across the world who are suffering when fortune feeds. It’s one of the reasons we align ourselves with the Strange Mono label. Strange Mono is a benefit record label and all the proceeds from their tapes, vinyl, and 100% of downloads, go directly to the artists’ choice of charity. Look, the four of us have been making music at this DIY level for a long time, and we are not kidding ourselves that this is gonna be a big pay day for the charity we are supporting. But if we can bring a few folks’ attention to a charity that is helping those that need it most, then that’s great.  If you can link to Juntos here, we’d certainly appreciate it.

Are there plans for tours or special performances to promote When Fortune Feeds?
We have a special performance coming up here in Philly with our old friends The Ladybug Transistor, December 9. We will play mainly here in Philly and the surrounding cities as much as we can over the next few months. When schedules allow, we’ll get to the drive-able East Coast cities. We will continue to indiscriminately send our signal out in ever widening circles and listen attentively for the echo. Thank you for listening.