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With a voice straight out of the jazz age, Savoir Faire brings the millennial existential crisis into a world of retro-noir: reproductive rights, the working class, climate change- as the title track of her 2022 EP, Think Twice, states: "This is not a feel good song."
Having studied jazz guitar in college, Savoir Faire soon discovered the duets of Joe Pass and Ella Fitzgerald, shaping her approach to both harmonic and melodic lines on guitar and voice. She spent years performing as a lounge singer and guitar player before adding the last few ingredients that would form the aesthetic of Savoir Faire: the influence of dramatic 60s noir and 90s alternative rock. With lush and syrupy vocals, biting lyricism, and searing guitar parts that hint at her Persian heritage, Savoir Faire invites listeners into a world of wistful nostalgia and modern rage. It's a cocktail of genres for those suffering from a case of modern reality. It's Savoir Faire.
You won’t hear any love songs in Savoir Faire’s corner of the cocktail lounge. The Boston artist prefers to seduce her listeners’ minds, serving them new perspectives atop melodies smooth as a whiskey sour. Interweaving dramatic 60s noir, pointed 90s rock, classic elements of jazz, Fard’s guitar-driven music envelops listeners in nostalgia, taking a sonic step backwards to push society forwards. Her razor-sharp lyricism cuts to the insidious core of issues like misogynistic language, America’s aching and under-appreciated workforce, and reproductive rights. Delivered with her syrupy vocals, Fard’s messages will entice your attention, time and time again — right before they demand a better future.
"When I started writing my own music, I was coming out of a phase of exclusively performing vintage jazz standards,” Fard explains. “There is both comfort and sadness in those songs. Over time, sadness evolved to anger, and I found myself looking to balance nostalgic comfort with the very real discomfort of today's issues. I was inspired to write by artists who don't hold back."
Many artists issue similar rallying cries, but few package their calls to action with such acute elegance. Like a well-worn scrapbook, Fard’s decadent musicianship layers snapshots of her own musical evolution:Middle Eastern scales and melismas informed by her Persian heritage, vocal tones and chord progressions culled from nights performing jazz standards, and the pluck of trailblazing women songwriters who defined 1990s popular music. Her identity as guitarist first and a vocalist second makes room for a generation of women instrumentalists she didn’t see as a girl studying electric guitar, a prime example of Fard’s artistry honoring the past while simultaneously reckoning with it.
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The distinct flair of Savoir Faire peaks on Fard's new record Hopeless Nostalgic, a cinematic swirl of genres and eras crafted with producer Dave Brophy. Due out in 2024, Fard’s debut studio album speaks eloquently and unabashedly in the face of inequality. In a phrase, it’s classic Savoir Faire.
-Victoria Wasylak
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