If there were ever a time to plan an existential crisis, this would be it. Halifax’s goblin-rock four-piece Fungus has returned with a reminder that time and tide wait for no one. While 2020 might have cleared your calendars for a bit, the ongoing march of time is inevitable, even if you’ve lost your ability to track the days of the week.
The song itself has just a touch of timelessness to it. Grounded in Ben Matthews’ bass guitar with a shuffle beat from drummer Collin Canning, “Time” has just enough twang to it that it blurs much of their influences into something you’d expect to hear coming from off-camera in a Robert Rodriguez film. It could very well set the scene for a town left behind from the modern world, and probably run by hostile backwoods vampires.
“‘Time’ was written from a place of stagnancy and blues, and is a reflection on the inevitability of change,” says Vivika Ballard, the band’s lyricist. “With COVID forcing us all to adapt, I think we’ve felt the passage of the last five months, perhaps, with a new sense of awareness. Sometimes that awareness was simply of the slow passage of days full of sad news and constant unknowns. This song shares a similar mood but I hope it leaves people sanguine. Change is the only constant sort of thing.”
Ballard notes that “Time” is the first song off to be released from Fungus’ upcoming EP, for which the group has been working with Halifax’s legendary Thomas Stajcer, and extended their line-up to include Vivika Ballard’s brother Jake on lead guitar.
“The project is a collection of original pickin’ songs I wrote – arranged for Fungus and are set to be released in the new year. My brother joined us on guitar and keys, mainly because Ben and I bullied him into the band,” laughs Ballard, “but also to experiment with another player.”
The band also celebrated the release of their new single with a livestream performance on Thursday night that featured local Halifax queer folk-punk duo Holy Crow.