Fizz

> 'In the Fizz lore, it's a bit misty how it started...' - Gret
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Fizz is a band made up of Dodie Clark, Greta Isaac, Martin Luke Brown, and Orla Gartland. They first formed in June 2021 and began to release music, two years later, in June 2023.

Dodie, Martin and Gret all share a flat (and a cat, Mrs) together and Orla only lives around the corner from them, so they practically live in each others' pockets. Martin and Gret are also dating.

Fizz's process for writing music is different to how they approach their own individual projects. They all write together in a collaborative way and are willing to embrace anything fun or whimsical or maximalist that they might normally discount when working on their own solo projects. If anything feels good or elicits joy, it should go in the song.

Although they have started the band, all four members intend on returning to their solo projects too. Orla in fact released her single *kiss ur face forever* during the promotion cycle for The Secret To Life.

The name Fizz was chosen as it didn't sound like the name of a band. However this wasn't the first initial choice for the band's name and there was much debate about what the name of the band should be. For a while *Chairs* was going to be the official name (as hinted at by the four chairs on the cover of The Secret To Life), however Orla vetoed the name as she didn't like it and didn't feel it matched the extravagantness of the band. Before then settling on Fizz, the band was very close to being called *Drew Bandymore.* Another potential option was *My First Band™*.

## Forming the band

   The journey to becoming a band began when the four members played together for the first at Middle Farm, recording live sessions for Orla's debut album Woman on the Internet in 2021. Following this, Martin and dodie each claim that they were the ones to engineer the formation of the band, whilst Greta is of the opinion that it was their producer Pete Miles.

Martin says that he had asked the question of starting a band multiple times but wasn't taken seriously. Whilst visiting Middle Farm, he then spoke to Pete and asked him to be the 'architect' of getting the four of them together. At this point, all were in favour of it happening. On 21 June 2021, Dodie then sent a text on behalf of herself, Gret and Martin to Orla asking if she would like to be a part of it. Orla replied "100% yes."

Following that, a Whatsapp Group was formed and the rest, as they say, is history.

## Recording The Secret to Life

The group first went down to Middle Farm to begin working on music in December 2021. At this point the band was still nameless and there was no real intention of releasing any music they made. Rather it was an exercise in following creative intuition. Whilst each member had their own expectations as to what their music should sound like, with this new project, there was no expectation in the same way and it could become anything. For Martin, he especially wanted from a band, the opposite of what he already had in his own project. At this session in December 2021, the first half of the album, The Secret To Life was recorded.

Then in July 2022, the four returned to Middle Farm to record the second half of the album. Whilst they were still hadn't discussed whether they would release the music, they were loving what they were making and were hopeful that they would return to Middle Farm every year for a carefree music making session. (They did in fact return again in August 2023 to do some additional recordings for projects related to *The Secret to Life* and a general carefree writing session).

Whilst recording the album, Martin says he did shower every day, but was afraid to in case he missed something that was going on because they were always coming up with new ideas.

## Soft Launch

FIZZ secretly emerged into the world in May 2023. Posters for the band began to emerge around Brighton with the tag line: "The Music Industry may have left us weathered and cynical, but not quite enough to stop us from starting a band," and "A new phase awaits you." These were accompanied with a QR code. Some smaller posters also emerged with phone numbers that could be taken.

On 9 May, an instagram post with the 'A New Phase Awaits You' Slogan was posted, again with the phone number.

The Fizz hotline can be found on 020 3932 8111 (or +4420 3932 8111 from outside the UK). Upon calling this number, you are taken to a recorded clip of the band introducing themselves, followed by the track A New Phase Awaits You :-).

All of this was teasing not only the band's existence but also their soft-launch show at The Great Escape Festival on 11 May, at which they played a number of songs from their unannounced album. This show featured only the four core members of Fizz.

Following playing The Great Escape, the band flew to Barcelona for some promotional photo shoots, before flying home, signing their record deal with Decca and doing an interview with Dork.

## Hard Launch and Album Promo

Fizz hard-launched their project on 7 June 2023 with their 'unconventional family portrait' photographed by J P Bonino. By way of explaining what that image meant, they summarised it, "we are FIZZ, you are the dog. welcome home." This was joined by the announcement of the band's debut single High in Brighton which was released on 14 June.

Alongside High in Brighton's release, Fizz announced their debut album The Secret To Life, as well as unveiling their gift shop, and also announcing their first ever headline full-band show at Hoxton Hall. Tickets went on sale for the show two days later.

On 16 June it was announced that Fizz had signed to Decca records by Music Week. When the band first visited Decca, the whole office was transformed into a village fete, in line with the band’s vision and creative direction for the campaign ahead. A Fizz cake was also baked for the band,

On 21 June, Fizz played the Hoxton Hall show, unveiling even more of the tracks from their upcoming album and also including a cover of Lily Allen's Smile, which included a breakdown into the circus song in the middle. The show went down a storm and a feeling of hope for the future was left hanging in the air.

This show was followed up with the release of the first episode of Sunday With Fizz, the band's fortnightly podcast, and later an announcement of The Secret To Life Tour.

Following their hard launch in June, Fizz released a single every two weeks, alongside a new episode of Sunday with Fizz and played Barn on the Farm and Latitude Festival. The publicity for the album included a range of different methods. This included:

* Behind the scenes videos
* Kitchen/bedroom/park renditions of their singles
* A word search to announce the album's track list
* A giveaway of Hell of a Ride themed Crop Tops and G-Strings
* An exclusive listening party / live recording of Sunday with Fizz
* A Secret set at the Burnt City
* A Maida Vale Session
* A surprise appearance at Dodie's show at Ally Pally

In mid-August 2023, the band continued their tradition of a yearly visit to Middle Farm.

### Album postponed

On 1 September, it was announced that the The Secret To Life and the adjoining tour would be postponed. The album was postponed until 27 October 2023, in order to allow the band some much deserved time to put their mental well-being first. The tour was postponed until February 2024, with the new dates announced on 4 September. At the same time, however, the band announced a series of acoustic and record store shows in October/November.

### Release Week

A week prior to the album's release on 20 October, the band released their first Live at Middle Farm track recording of Close One. They also started a discord server called the [[Fizzcord]] was started in order to bring Fizzlets together and create hype for the upcoming album release.

Alongside this, Fizz announced several online events:

* Discord Open House - Monday 23 October 6:00pm BST
* AmazonMusic Twitch Stream - Wednesday 25 October 7:00pm BST
* Instagram Live - Thursday 26 October 11:45pm BST
* Discord Album Listening Party - Sunday 29 October 8:00pm BST

...and new merch:

* THE SECRET TO LIFE SCARF
* THE SECRET TO LIFE CAP
* FIZZ TEMPORARY TATTOOS

They also created a generator to create your own Fizzville residency card, which can be found here: https://digital.umusic.com/fizz-card-creator

Following an instagram poll on 24 October, which revealed that Strawberry Jam was the most anticipated unreleased Fizz song, a sneak peak of it was sent to the first 100 Fizzlets to like an instagram post on 25 October.