LISTEN: Mama Say Don’t Sleep On FènixDion

Check out the latest single off the Minneapolis duo’s debut album Sugar

FènixDion 2022 (Image: FènixDion)

“We want to be the best thing that anybody has seen in the last 10 years,” says Keston Wright of the new Minneapolis-based band FènixDion.

And when it comes to modern rock acts to emerge from the Twin Cities in the 2020s, he may be right. 

Keston and drummer Sam Bramble’s new band has already made a big splash onto the local scene thanks to the prolific nature of their first two shows as FènixDion, including a warm-up slot in front of thousands at the Basilica Block Party in downtown Minneapolis, followed quickly by a more intimate, well-received club gig at the popular haunt Icehouse.

Keston has previously been celebrated for his work in the funk-pop group Static Panic. With FenixDion, he has taken a sharp turn inward to create more personal, reflective lyrics, and re-rooted himself with some of his most formative musical influences, from Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, and Funkadelic to the influential early blues guitarist Buddy Moss.

The new single from FènixDion, “Mama Say,” is available now (Image: FènixDion)

But when you listen to “Mama Say,” the latest single off their brilliant debut LP Sugar, you can hear the clear elements of both early Lenny Kravitz and Vanishing Point-era Primal Scream in the echoed grooves of this mid-tempo mover. 

Lyrically, meanwhile, sees Keston keeping with the grand tradition of brutally honest songwriting as he seems to channel the muses of Prince, Paul Westerberg and Slug combined in this searing lament of the blood spilled on his streets in the wake of George Floyd’s wrongful death. 

“While watching Minneapolis eat itself alive I was very emotionally distraught and filled with so many questions and concerns of what the future of my city looked like,” he explains. “’Mama Say’ consolidates the thoughts that were running through my head at the time, and the mindset I needed to adopt to get through it all. The song is an anthem of hope amidst the overwhelming and soul altering issues facing humanity.”

 

VIDEO: FènixDion “Mama Say” 

Ron Hart

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Ron Hart

Ron Hart is the Editor-in-Chief of Rock and Roll Globe. Reach him on X @MisterTribune.

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