With a name inspired by a 1970’s Leonard Cohen song, The FBR – The Famous Blue Raincoat, made up of Tim Hunter, acoustic guitar and harmonica player, and Malarie McConaha, lead guitarist and lead vocalist, blend together their artistic inspirations and talents to create music and songs that flow with poetic lyrics, captivating melodies and rhythms, and powerful vocals, like their new single “Still On The Run.” They’re a duo not afraid to address a wide variety of topics and issues – hey delve into song topics ranging from love, addiction, spirituality and sin being just four, but their honesty and openness to do so has earned them a growing fanbase. PopWrapped caught up with the pair to talk the impact of Covid on their careers, their future plans and to learn what their unique selling point as a band is.

How did you get involved in music?

Tim: Songwriting and music have been a huge part of our lives since we were kids. For me, it was a creative outlet that helped me go places in my mind and deal with life. In college, I majored in English literature and spent a lot of time honing and adjusting my craft with poetry and prose. In my songs, I like using metaphors, and I like saying as much as possible with as few words as possible. As a great poem will do, so should a song … inspire a listener to conjure up their own images and feelings as they immerse themselves in the story you are telling.

Malarie: My Dad and Granddad cultivated my love for music as a young kid. By about 10 or so, I started playing trumpet in orchestra through school. I didn’t pick up a guitar until I was just shy of 16. From there, I caught the bug and there was no going back. I tried to go to college, but it just didn’t work for me. I couldn’t see getting super in debt to take a job I didn’t want, to pay back loans for a degree I got just because I thought that is what I was supposed to do. So, after a year, I dropped out, and less than a year later, I found myself in Nashville.

What do you like most about your local music scene?

T: It’s the people. Musicians are easy to find and collaborate with. Although many of them come to Nashville for country music, you find they are from all walks of life and have a lot in common with you. Sure, people see their music careers going differently, perhaps than yours, but most have that innate love for music with which you can easily connect.

M: I’ve sat with writers who wrote the very songs that inspired me to pursue music and listened in awe to their stories about how those songs came about. Getting to hear these stories about how musicians got connected, how they got started, the backstories to the songs, it never gets old to me. I finally feel like I belong somewhere.

What would you say sets you apart from other bands and artists?

T: Folks who come see us often tell us they like how we connect with them. They like our harmonies and storytelling. They like that we are real and talk about things with which they can relate. Also, we often enjoy hanging out with them after the show, which helps us connect at another level.

M: What you see is what you get. A lot of our favorite artists are the same way. They aren’t trying to be another copy of some other artist. They are unique, and they are unapologetically themselves. We are in this for the love of music. We are in it for the connection with other people. I love hanging with people after our shows. We hear so many amazing stories and meet so many incredible people.

How would you describe your sound or style to someone who has never heard your music before?

T: It’s a mélange of folk, blues, southern rock, pop … it’s Americana. We are mostly storytellers, and our hope is that listeners will hear some of themselves in our music. We have songs about driving across the United States – like you’ll hear in this new release – and we have songs that talk about walking the streets of London, and being on a plane to Thailand, or being left on a train by a lover in Sweden.

M: The feels. Ha ha. Every song is its own journey. I hear each one so differently. The vocals/harmonies are definitely a connecting force though.

What inspired your latest single “Still On The Run”?

T: I was playing my guitar one evening when Malarie was out with friends, and I opened the portal. The song is a metaphor about a woman who is unsure about a relationship and tries to run from it. She is continuously drawn to it, however, and in the end realizes that she wants to give it a try. The song is metaphorical of our relationship. The images of being on the road are also symbolic of our long drives we took as friends, and eventually fell in love. We still go on long drives, by the way.

What’s your creative process like in terms of writing and creating music?

T: For me, it often begins with a jam session in my songwriting room or wherever I am. My guitar and harmonica often open up a portal that allows me to step into a world where the songs are living already. From there, I put the words and melody together to craft the song.

M: Mine is very emotion driven and introspective. Music is how I work through the emotions of life. Whether writing, or recording/performing a song. I try and get inside of the head of the characters in our songs and convey the emotion from that place. The process is just how it kind of goes at the time. I’ve written a song in 10 minutes, and others have taken 3 years to finish.

How are your live shows different from your studio work?

T: The studio is always a creative process for us. We work closely with our producer, Matt Sepanic, to further craft what we bring to studio. Where we write the story and create supporting melody and musical foundation, he elevates the song with accents, and directs us to sing and harmonize at our very best. He draws out the emotion in our performance in the vocal room. He guides us to rethink the arrangement of the song and adds another layer of magic. Our live shows are magical too, but they are more planned. It’s more about the emotions we feel with the audience and with each other on stage.

M: The studio is definitely the time to experiment for us. Full-band live shows, we want to bring that studio sound to life. And then our acoustic shows, those are their own thing too, much more laid back, as it’s our time to sort of reflect on the experiences, the stories, and how the song and sound came about.

How has COVID and the ongoing pandemic impacted/affected your careers?

T: COVID certainly halted our show schedule. But it was during the pandemic that we released some of our new music and focused on recording and writing new material. We also used the time to reset our minds and refocus.

M: It halted it for sure. It feels so good to be moving forward again. The uncertainty of the future was so eye opening. It has made me realize to not take a single second of it for granted, because nothing is ever guaranteed.

Finally then, what are your goals for the rest of 2021?

T: We have plans for a full album this fall, and to also return to the live scene. We’ve already played a few scaled-down shows with our friends from another band that is also currently scaled down.

M: Keep recording, get back into full band live shows around Nashville, and prep to do some touring in 2022!

Give “Still On The Run” a listen below and for more information on The FBR, visit their website. Header photo credit: Stephen Ha.