Fred again.. (exposing beauty)

It has been a while since I’ve written about a musician. And I’ve only done it twice —for James Blunt and Coldplay. The time has come for another one: Fred again… I remember the first time I heard one of his songs —Danielle— which my friend Claudia sent to me in march 2023. I’ve got to admit, I didn’t enjoy it at the time.

Times have changed, Fred again.. produced new songs that have captured the hearts of people all around the world. And, he has made it to number two on the ranking of the artists with the most songs in my Spotify playlists.

I want to share two, plus one, of his live performances with you.

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I’m getting goosebumps every single time I’m watching these videos. Look at what the sounds, the melodies, the lights do to the people. Look at what Fred again..’s music does to the people. It’s beautiful. It’s even more beautiful that no one is wondering why it has this effect. This shows what people are really longing for — joy and togetherness, right here and right now. Fred again.., has figured out how to create such moments with music.

So how does he do it? Let me answer this with a mix of what Fred again.. said in interviews and what I believe.

He said that everything he makes is connected to a time and place. He loves making music while being in the world and enjoys any place that “gives you this sort of convey about humanity, sort of buzzing in the background. Often when there is an undercurrent of slight excitement.” When he’s out in the world, he generates a lot of ideas, and when he’s in the vacuum of his own thing he tends not to. It’s affecting him hugely. It’s almost like he has nothing to say. Said differently, while he speaks the language of music fluently, he still has to live and experience life in order to have things to say.

He also mentions that when he makes music he is trying to take the very fleeting moments and to expose as much beauty as is in them. Think about it this way. If a song was a package, Fred again.. as the creator of a song, is packing up beauty from different moments into a package and allows people to unpack it by listening to the song. This experience allows people to feel the beauty Fred exposed and packed into the song, and instinctively grasp the song’s meaning.

Music has lots in common with language, but is also different in significant ways. Every word and every note is an abstraction of something real that can be experienced. Some aspect of reality can be abstracted using language and music, but sometimes, it can only be done with music. Some of the beauty that Fred again.. exposes is so vague and impossible to capture with words, that only music is able to do so with notes, melodies, and symphonies.

Language and music are similar, in the sense that if we hear about something that we can’t put into context, for example the word “Bibbling”, we can’t unpack it and it ends up being meaningless to us. But since Fred again.. packs up beauty from everyday human experiences, from a time and place —a context— that we are familiar with, we can easily find the meaning in his music. He speaks the language of music, and since we all feel something, we understand it. It is through feelings that he communicates with us. In fact, a large part of what’s happening in the world gets to us through feelings, and if we don’t feel we are missing some of the packages the world sends us.

Music’s purpose isn’t to change feelings, not the creators nor the listeners. A piece of music is an independent thing, a package, that transports some abstraction, a representation of some real thing in the world. And it takes a long time and hard work to get it right. Fred again.. made around 2000 songs before he even started to put his songs out into the world, get feedback and learn from them. Only then he could see if the packages had been received, unpacked and felt — in their purest, realest and most beautiful form.

Back to my Spotify playlists. Funny enough the artist who’s number one in my Spotify ranking of most songs in my Spotify playlists, is Ed Sheeran. He has worked with Fred again...

Fred again.. describes Ed Sheeran’s and his own process of making music, as “instinct, instinct, instinct.” They write their music fast and fix things later. The intentional thinking and work only intervenes when fine tuning. Said differently, writing a beautiful song for them is like writing a beautiful story for you, in which you don’t actively think about each word or the plot that you will be using. It just emerges instinctively.

Over time Fred again.. has become world class at finding beauty in real life moments and packing it up. He is also considered by Ed Sheeran as being one of the most talented musicians of our time. These two reasons are why people immediately find the beauty in his songs and shows, and it brings so much joy to people. Maybe that is precisely the reason why Fred again.. himself finds so much joy in making his music: he just spends so much time surrounded by beauty.

Before you move on, take a few minutes for this last clip. It’s simply beautiful. Watch the music build up and explode into tens of thousands of joyful people. You must watch it till the end. It’s incredible. Ladies and gentleman, Fred again.. and Tony Friend live at Glastonbury: