# IMAAD WASIF Debuts Mysterious And Reflective “So Long Mr. Fear”

- Link: https://www.nyrdcast.com/imaad-wasif-debuts-mysterious-and-reflective-so-long-mr-fear/
- Published: 2022-09-14T12:30:00-05:00
- Author: Eugene Tierney

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/97b13bee-
3fc9-3059-247b-7b5271bef736.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1)

[[_“In ways subtle and direct, Wasif, a self-described “spinner of webs,” entangles
us in nothing less than his own reckoning. It’s liberating.”
– **BUZZBANDS**

_“‘Fader’ is quite a beautiful little thing. Mercury Rev, early 70s Lennon with ‘
Fade Into You’ guitar. What more can one ask for on a Sunday Morning, with its almost
hymn like ‘I have just found god but am ignoring him until he begs for my forgiveness’.
Yes, a track of elegance eloquence and pop sublimity.” **– MONOLITH COCKTAIL (On“
Fader”)**_

_“From the top of his Noel Fielding-with-his-fingers-in-a-power-socket hair to the
bottom of his pointy shoes, some-time Yeah Yeah Yeahs fret-botherer Imaad Wasif 
is painfully cool. [He’s] bound to make legions of indie kidscream their skinny 
jeans, but for good reason.” **– NME**_

_“Wasif takes the listener on a different journey from astral projection to self-
discovery and everywhere in between.” **–  BEARDED GENTLEMEN**_

_“Imaad Wasif is a shapeshifter, morphing fluidly from sideman to frontman to solo
artist in the span of a few albums.” **– PASTE**_

_“… haunting, mysterious and evocative…” **– LA WEEKLY**_

**IMAAD WASIF**
**Debuts mysterious and reflective “[So Long Mr. Fear](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=8f58142954&e=615f2b8493)”
Video**

**From Haunting Sixth Album
[_So Long Mr. Fear_](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=da1b530033&e=615f2b8493)
Out Now

**SEPTEMBER 13, 2022 (Los Angeles, CA) – **Acclaimed Los Angeles singer, guitarist,
and songwriter **IMAAD WASIF **today releases a transcendental video to his new 
unchained [title track](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=2d63e95f6b&e=615f2b8493)
off his sixth studio album [_**So Long Mr. Fear**_](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=6b1bac07ca&e=615f2b8493)(
released **August 9, 2022 **_via_** Sonic Ritual**). The track begins with a staccato
piano that stems from a childlike place, while it also has a pulling questionable,
and pensive feeling.  As told to **Atwood Magazine** “”So Long Mr. Fear” is as much
about love for the child within me, to the child in anyone that yearns to be free.
I’m just so sick of being crippled by fear in so many parts of my life and wanted
to write a song to shatter it.”

Filming the new video for “So Long Mr. Fear” wasn’t an easy job for director **Jeff
Hassay**, but it also inspired the film takes throughout. “My infant son was literally
strapped to me throughout the entire shoot adding a tinge of chaos that was fun 
to navigate,” Hassay says. “In a way, he was the co-director. I’m sure he thought
that Imaad was singing the song to him. Was he going to scream or sleep?” As Imaad
adds, “The camera was on a tripod and through every take I danced to the song to
pacify the little visionary.”

Imaad Wasif - So Long Mr. Fear (Official Video)

[⌊Imaad Wasif - So Long Mr. Fear (Official Video)⌉⌊Imaad Wasif - So Long Mr. Fear(
Official Video)⌉
Watch this video on YouTube

**IMAAD WASIF “So Long Mr. Fear”**

To capture these reflective feelings Hassay explains, “I tried to make the video
look a little like Neil Young’s _On The Beach_. It was shot near where I grew up,
with the grainy fevered fog, oblivious passers by and the creepy darkness that settles
into places where we were young, shrouding everything in mystery and wonder.”   

![](https://i0.wp.com/mcusercontent.com/f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984/images/467008b9-
4994-c699-16ec-66062e70ef89.jpg?w=1290&ssl=1)

**IMAAD WASIF**
Photo credit: Jeff Hassay

_So Long Mr. Fear _as a whole features Wasif’s clear and crisp vocals amid lush 
instrumental arrangements that belies the album’s actual remote recording arrangement.“
We built a tunnel through the goddamned pandemic,” Wasif says about tracking most
of the album in isolation but in conjunction with producer and long-time collaborator**
Bobb Bruno** of Best Coast. Like songwriting experts such as Lee Hazelwood, Leonard
Cohen, and Nick Cave, on _So Long Mr. Fear_, Wasif, collaborator Bruno, and mixer
GRAMMY®-nominated **Lewis Pesacov** (_Best Coast, Nikki Lane, FIDLAR, Local Natives_)
unearth big ideas by carving away at smaller things until they glisten with universality.

Tender yet enigmatic vulnerability is reflected effortlessly in the album’s ten 
tracks. Largely acoustic and warmly produced to allow his vocals the space to breathe,
_So Long Mr. Fear_ utilizes atmosphere and texture to occupy the same wavelength
as rhythm and melody to soaring heights. For the first time in his guitar-focused
recording life, Wasif wrote a lot of _So Long Mr. Fear_ on piano. Yes, his expert
use of open-tuned guitars, which add a luxurious, mysterious drone, endures; but
the circumstances – forced isolation wrought by the pandemic – afforded him the 
time to mine new instrumental veins. Recording most of his master takes while both
singing and playing, the aim was to excavate songs without overthinking – relying
on what Wasif calls “the simplicity of their compositions – the direct passage into
the emotional realms that I feel most at home in.”

**“So Long Mr. Fear” lyrics:**
It’s been so long, Mr. fearwe’ve been together since
I was just a little boybut you’re so bold to take back the yearsthe wind is cold,
without you here I’m going haywireyou’re on my mind, out of time 

Tell me do you love another more?
have you been walking after midnight in between
the rainI’ve watched it all disappearout in the storm I said so long, so long Mr.
fearI’m terrified, I don’t deny

I want to fly
out of your shadowI want to make it on my owndo you realize?that I
don’t know the way back home

In disbelief of the new disease
now that the veil is lifted, and I’m all twisted
upI step on through to your dimensionsomewhere underneath the Indian moon I’m lostI
got the jab to keep you nearhow can anything be the same now that I’ve been tossedto
the wolves in disguise

I want to fly
out of your shadowI want to make it on my owndo you realize?that I
don’t know the way back home

so long, so long, so long Mr. fear

With five critically-hailed previous albums under his belt, _So Long Mr. Fear_ is
the sixth solo album for this accomplished artist. During Wasif’s life as a musician
he’s been with bands including early slo-core noise rock duo **lowercase**; psychedelic
folk group **alaska!**; and Sebadoh/Dinosaur Jr. member Lou Barlow’s project **the
Folk Implosion**. Those not familiar with his riffs and solos for **Electric Flower
Group, Grim Tower** and **ACID** might recognize his electrifying work as a touring
member of the **Yeah Yeah Yeahs**.
**Imaad Wasif**’s video and second single “[**So Long Mr. Fear**](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=e61e03fa20&e=615f2b8493)”
is out today. His Sixth Studio album [_**So Long Mr. Fear**_ ](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=63880065ef&e=615f2b8493)
is out now _via_** Sonic Ritual/Eternal Music Group.**

[[

**_SO LONG MR. FEAR_** 
Elemental Come Around I Am Free [Fader](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=00cd85ae55&e=615f2b8493)
Poet Of The Damned Painted On Place In The Dark Regeneration [So Long Mr. Fear](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=16d6dd4bed&e=615f2b8493)
Jealous Kind

**[Website](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=646cc0b322&e=615f2b8493)
| [Facebook](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=0c7870cfb0&e=615f2b8493)
| [Instagram](https://reybee.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f67b4587af2b2ef9aa80ed984&id=eaf9c047df&e=615f2b8493)**

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