Connie Ward
Paul Otteson (center) enlisted a crew of musicians to flesh out his intense tunes.
Faux Fawn bandlander Paul Otteson writes songs that retell literary classics, spin tales of Midwestern minutiae and reflect on the dark and dramatic.
“It’s like reading good poetry. Every time you go back to it, it becomes something new,” says multi-instrumentalist Doug Brown, the Madison band’s newest member. “The subject matter is drawn from all sorts of things, and it’s always expressed in ways you’d never expect.”
Unconventionality has always been central to Otteson’s work in Faux Fawn, a project that first emerged on record with 2011’s February Fables. After moving from Oshkosh and collaborating with Madison songwriting stalwart Jeremiah Nelson, Otteson enlisted a crew of musicians to flesh out his hard-crafted tunes, creating unpredictable melodies best understood after repeated listens.
The Wisconsin-centric LP Robin Red came out in 2012, the locally themed EP Prairie du Chien in 2013, and late last year marked the release of Faux Fawn’s latest full-length Lonesome Loon, a collection of dusky songs about love, nature and morality. This included a reimagining of Sinclair Lewis’ novel Babbitt in “Poor Babbitt” and an examination of deeds in “In Matters of Sin.”
Entrenched in literary fiction, regional folklore and his own personal experience, Otteson believes there is endless subject matter available for Faux Fawn’s next work, which may pull from stories about Iowans. “I look [for] a story or something that speaks to [me] and try to connect it with myself in some way.”
Connecting to these stories is key for Faux Fawn’s ensemble members as well. Otteson and vocal harmony-mate Audre Krull have to be precise to properly execute Faux Fawn’s delicate songs, which require close attention to vocal inflection.
There is a lot of artistic diversity behind Faux Fawn’s serene aesthetic, and members bring different influences to the table: Otteson is an elementary music teacher; drummer Luke Bassuener has an expansive, beat-driven solo project called Asumaya; and Brown plays in an array of jazz, orchestral and bluegrass settings.
Faux Fawn members say the intense, down-tempo music is best served up in an intimate, homey environment like that of Spring Green’s Shitty Barn, where they will open for Minneapolis band Peter Wolf Crier on Aug. 26. (Editor's note: Peter Wolf Crier has canceled and will be replaced by Night Moves.) “There’s a community that surrounds that venue,” says Krull, who played her first Faux Fawn show there. “It’s very inviting. When you walk in you feel like you’re at a family reunion, even though you don’t know anyone in the room.”
