Richardine Bartee
“What makes you think I care?” — FREAK
Connar FREAK Ridd, recently referred to as the “one-man Nirvana,” released a robust song called “Nowhere” last month. According to the lyrics of the rockin’ carefree anthem, the Chelmsford-native musician lists the things he doesn’t care about nor like. Connar Ridd’s latest offering has so much energy, you’d think it was a solar paneled roof. Don’t waste anymore precious time. Play FREAK’s electric guitar-laden, track that questions his luck, right now.
Watch FREAK’s “Nowhere”:
Read more about FREAK
“Connar Ridd goes by the name of Freak (he prefers to use all capitals, “nice and loud and bold”, so you can see him coming). You can certainly hear him a mile off, this 19-year-old one-man band whose bleepified, poppy but riff-heavy grunge’n’roll nods, on his debut EP, to Nirvana and Arctic Monkeys. It really is all him (live, two mates handle bass and drums). He then adds assorted effects, “keyboards in” the synth-bass parts, and does all the vocals: his studio bedroom set-up comprises a cheap laptop, Logic Pro, a midi keyboard off eBay and a microphone his parents bought him for Christmas.
Let’s not get carried away: by his age Paul Weller had recorded two albums with the Jam, and Alex Turner had just put the finishing touches to Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. Freak is not some freakish prodigy. But that EP is still an impressive first foray from someone who, until recently, was stacking shelves at the Co-op in Chelmsford. He had too much on his mind, too many angry thoughts, to bother with the banalities of quotidian existence. Ridd – who goes by the name of Freak because that’s how he feels (“I’ve always been the weird one,” he says) – went to the same school as Rat Boy, another high-energy young man using a peculiarly British form of rap-rock to express personal panic and societal rage. OK, maybe “rage” is a bit strong, but he does sound as though he’d like to do some damage with a spray-can.” — Paul Lester, The Guardian
