Aural Fix – Fake Fruit

California native Hannah D’Amato despises “Cool Guy Syndrome,” but she is, in fact, quite cool herself. At the fronts of Fake Fruit—a musical outlet D’Amato created amidst a nearly decade-long journey, taking her from Southern California to New York City, Vancouver (BC), and back to California—where she now resides in Oakland. Part of her “coolness” comes from tenacity, an admirable quality that elicited her self-titled debut album; one that was created, ripped apart, and brought back together again over the course of her travels. The songs survived that journey and ultimately came to fruition after forming a band in California, but their release earlier this year is passé; Hannah and current bandmates Alex Post (guitar), Miles MacDiarmid (drums), and Dylan Allard (bass) have already moved on to the next thing.

Like the wackiness of fake fruit, D’Amato is really good at railing against life’s absurdities in her post-punk music: think unsatisfactory sex, failed relationships and curdled milk. Simple yet effective lyrics sung with gusto and spunk in front of short instrumentals (Fake Fruit yields 11 songs in just 30 minutes) will have you putting her music on repeat and keep you wanting more. Self-applicable lyrics like, “The thoughts in my head/ Chain me to my bed/ Makes me so sick/ Yes, I deserve it,” as admitted on “Yolk” and, “If my tank reads empty/ I can get you there/ I’ll keep running for you/ Just to show I care,” on new release “I Am the Car” make Fake Fruit the angsty, yet humble band you’ve been looking for.

The future of Fake Fruit’s music is coming into view: D’Amato has finally found her footing with new members, implying she might stay in one place for (at least) a little while, allowing her to record new music at a satisfying pace.

Fake Fruit is a diamond in the musical realm: witty, bright, and unpretentious.