Modern Hero

"Modern Hero" is a disco-inspired indie-pop/dance-rock track with 70s-style vocal harmonies, guitars, synth, and horns, featuring lyrical and musical nods to Swedish pop legends ABBA and Robyn.

“When we wrote and recorded this song over a year ago, we were in a very different mental space than we are now,” says Beth Leibovich, who sings lead vocals on the track. “The lyrics are about discontentment with many aspects of modern life — tech bro culture, Instagram, online dating, the seemingly endless malaise experienced by millennials who are now in their thirties. We’re mocking ourselves a bit here. We contrasted the theme of the song musically with a retro, throw-back disco vibe. We’re big fans of Scandinavian power pop.”

Like ABBA in their heyday, Fialta is also a pop band with two married couples. “The comparison comes up a lot,” says Michael Leibovich (keyboards, trumpets). “We thought, what the hell, let’s lean into that. The harmonies, the spoken word bridge, the horns —it’s a bit shameless. We had fun.”

The track was intended to be the band’s first single from their new album. They planned to release the song back in April with a music video, followed by the release of an entire third album this summer. But with the COVID shutdowns, the personal loss of several of the band’s family members and a former band-mate, national grief over the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and many others, as well as the Black Lives Matter protests in the band’s hometown of San Luis Obispo, the band says that the timing hasn’t felt right to release a lighthearted, summery pop song.

“We’ve been feeling so sad all summer, which is the reason we’ve delayed this release,” says David Provenzano (guitars, vocals). But the songs are done, and we’ve been told by our fans that they would love a pick-me-up. So it’s time. Our hearts are still heavy, but we hope that this song can provide a little escape for anyone who needs it in these last weeks of summer. If it can get even just a few people up off the couch and dancing, it will be worth it.”

“Modern Hero” will be released on Spotify and all other digital platforms on Tuesday, September 1, the second in a series of singles the band plans to release throughout fall in advance of their third full length album.