fearofmakingout 'Mi Cielo'

Interviewed by Jackie Suerth

Photographer - Samantha Allen

I: What are a few things you reveal about the upcoming album that made you guys realize you had to come out of hiatus?

MH: After we took our break, our hiatus, and we had conversations again, discussing the project and the way it was made, it just felt a little different than the rest. It feels like a real thought out child and a reflection of the growth that we’ve all experienced together. Not opposed to other projects, but for example, it’s one of the albums that I was present for pretty much every song and that’s not the case for everyone of the projects. Baby of the camp, baby of the demos. That’s why it’s special to me. 

I: After taking a step back, what have you guys appreciated about being collaborators again?

RM: I’m trying to find a better word than real. How real it feels in terms of getting this music out or just previous stuff out. I just got a sense of that again. Everything feels a lot more tangible. It’s not even like a personal dream, but there’s a unified dream doing stuff that exceeds ur expectations all the time. I think it’s nice to get back to all four of us. To put something out that exceeds what we made before is just cool. It’s cool what we’ve done, man. It’s cool that it’s strong. 

JK: This shit’s hard, it’s a lot of work to put out. What I appreciate is how unified we all are and how great it is to have somebody to call or text or talk about. It’s all our baby, we all care about it just as much. 

CC: It’s like what we were saying the other day, like the ball of energy. 

I: It’s a ball of energy?

CC: Yeah, like when you start ideas out with others around it tends to have a snowball effect. Any one of us can start an idea or expression and you have at least three other people who can expand on it, relate to it, or even help bring into another light. This synergy has come to be very exciting for me and something I've appreciated. 

I: What did each of you pull as inspiration for this album?

CC: The idea of playing with digital and acoustic elements intertwining was a big motivator throughout the production process for us.

RM: Plus whatever media piqued our interest during that time. Music like Tracy Chapman, Radiohead, ‘Absolutely’ by Dijon, Watch This Liquor Pour Itself by Okay Kaya, and traditional and more modern corridos. Movies and TV shows like Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings; games like Skyrim and Elden Ring as well. Most of us in the band are into epic fantasies so it tends to seep into the music or visuals ever so subtly, but it’s not really the main focal point. I would say circumstances also inspired this album, a lot lyrically, early on. 

JK: This project was largely born from a very trying time. In short, we had a deal with a label for a year, but the label unexpectedly went under in the middle of 2023. This caused financial and personal situations that a lot of these songs were written from. The stress and resentment within our dynamic alongside other personal issues throughout ultimately led us to not work on the project again until March 2025. When we came back around to looking at this project, we felt a deep connection to the songs in their current state, and decided to try and preserve their condition. 

RM: Personally, a lot of these lyrics are my expression of how I felt during that time period; stuck, unsure, and that in-between space. Reflecting now on what I wrote, I can tell I was questioning my future, my relationship at that time, and the state of our band.

I: What is FOMO?

JK: Starting from friendship, FOMO has quickly become something much bigger than us. It feels more like an entity we all encompass, a democratic art source for telling stories and documentation. We’ve gotten the privilege to meet and work with so many talented people who have helped create what FOMO is. 

I: Describe your band in three words.

RM: Hair band.

CC: Hair, sex, drugs.

MH: Hair, one.

RM: “Rock and roll” is three

JK: “Rock and roll” is funny. “We the people.”

RM: “We are trying.”

MH: I like “we are here”

JK: “We are queer.”

RM: “We are fear.”

JK: I like “we are trying.”

I: You guys can think about it.

MH: “Slay the house.”

JK: “Big sexy hair.”

I: Out of all your past work, what have you reflected on the most when creating this new project?

RM: NO A/C because we wanted to get back to a more stripped back simple sound. Then, Secret Third Thing, we just experimented a lot–so consolidating everything we tried in that in a different way.

I: What colour does this new album feel like? 

JK: Each individual song has different colors, but blue. From the brutal Arizona clear sky to the deep hues of midnight–reality and isolation. 

CC: Also white; once these songs are out it will feel like such a relief. It feels like a clean slate or fresh start, while at the same time closing a chapter to something beautiful.  

I: Where is the best place to listen to the new album?

JK: As opposed to our previous work, this album has been surprisingly uncomfortable for me to listen to out loud with others. I’ve been hit the hardest listening in my headphones by myself. Either that or on a late car ride. 

RM: Yeah, in a car at dawn or dusk, or laying in your bed trying to escape what you got going on at the moment. I’ve also found it slightly meditative listening to it while doing chores. 

MH: On the 10.

CC: At dusk, in the middle of the desert, in your car on your own would be a very enjoyable/emotive experience of the album.