Froth

Froth are a Glasgow, UK band who begin as a joke project before becoming a working group. The band is formed by Joo Joo Ashworth and Jeff Fribourg, two friends from El Segundo, California, who initially imagine Froth as a fake act: they plan to circulate publicity photos and invented road stories without playing any live shows. An associate at a vinyl pressing plant even offers to help with the hoax by pressing an LP of silence, provided the band supplies Froth-branded sleeves.

Early live work and debut release

The plan changes in 2012 when Fribourg organises the small festival Ourbq and one act drops out at the last moment. Froth play their first live set to fill the gap, with Ashworth on vocals and guitar and Fribourg on Omnichord, an electronic instrument related to the autoharp. Jeremy Katz plays bass and Cameron Allen drums for that performance. Fribourg later describes the show as a disaster, but it leads the group to start writing songs and rehearsing properly.

By June 2013, Froth release their first single, “Lost My Mind”, which appears a month later on their debut album, Patterns, issued by Lolipop Records. The album receives strong reviews and the band tours in the US, Europe and the UK.

Line-up changes and later records

By the time Froth begin work on their second album, Fribourg has left the group. Cole Devine joins on guitar, followed later by Nick Ventura replacing Devine. Their second album, Bleak, arrives in May 2015 on Burger Records. Around this period the band tour widely and share stages in the US and UK with Craft Spells, Tamaryn and Pond.

Froth’s third album is recorded with Thomas Dolas of Mr. Elevator & the Brain Hotel. By then the band are a trio after Ventura’s departure, and the recording pushes further into dream pop and Krautrock textures. Outside (Briefly), named after a chapter in a Richard Brautigan novel, is released on Wichita Recordings in 2017.

The band then work again with Dolas on Duress, a more stripped-back record built around drum machines and wavering synths. Released in 2019, it follows the bigger, more expansive sound of Outside (Briefly) with a lo-fi shoegaze approach. After the album’s release, Froth tour the US.

Style

Froth’s music moves between garage rock, psychedelic rock, shoegaze and dream pop, with lo-fi textures becoming more prominent on later releases. Their early records are reverb-heavy and garage rock influenced, while later work emphasises haze, guitar wash, synths and a more intimate sound.