A lifelong creative working within the realms of music, film, photography, and the written word.
FAINT SPELLS is the musical dreamscape conceived by Rebekah Davies. It began as a personal liberation movement, burst into life as a band and has, in more recent years, evolved into a solo act.
In July of 2008, Rebekah formed an ensemble with fellow musicians Jen Cloher and Hannah Curwood which performed one night only, all three switching between instruments and each other's songs.
The creative success of that showcase, coupled with the effusive reception from the audience, became the impetus for Rebekah to continue to write and perform music. A name — Faint Spells — was plucked from the ether, with a band assembling in its wake.
Thomas Healy (The Verlaines/Tiny Ruins) joined first on lead guitar, followed by Shayne Carter (Straitjacket Fits/Dimmer) on bass, and Gary Sullivan (JPSE/Solid Gold Hell) on drums.
This incarnation soon gathered momentum, playing live in 2009 and 2010. As interest grew, feature articles subsequently appeared in 'Black' magazine, 'NO' magazine, and 'Sunday' the Sunday Star Times magazine.
Drawing from a palate of influences as diverse as Billie Holiday’s 'All of Me,' Jeffrey Lee Pierce's 'From Temptation to You', and the fractured squall of Scritti Politti’s 'Skank Bloc Bologna', Faint Spells became an act capable of swinging from hushed, delicate songs intoning illusory romances and nostalgic yearnings to indignant, bruised, revved-up guitar anthems.
Eventually, Shayne was motivated to produce tracks previously started in Tom’s home studio. These sessions, with Shayne at the helm, sought to capture the sound and essence of the live band in the studio. Regrettably, this line-up fractured before the songs could be finished and released.
In 2012, film director Kirsty Cameron featured the Faint Spells song 'Vultures’ on the soundtrack of her film ‘Swansong’, which saw a worldwide festival release.
After starting a long-distance, collaborative recording project with Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev in 2010, Faints Spells was asked to support his band in Brisbane on their Australian tour in 2013. For Rebekah, performing solo was an opportunity to present old and new songs in their original, stripped-back form.
Music never stopped being the most vital of creative outlets for Rebekah. Despite sporadic solo appearances throughout this time, an unintentional hiatus from music followed.
In the summer of 2021, Rebekah was invited to participate in a ‘Collaborative Participation in Sound’ in Lisbon, facilitated by David Grubbs (Bastro/Gastr del Sol) esteemed musician, academic, and author. This hybrid seminar — and its resultant performance — took place at Fabriça Braço de Prata, a former munitions factory turned renegade cultural centre on a slowly gentrifying stretch of Lisbon's port.
Rebekah followed a breakthrough week of creative collusion and psychoacoustic adventure by accompanying the acclaimed avant composer Dean Roberts (White Winged Moth/Thela) during his show at the Igreja de Santa Isabel, after which they embarked on a mini-tour of Italy together.
These shows brought them in front of audiences in Bologna (in the Parco della Montagnola), riverside in Torino (at Imbarchino del Valentino) finally landing at La Pòsa, an eclectic bar and venue on Lake Lugano.
Following these dates in Italy, work resumed in Paris. With the aid of musician and producer Yura Khustochka (Okean Elzy/Esthetic Education), Rebekah began recording more Faint Spells compositions.
Early in 2023, Rebekah joined forces with Khustochka and Thomas Boulard (Luke) to form a new musical entity, EVENING ALL DAY, a flourishing creative alliance between three natives of Ukraine, France, and New Zealand.