The Sacramento-based trio of Kris Anaya, Joseph Davancens, and Fernando Olivia formed Best Move in 2019. Anaya and Davancens, the primary songwriters of the group, have spent the better part of the past decade playing a wide variety of music under various banners. Anaya, a talented songwriter with a penchant for wry, offbeat guitar-based folk-pop songs, was prone to following his muse down whatever sonic path it might take him; Davancens, who holds higher education degrees in avant garde composition and jazz double bass, was happy to join forces.
Best Move was born out of Anaya and Davancens’ decision to return back to their natural inclinations for organic instrumentation and earnest songwriting. Taking direction from both the cinematic song stylings of sardonic yet unfettered, almost confessional 1960s and ’70s troubadours like Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson, and Harry Nilsson (even taking their new band name from the latter’s song of the same) and the “visual scoring” of indie pop song placement in 21st-century TV shows and films, the music quickly took on the personalities and sensibilities of its makers—a sure sign that it was working.
Check out “Forgotten Bloom” from Best Move, a stylishly chill retro folk vibe that is part Mac Demarco, 10CC and Bill Callahan. Best Move has nailed its own brand of the experimental and nostalgic on this go-around…
“For me, I believe Forgotten Bloom to be interpreted as the inevitability of growing up, changing, friends moving on, getting married and falling in love. I personally have always hated this concept of settling down so to me the idea of this scares me to my core. This song tries to bring light to this feeling. The song started with just acoustic guitar and vocals, it wasn’t until we were in the studio were we crafted it into a fully realized piece of music. We have always been inspired by Beck’s Sea Change and Air Talkie Walkie so we wanted to incorporate the intersection of the two. We decided to blend a Mini Moog with a Pedal Steel, this gives it this lush moody sound. For the drums, we always try to keep them very quit and only brining in certain section of the drums when they are needed. The musicians who played on the track are Zac Brown (Bass), Joseph Davancens (Pedal Steel, Keys), Fernando Olivia (Drums) and Kris Anaya (Guitar, Vocals).”