FALL AGAINST FATE
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 31st January 2011.
Hertfordshire metal act Fall Against Fate have a new EP out...and to to be honest don't need any more reason than that to do an interview. Do we?
Guitarist Tom Saunders answers questions...
Hi Tom, thanks for taking a moment to answer these questions. Hope you are well?
Tom: No problem at all, hope you are well too!
What’s the history behind Fall Against Fate? How did the band form and what’s the background of the various members?
Tom: Fall Against Fate started as a “garage band” in the first quarter of 2009. The line up was totally different then, we were all just a bunch of friends who met up in a rehearsal room and jammed cover songs for a few hours a week, it was really fun.
Then a few of us realized that we wanted to take it a step further and begin writing original material and recording some material also. Since then we have had countless line up changes and been on a small hiatus in order to gain a solid line up and to find and develop our sound. We are incredibly happy with the line up we have now and feel that our writing and attitudes towards the band have improved a great amount. We all met through various other projects and some of us were also in education together, so we are all good friends.
Who were the early influences? Do you all have similar listening tastes?
Tom: We all have an incredibly vast range of influences. We are all influenced by bands such as Architects, August Burns Red, Sikth, Meshuggah, Parkway Drive, Underoath to name but a few in the huge list of metal / post hardcore / tech artists that have influenced us. We all have other influences and listen to a wide range of music from things such as The Doors and Thin Lizzy to a range of classical musicians, our influences and the music we listen to are extremely varied.
Did you know what sort of sound Fall Against Fate was destined to have at the start, or has it developed a lot since you began?
Tom: It has certainly developed; we never thought we would be playing music like this back when we started. We always knew we wanted to be a “heavy” band with memorable riffs and epic choruses. But we never thought we would incorporate the technical and theory side of music into our sound. In every song that we write we feel that we progress a little bit, our new EP “If Not For Ourselves” in comparison to the first ever songs we wrote have matured and developed so much, they have a lot more structure to them, and the writing process was a lot more thought out.
How would you actually describe your sound to somebody who hadn’t heard you before?
Tom: I guess we would say that it is our own unique potion of post-hardcore/tech that we want people to remember. We have heavy parts, technical parts, and epic parts to our songs which all bond together to create our sound.
Has the Hertfordshire (UK) music scene helped or hindered the band’s development? Are there many clubs and venues around where you live?
Tom: The music scene around Hertfordshire was very much alive when we started playing shows, it has always been an inspiration seeing all of the bands from our local scene develop and play. We love playing our home town and we respect each and every band in the scene, over the past few months though, a lot of our favourite local bands that inspired us to form and play shows have split up which is an incredible shame, we have always gone along to local shows and taken in what other bands are doing and we have learnt a large amount from our scene. It will always be our home and without it we could not have started playing shows, so yes, it has helped us develop as a band. There is however a lack of venues around where we live, the Watford Railway Club has been “the” venue for music in our area for a while now.
How long did new EP “If Not For Ourselves” take to write and record, and how easily did it all come together?
Tom: The new EP “If Not For Ourselves” took a year (on and off) to write. We went on a hiatus at the end of 2009 to sort out our line up and mature and develop our sound and to just become a band that is a lot more professional. In that time we had an insane amount of line up changes and had to re record the whole CD twice. Eventually in the end we found our perfect line up, recorded the CD and released it. Although it was a tough process with a lot of ups and downs we are incredibly proud of this record and it makes us appreciate everything more knowing that we worked extremely hard for it.
How do you feel it compares to your last EP “Signals”, both in terms of style, power and quality?
Tom: Signals was a very rushed CD, we were just starting out really and wanted to release something right away, we kind of got over excited. The music you hear on “Signals” is not who we are as band today at all. We have improved an incredible amount in terms of style and power. We spent a lot of time on each track for this record (If Not For Ourselves), making sure everything was perfect and that it was the best that we could possibly do. It sounds more mature and is a lot better musically. The quality of this CD is a lot better also, we spent a lot longer finding drum sounds and guitar / bass tones for this CD which was an amazing experience.
How do you typically go about writing a song? Are you a jamming band or more methodical?
Tom: We never just go into a practice room and decide “lets write a song” because everyone is just randomly hitting their instruments and we feel that for us personally, we could not write the best music we can if we did it that way. For the “If Not For Ourselves” EP myself and Paul (guitar) wrote and recorded demos at my home studio. We would meet up every day for weeks on end and combine riffs we have written and also write riffs and songs together. This process worked extremely well for us. Since then Paul has gone to university, so now, if he is unavailable we write music over the internet, sending each other session files to add on / write to etc…
Where do you look for your lyrical and musical writing ideas?
Tom: Ross is a very talented vocalist who writes about everything and anything. The stories behind his vocals come from various subjects from his personal life such as past relationships etc… he also writes songs based on movies and other subjects occurring in the media. Musically we try to make our songs sound as original, exciting and sometimes as aggressive as possible, we also sometimes like to try and reflect the feel and emotion of the lyrics through the music. We also try and think what they would be like if they were played in a live environment, we want people do go crazy to our music when we play it live and enjoy it as much as we do.
Is there a story/theme running through the songs or is it more a collection of standalone moments?
Tom: For “If Not For Ourselves” it is a collection of stand alone moments, there are songs about breakups and personal issues and there is also a song called “Le Corps” which is actually written about some of the events in the Harry Potter movies. It is a varied CD. We have spoke about having a concept for our new CD but we will see what comes of it.
Do you do anything special or unusual in the studio to get your sound?
Tom: When we were in the studio recording “If Not For Ourselves” we spent days trying to get the perfect drum sounds, guitar sounds, bass sounds, mic positions etc… we would combine different amplifier sounds, different guitar pedals and cabs until we found a sound we were truly happy with, it was all about trial and error, but we were very happy with the sound we stuck with.
Do you have a favourite track or moment on the EP?
Tom: Personally my favourite track on the CD is “Le Corps” because of its energy both on the CD and in the live environment. We all love each song on the CD because it is on there for a reason, we dropped a few tracks that we didn’t feel were quite as good as the others for this CD.
Do you enjoy the whole studio/creative experience, or do you prefer getting up on the live stage?
Tom: We really do enjoy the studio experience, we love working with Steve Sears who recorded our newest release. We love hearing the whole lot come together and we love to improve / edit certain elements and parts of tracks whilst in the studio. It is a thrill hearing something you have written and demoed in your bedroom come to life in a professional studio. We also adore playing live, we are a pretty energetic band and love interacting with the crowd and seeing people move and shout along to our songs. We enjoy every aspect of being a band together.
What is one of your live shows like? What should fans expect from one of your performances?
Tom: We go crazy, we love seeing people move and shout / sing along. You should expect a lot of energy along with a tight live show which we hope is memorable!
What have been the highlights and lowlights of your musical lives so far?
Tom: There have been a huge amount of highlights since we have been back with this new CD. Our CD sold out on its first day in a couple of stores over in the USA which was amazing. Our EP release show was also a huge highlight, we appreciated that so many people turned up even though we had been away for so long, the feedback and reception to our new CD and live show have been overwhelming. There have also been many lowlights, these were all mainly when we were on our break though, just generally changing members so much got a bit stressful and frustrating at times, but it was all totally worth it.
What are you up to once you’ve finished answering these questions?
Tom: We are currently working on a new single which we hope to release in the early stages of the year with a music video, we have been working on it and writing it for a little while now between playing shows. We should be playing it live around February time. So we will continue to write that and prepare for our upcoming shows
Anything else you would like to mention?
Tom: Thank you to everyone who has read this, bought our new CD or taken any interest in us what so ever, we appreciate it beyond belief. For anyone who has not checked us out, we would love you to come and hear us and talk to us at our facebook page http://www.myspace.com/fallagainstfate
Thanks again to Tom for his time. Find the band's new EP on iTunes and other good musical outlets.
http://www.facebook.com/fallagainstfateuk
http://www.myspace.com/fallagainstfate
