I had the opportunity and great pleasure to chat with several members of Los Angeles based indie rock band “Fight From Above†(“FFA†) while they were in the studio working on their latest EP “Hermano.†With me are lead vocalist and guitarist Justin Miner—who answers to “Miner,†—lead guitarist Jeremy Miner (yes, they are related) and drummer Dave Schechtman [bassist Justin Krook is not there at the time of this interview].
The name for the EP came about as a result of Miner’s brother Jeremy replacing former lead guitarist Zack Jerome and today’s goals are to lay down the bass and drum tracks for the three new songs; “Refugees,†“Tilting At Windmills,†and “Landlocked.â€
Under the direction of Jeremy Silver, their producer and engineer (who also produced and engineered their last CD “LA Kids†
), the group is hoping to capture the frenetic energy they generate at their live shows—and trust me folks, they ROCK live. But for the energetic FFA finding a level state in the studio can sometimes be a challenge.
“It’s definitely a different experience working in the studio. Just before you arrived we were trying to get Dave in the ‘studio zone,’ which is completely different from the ‘live zone’ because you can’t hit everything as hard. Even if that’s the way we play live you kind of have to take a step back in order to get the right sounds out of the instruments,†explains Justin Miner.
Fortunately FFA has a comfortable relationship with Silver, one they jokingly say, “Runs on Dr. Pepper and Togo’s and breakfast burritos.†They’ve been working to ‘clean up’ “Refugees.†Jeremy Miner explains, “We have a bad habit of waiting until we’re in the studio to figure out the parts. We’ve been playing this song only a month or two and once we got in the studio and actually heard it on tape we realized we needed to ‘create space.’ We have a tendency to be ‘busy’ and just want to make sure the parts are as good as they can be and create the feeling we’re going for.â€
FFA has a range of eclectic musical tastes from Radiohead to the Beatles to the epic structure of Arcade Fire—which influences their musical thinking—and the band, which manages to combine many disparate influences while still sounding cohesive, is not quite like anything you’ve heard. In fact, when it comes to defining their sound Schechtman is quick to point out, “We don’t ever want to have someone listen to us and say, ‘Oh, you sound like…insert latest band,’ we’re not striving to sound like anyone and I don’t know if that’s hurting us or helping us because everybody has a hard time classifying us. We’re kind of in-between the indie blogesphere—we’re not ‘weird’ enough for them—and not quite ‘pop’ enough for KROQ and yet that was always our goal, we wanted to bridge the gap, between those genres.â€
Jeremy Miner adds, “We just got on Pandora, and were described as Motion City Soundtrack and a few others, that I don’t really see.†“Yeah,†says Schechtman, “I mean we’re not haters, but we would not describe ourselves as sounding anything like them.â€
Fortunately the band has seen success with their song “Between The Curves†when it was played on MTV’s “The Real World†and “The Hills,†and also on LA’s influential rock stations KROQ and STAR 98.7, so they needn’t worry about finding the right niche, for it will naturally evolve.
And ultimately what’s important, according to Schechtman, is not the genre but the enjoyment factor. “We’ve been at this a long time, and like the model of “Cheers†we want everyone to know our name and to have a great time while they’re hanging with us. We want people to partake in it, to dance to our songs, to recognize and listen to the lyrics that Miner puts his heart and soul into, and just have fun with us because we have so much fun playing.â€
In keeping with the good-time party vibe, the band is throwing a huge EP/music video release show/party called “Faux-Chella†on April 9, at The Sunset Junction in Silver Lake at 3303 Sunset Blvd.
For more information on the band or the upcoming show check out:
www.fightfromabove.com
