Round Table with The Fadeout
July 8th 2007 Beloeil
This is a transcript of my interview with 3 members of The Fadeout, Fred on the drums, Steeve on the bass and Phil on guitar and vocals. Enjoy!
CONFRONT: Hello gentlemen.
THE FADEOUT: Hello.
CONFRONT: OK so let me start by explaining to you who we are. The name of our magazine is Confront Magazine; we are a new online magazine with a very specific purpose. Our motto is Dare, Defy, Provoke. Actually it is Dare to Listen, Defy Stereotype and Provoke Change. Basically what we want to be doing is we want to make sure we allow the mainstream to evolve and we want to be one step forward and make sure our readers are aware of all the music styles that are out there.
THE FADEOUT: Nice.
CONFRONT: So talking about mainstream, what would be your definition of mainstream today?
FRED: Well, mainstream, I don’t know I guess for me, it’s the four or five songs that play on the radio all the time, most of the time it’s not necessarily good music but you know, the more people listen to it, hear it on the radio, it gets stuck in their heads and then the public wants more you know…
PHIL: Well there is a song structure that is kind of standard in popular music to start with so… There is also a general sound that comes back in most of the popular music styles, it sounds pretty much all the same…the basis of it all, you know… I don’t know if you understand what I mean?
CONFRONT: Yeah for sure I understand.
PHIL: When it comes to the recording, the sound compression…
STEEVE: Yeah that’s true.
PHIL: Everything is like made for radio format.
FRED: It’s also, all the same producers these days
STEEVE: It’s all the same mold. I’d say the larger public span you can reach, the more mainstream you can be and become. If you’re able to reach the 40 years old woman who wants to pump up the volume in her old convertible, but at the same time reach her teenager…I think that…
CONFRONT: You’ve reached mainstream.
STEEVE: Yeah, exactly, I think that’s it for me. That’s being mainstream.
PHIL: Would you want to reach mainstream??
STEEVE: Well it depends…
CONFRONT: Yeah I guess it depends…
PHIL: I’m just asking this for fun…
STEEVE: Well, I guess as long as you still have your credibility, reaching the mainstream but selling your soul to the devil (laughing) not really…
CONFRONT: Yeah, I can understand that’s for sure.
STEEVE: To me the biggest range of public you can get but keep your credibility, that’s when you’ve reached the “good” mainstream.
CONFRONT: Thanks guys, very good answer. OK so let’s keep on going with our CONFRONT questions…first and last CD bought?
FRED: Smashing Pumpkins, their double album.
PHIL: I’m debating between which one was first… I think I bought two at the same time.
CONFRONT: Well that’s all good.
PHIL: Smashing Pumpkins and Offspring ‘Americana’. Two very good CD’s.
STEEVE: Me it was Bon Jovi ‘Keep The Faith’ (everyone laughing) and the two most recent ones are the new Brand New album and the new Twilight Singers…great CD’s.
CONFRONT: I agree.
PHIL: The last two CD’s I bought were: Smashing Pumpkins and Offspring ‘Americana’. (laughing) No for real, I don’t remember the last one I bought, but I can tell you that the new one I want to buy is the new Cold War Kids CD.
FRED: I got the new Interpol CD.
CONFRONT: Cool all very good music. Nice ok and what would be your first and last concert attended as a fan?
FRED: Most recent one, The Killers and the first one, probably Primus or Bad Religion.
PHIL: The last one was System of a Down.
STEEVE: The first concert I ever saw was Pink Floyd.
PHIL: To be frank with you I don’t remember the first concert I saw so…
CONFRONT: It’s all good we’ll get back to it later.
PHIL: Cool thanks.
CONFRONT: No problems… So now what would be your guilty pleasure musically?
STEEVE: Wow, that’s a good one.
FRED: Well there aren't a lot of things I’m ashamed to listen to but maybe like a Dave Chappelle monologue I listen to alone in my car…
CONFRONT: Cool I like that answer.
STEEVE: I guess I agree.
PHIL: Honestly, I feel like the cheesier the song, the louder I play it. I love listening to some loud Queen and sing out the top of my lungs…
CONFRONT: Cool, ok so now what made you guys want to be in a band…play music, what was it?
PHIL: Honestly, well first I have a very musical family but I have to admit that it’s when I was younger I saw a Budweiser ad and the guy was playing a big red guitar…and I said to myself… I want to be a rockstar…and I still have my red guitar.
FRED: Well I guess… watching TV, Musique Plus, seeing the bands play and listening to their music made me want to play.
STEEVE: I have to say it’s when I saw Green Day play in the mud at Woodstock in 1994. I went crazy…I wanted to be on a stage. That and when I went to see Bad Religion live and we met them after; I thought they were so cool…
FRED: You know, I think it’s the whole…being together and playing music that got us hooked on it. Being with friends and playing in the garage, that was fun.
CONFRONT: That’s cool… what would be your personal influences?
STEEVE: For me personally, I guess I’d say Pink Floyd and Bob Marley…these two get me in a specific mood, I guess and that’s the influence.
CONFRONT: Being able to put the listener in a mood?
STEEVE: Exactly…
CONFRONT: Great! OK so the first EP is out…how do you guys feel about it??
PHIL: It’s great.
FRED: The final result is very cool.
STEEVE: I did not expect that at all… now with the violin we added and all that, it’s greater than what I imagined it to be.
PHIL: I can’t say that I did not expect it to sound like this but I can say that it sounds the way I wanted it to sound. Of course if we could have spent three months in the studio, there are things I would maybe work on but in general, this is probably the first recording that I’ve done, that I can listen to, from beginning to end, without feeling like things could have been done better.
CONFRONT: Well that’s great.
FRED: Personally this is my best studio experience, Phil was aware of the whole studio recording process, so I guess we felt more at ease with it all. The sound is much richer.
STEEVE: I feel that it’s great.
PHIL: Well we spent a lot of time in pre-production too so it helped a lot.
STEEVE: Yeah, we arrived in the studio knowing where we wanted it to go…but never expecting it to go that well.
PHIL: I’d say the only thing that was kind of scary, is the fact that Frank (guitar, violin and voices) and I composed some of his parts an hour before we were recording… that was scary.
CONFRONT: But it turned out amazing.
FRED: Yeah.
STEEVE: The first time I heard it… I had no idea how to react, I was like…is this a joke or is this really us…you know?
CONFRONT: For sure, oh… I forgot one question… (laughing) I want to know how The Fadeout came together.
PHIL: Well it all started when I was 16, I had a band at the time, and this band well, fell apart after a little while, there was only me left, I started playing with some other guys and we needed a drummer, so we posted an ad on the internet…
FRED: Yeah, I wasn’t playing with any band at the time, I saw that ad, they lived close to me and I wanted to play again so I answered their ad, we started jamming…and we started finding our sound a bit more…
PHIL: Yeah it took us like a good year and a half but still…then our old bassist left for the Netherlands, so we needed a new bassist…
CONFRONT: That’s when Steeve comes in.
STEEVE: Yeah and the old bassist is back in a month so I’m out soon… (laughing)
PHIL: And since then, the members have moved around but we now have Frank with us who is an amazingly talented musician.
CONFRONT: That’s cool, and when it comes to songwriting, like lyrics wise, how do you guys work? Do you come together as a group? Do it individually?
STEEVE: It’s all about the Phil.
FRED: Yeah, it’s more like, hey guys I’ve written this want to hear it?
PHIL: Yeah, 3:30 am in my basement, because sleeping is for the weak (laughing).
CONFRONT: I agree.
PHIL: But for real night time is a great time to write, no sound around you, everyone is asleep…
CONFRONT: So The Fadeout, how did you guys come up with that name?
PHIL: Well we had trouble finding a name and it was the only one we liked so…
CONFRONT: Well is there a concept behind the name or?
FRED: Well there is a link to the Radiohead song…
CONFRONT: Yeah.
PHIL: And we play that song live now, it’s pretty cool.
STEEVE: First time I heard the name I thought, isn’t it taken already? Well no, cool, I love it.
CONFRONT: Yeah like we have something there.
STEEVE: Yeah exactly.
CONFRONT: Cool, ok this has become my trademark question; I call it the MySpace question. Since we are an online magazine I feel it’s important for me to mention this part of a band’s life so you guys have a MySpace page. What is your relationship with the whole internet connection to your fans? All the comments, messages, blogs, is it fun or is it too much?
PHIL: I think it’s amazing. Being able to go to the same place to find out about U2 and The Fadeout, that’s just wow to me. I feel like no band has a necessarily bigger exposure than the other.
STEEVE: Exactly.
FRED: It’s easier to reach people.
CONFRONT: Yeah that’s a great way of doing it.
STEEVE: I feel it’s the best exposure a new band can have.
PHIL: To me it’s also the best way to fight illegal downloading of music. Put it on your page and listen to it and come see us play.
STEEVE: People get into it. It’s great promotion.
CONFRONT: Cool, and it’s a great way to stay in contact with your fans and it’s easier than a website.
PHIL: Exactly.
CONFRONT: Great, what would you want your legacy to be? Or where would you want to be in the future?
PHIL: Well in like 10 years, I would like to be as far as possible. I would love to be able to live off of my music and have it be more like a job, you know a 9 to 5 job.
CONFRONT: I totally understand.
PHIL: Our legacy, well I guess being an influence to only one person would be great!
CONFRONT: For sure.
STEEVE: Me too, being someone’s influence. You know I’m very happy to be in the band but if it had to end tomorrow, well I’d be very happy and I would not have any regrets so…
CONFRONT: That’s a great thing to say.
FRED: We have a CD now, and this is great, I feel like we’re doing good.
PHIL: We have no idea where this is going, but we’re proud of it.
FRED and STEEVE: Exactly.
CONFRONT: Well that’s it, thanks guys; it was a pleasure as always.
THE FADEOUT: Thanks to you.
Want to hear more?
www.myspace.com/thefadeout
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