Written By: Pablo Cortez Photo Credit: Dustin Roe
See all of Dustin's Dear Hunter/Fall of Troy photos here.
I had a chance to catch up with the guys from Fall of Troy at their October 15th show at the Knitting Factory. The show itself was classic FoT; loud, fast and frenetic. The crowd knew who they were there to see, and added to the energy of the place by singing along and moshing it up. We managed to snag some time with the trio backstage pre-show for the following interview.
PC: How do you guys go about writing your music?
Andrew: Lyrics are pretty strictly him (Thomas). He brings us the guitar outline and then we all hash it out.
Andrew: We all make sure to say, “What’s the best thing that this could be?”
PC: You’re all from up north right?
Thomas: Yes.
Frank: I’m from San Diego (via San Jose).
Thomas: We’re from north of Seattle.
PC: What’s the scene difference from up there to down here (Los Angeles) as far as your fan base? Do you see a big difference?
Thomas: People treat us more like we are more…
Andrew: Cool.
Thomas: Yeah, people like celebrity down here more, so we kind of get treated that way a little bit more. It’s interesting, it’s weird to come here and have people recognize you, talk to you and want to hang out with you.
PC: You guys were kids when you started right? How old were you?
Thomas: Me and Andrew were 17 and 16.
Andrew: I was 16. I had just gotten my license, and I got in that accident on the way to practice.
Thomas: Pretty much since I was 18. It’s been a progressive coming-together since then.
PC: Frank, how you get involved with the band, did you get a call?
Thomas: Yeah, he got a call!
Andrew: Oh, he got a call! “Hey Frank, we’re having a really bad time. You want to play bass?”
Thomas: Frank was like, “Well, I’m working at UPS, yeah I’ll play.”
Frank: Loading trucks, dealing with dicks or play bass with these guys.
Thomas: You’re still loading trucks and dealing with dicks, but at least you get to play music now.
Frank: Minimal breaks, minimal money, minimal hours, minimal everything.
Andrew: Basically, we saved his life. No, I’m just kidding. We gave you so much more stress.
Thomas: Frank, you always wanted to play music, be in a band.
Frank: No, no. Stress... I can handle the stress. As long as I can get some girls, some gigs and a giggle.
PC: (To Frank)Was it easy to get into playing with these guys?
Frank: I was really familiar with their songs, so it was just like the act of covering notes and playing.
Andrew: You’re a phenomenal player.
Thomas: I think more than anything it was him (Frank) going from being a guitar player to a really good bassist.
Frank: It could have been me just playing with them, but you have to care about something, you got to love what you’re doing.
PC: Do you guys have a favorite track on the new album?
Andrew: I like them all, but the one that’s different for me is "Nature vs Nurture."
Frank: "The Classic Case of Transference."
Thomas: "Battleship Graveyard" is probably my favorite. "Dirty Pillow Talk" is pretty good too.
PC: Do you have a certain inspiration you guys look to?
Thomas: I think we all have different inspirations we look to.
Andrew: First and foremost, what we want to listen to. We all have our personal influences per our instruments.
PC: Seems you guys bring a lot of different stuff together.
Thomas: That’s the point.
Andrew: It’s the meshing of the parts, the sum is greater than the parts in this band.
Thomas: The whole is bigger than the piece.
Andrew: That’s what I just said, exactly.
Thomas: But I said it in a different way.
Andrew: Cheers to that!
PC: That’s pretty much all I have for you guys. Anything you’d like to add for the fans?
Thomas: Go check out the new record and come out to a show.
Andrew: Definitely.
Check out CWG's review of "In The Unlikely Event"
