Fake Problems Interview November 2009
By: Liane Escorza
Rockfeedback: For your latest single ‘Diamond Rings’ you’ve created a very peculiar video. How did you come up with that idea? Did you have it in mind when writing the song? What is the connection?
Fake Problems: “This was really like our second official video and so we had a few options to pick from. We liked our director’s point of view, with the backlight, skeletons and all, but we kind off polished it a bit and decided to match it with the dancing tune that the song has.”
RF: Coming from the middle of nowhere in the Everglades, where do you get your influences from?
FP: “All areas. Just the people in the band to start with, we all go in different directions and influence each other. And then, obviously, we like from new music to old music like Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones… you know the lot. Chris (Farren, vocals and guitar) loves all the indie underground stuff, for example, bands that we’ve never heard of… oh, and the alligators are an influence too, yeah, crazy.”
RF: Tell us of your creative process.
FP: “Well, we bring everything together with an acoustic guitar, that’s how it starts off and then we all chip in and it just comes out. We don’t look to follow a specific direction. Things change all the time. ‘Diamond Rings’ is a good example because it was first an acoustic song and it wasn’t dancy at all; it was more like a country song!”
RF: How’s the tour been so far? And what are the main differences you find when playing to a European audience?
FP: “We’ve had so many people coming to our gigs; it’s been amazing so far. The people here have been really receptive. It feels like kids are more into dancing here but in general, we find that people here want bands to play for longer. Like in Germany, for example, they have once band for the whole show, like 3 hours and if you play for an hour, they want encores and stuff. In America it’s 30 minutes and they’re bored (laughs). So, yeah, we’re very happy, and lucky, to be touring with Frank Turner. We’ve known him for a while. We were kind of the first people to really get into him back in America and that’s how our relationship started. We had a song of his on a mixed tape and because his name was smeared, we though his name was Frank Turtler (laughs). For a year and a half!! We’d go, ‘hey, Frank Turtler is awesome!’ (more laughs)”
RF: What are your future immediate plans after the UK tour?
FP: “We’re doing another tour in December with Thursday, from New Jersey, and then we’ll be working on our new record. We’re writing songs for it already. We’ve got about 12 songs for March but only about 4-6 will be usable at the moment. We all live together so it makes it easier, except for the petty little quarrels… (laughs). We’re like a family. Yeah, we then go, ‘Oh, I’m sooorrry’ and another goes, ‘No, no, I am sssoorry (more laughs)… we all are in love with each other!”
RF: How would you like the people to define you in one single word?
FP: “Timeless, man. We don’t want to have a ‘time period’ imposed on us, you know? I don’t think anyone wants that anyway… yeah - timeless.”
RF: How do you see yourselves evolving musically?
FP: “Well, we want to become better musicians. We’re not looking to be this or that band with a similar sound to this or that band. We’d hope, though, that it develops into something that becomes timeless, as we’ve said before, you know?”
RF: What’s the latest wow moment you’ve encountered?
FP: “Well, I thought the latest Manchester Orchestra album is magnificent (Sean Stevenson, drums). I had never heard of them before and it surprised me… “
“Or old things that I just found out that they existed (Casey Lee, guitar)… like Rory Gallagher. Man… we just stayed with this woman who had some kind of a fling or love affair with him. She had all these notes and letters everywhere and a scrapbook and all his records… she got us wasted and made us listen to his music all night long!”
RF: What musician would you like to see performing one of your songs?
FP: “Oh man, Monsters of Folk! It’s this band formed by Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Mike Mogis, Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and M. Ward. That would be sweeeeet.”
RF: If you had to choose a visual representation of your music, what would it be?
FP: “Oh, ah, a sculpture, because you never see all sides at once (bursts of laughter). Woahhh, so good!”
Artists in this article: Fake Problems