The Musiqtone Blog

Who: fun
Where: New York City, NY
For fans of:  The Format, Anthallo, Panic At The Disco, Steel Train, Motion City Soundtrack, The Swellers

What happens when three musicians that formerly belonged to well known bands join forces? The result is one of my favorite bands at the moment: fun. After parting ways with The Format, singer and songwriter Nate Ruess enlisted help from Andrew Dost of Anathallo and Jack Antonoff of Steel Train to join him on a side project. After supporting Jack’s Mannequin in the fall of 2008, fun released their highly acclaimed debut album “Aim and Ignite” last summer. 2010 promises to be a good year for fun. They are currently wrapping up another tour in support of Jack’s Mannequin and have opening slots on both Motion City Soundtrack’s and Paramore’s spring tours. I chatted with Nate to learn more about this up-and-coming band.

Cristina: How would you describe fun?
Nate: I think it’s good. I think it’s a bunch of friends making music together. It’s just fun. At least for me.

CC: What are some of the influences behind fun? I know within “Aim and Ignite” showcases a variety of sounds. 
NR: Um, I think pop music definitely had an influence there. A lot of 60’s pop music – The Beatles are a big one. Sometimes we’re even inspired by Broadway musicals.

CC:  I know the three of you were previously parts of separate bands. How has that influenced the sound fun has? Were you trying to take it in a completely new direction or building on each other’s experiences?
NR: I think what I do as far as songwriting is a reflection of who I am personally. But I do think it is very different depending on the people that are in the equation. I always hope that with every record, or every song I write, I grow as a songwriter. So in fun you can definitely see both of those aspects.

CC: fun’s debut record “Aim and Ignite” was released last August. How has the reaction to it been so far?
NR: It’s awesome. We didn’t really know what to expect. We were really confident in the songs we had written and recorded. We were having a great time doing. But we had no idea how people were going to react to it. But it definitely exceeded our expectations. Just from people purchasing it. I think we were confident that people were going to like it but people actually taking the time to buy our record and come to our shows has been good.

CC: Right now, you’re on the Sing for Your Supper tour with Jack’s Mannequin. How is that going so far? I know before “Aim and Ignite” was released you guys also toured with them.
NR: Yeah, they’re friends of ours. It’s awesome that they really like our music and decided to take us out. They took us on our first tour ever. We didn’t really know if we were going to tour again at that point because we didn’t know what to expect from fun.

CC: And how has the reaction to fun been so far on the tour?
NR: It’s been amazing. It’s definitely the most fun I’ve had on tour.

CC: After this you guys are going overseas and doing some shows in London before heading out with Motion City Soundtrack and Paramore.
NR: Yep.  I’m so shocked that we have such cool tours lined up. I’m excited to go to the UK. I’ve only done it once before, and I’ve never headlined there. It’s definitely going to be an experience. I think at this point we’re all really excited, whether it goes greatly or poorly.

CC: What are your expectations for fun in the future? Is this a one album deal or do you hope to build on it?
NR: Hopefully we’ll just continue to build on what we’ve been doing so far. I love playing headlining shows so hopefully in the summer we can do something after the Paramore tour. I hope a lot of people can be exposed to us and come to that. Fun is definitely not a one-time record thing. But for now, we’ll take it from there.

Who: Mayday Parade
Where:  Tallahassee, FL
For fans of:  All Time Low, blink-182, All-American Rejects and Every Avenue

Intro: After the successful release of their first album "A Lesson In Romantics" Florida natives Mayday Parade are hoping to do it again with their second effort "Anywhere But Here," released last fall. The band is currently one of the headliners on the 2010 Take Action Tour, along with We The Kings, There For Tomorrow, A Rocket To The Moon, and Call the Cops. Before they took the stage in Cleveland, I had the chance to sit down with lead singer Derek and learn more tour life. 

Interview:
Spencer:Can you introduce yourself and what you do in the band.
Derek:Yes, my name is Derek and I sing in the band.

Spencer:How are you enjoying the tour so far?
Derek:It’s awesome! I knew I’d enjoy it, I always love touring but I’m actually having more fun than I actually thought, so I’m really stoked for the next month it’s going to be so much fun. All of the bands are great. It’s nice to do a tour for a good cause. All in all it’s just awesome.

Spencer:Going off that about the good cause, can you explain to those who don’t know, what the Take Action Tour is about?
Derek:Yeah, well the Take Action Tour, over all, always supports a charity and is about just giving something positive. This year in particular it’s for a charity called Driving For Donors, which is a charity started by a kid, I forgot his name, but he’s fourteen and when he was eleven he was diagnosed with leukemia. He was able to get a match and he survived. But he had a friend who was diagnosed with leukemia as well and he didn’t survive. So he’s started this and he’s basically going around, and there’s a bone marrow registry you can sign up for. They swab your cheek and if you get matched with someone then you can donate your bone marrow and save someone’s life. So it’s pretty huge. That’s here and a lot of the money made here goes towards the charity and people can also text ‘action’ to 85944 to donate five dollars and they get a free wrist band. So there’s a lot of ways that it helps. It’s really cool to contribute something positive like that.

Spencer:Awesome! What’s a song that you feel the crowd responds really well to every time that you play it?
Derek:We’ve just started, recently, playing some of our new stuff on the past few tours and it’s a song called “Get Up” that we’ve done since the last tour and that one always gets a great reaction. That’s really cool because when we wrote the song that was kind of the idea behind it; to write a song that we played live to get people pumped up. Other than that there’s a handful of songs, “Jamie All Over” is one that kids always seem to like a lot and get into. “Black Cat” is another one, there’s a bunch.

Spencer:Are there any funny stories from either on or off stage on the tour so far?
Derek:Nothing that I can think of in particular it’s just been all the bands hanigng out every night. It’s a really great group. We’d known We The Kings before this tour and we’d known There For Tomorrow we toured with both them previous to this tour. We hadn’t met A Rocket To The Moon or Call The Cops and those guys are awesome, really really good guys. Basically every night it’s just all of us hanging out and having a good time. Nothing in particular that I can think of.

Spencer:What’s your favorite part of touring?
Derek:I think it’s just actually playing the shows every night. It’s always so much fun and then it’s also really rewarding seeing a bunch of kids singing a long. It’s a real cool experience. Getting to play the shows every night. There’s hardly anything that I don’t like about it. I love touring, but that’s the best part, playing the shows.
Spencer:So then you don’t have a least favorite part?
Derek:I guess just the fact that you don’t have a normal life. You know, it’s hard with friends and family at home. It’s weird because you kind of lose touch with your friends and your family and you come back and you haven’t been there for months. It’s just different, so coming home from tour is always kind of weird. So that’s the only thing that I guess it kinda bad about it, but other than that it’s great.

Spencer:So your new album just came out, right?
Derek:Mhm! Yeah!
Spencer:How’s that doing?
Derek:Good! It’s doing well. None of us really knew what to expect with it. But I’m definitely really happy with everything and with it so far. It keeps doing well.

Spencer:What makes your concerts different from the generic pop/punk shows?
Derek:Really we just try to be as energetic as possible. We try to make the show as entertaining as we can, we never want to have a boring moment on stage. I don’t really know if that’s any different than anybody else but that’s just what we try to do.

Spencer:Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans at Musiqtone.com?
Derek:Thank you! I don’t know it’s pretty awesome that anyone even cares to, you know, hear what I have to say about these things so it’s cool. Thank you for doing the interview and thanks to anyone who’s supporting us, we appreciate it.

Links:
Official Myspace
Official website

Name: Thomas Fiss "Waiting EP"
Release Date: January 19, 2010
My rating: 4.6 out of 5 

Review written by: Gabriela Elena

Local SoCal artist, Thomas Fiss, is not slowing down. Former member of Varsity Fanclub, Fiss’ fans have always supported Thomas on his musical career. Upon leaving VFC, Thomas founded a clothing company named Addison Apparel and made a parody with local DJ Frankie V about the infamous Twitter. WIth Thomas’ new EP "Waiting" recently released there’s no telling that Thomas will continue to be in the entertainment business.

From the moment you press play the first song "Say It Like You Mean It" grasps the listener into a pop vibe. Singing about the well known subjects of life and love. A classical song to listen to when you’re out for a drive or hanging with friends.

"Waiting" is about a story everyone knows too well. Waiting for that right person to come around. Or waiting for someone to notice you’ve been there the whole time. A perfect song and mix of an upbeat tone and plea of no longer wanting to wait to see what happens next.

Thomas’ song "Saturday Night Movie" portrays how he wants his life to be. In a word perfect. Of course this is never the case so all he’s left is the fantasy of what it could be. Like one of those Saturday night movies.

Is pop not your genre? The song "Jealous of Distance" has a raw acoustic sound which shows the true identity to the truth behind the song. The pain behind betrayal when you’re not with the one you love.

It’s hard to describe how Thomas meshes so many different song choices. In the song "Romeo" Thomas starts a fast paced song which turns into a catchy bridge and chorus that will have anyone singing along.

The last song on the EP is "Whisper To Me" a simple song about miscommunication and the way it’s important for any relationship. Not only that but Thomas speaks the truth about how people assume they know what everyone needs. But if they beat around the bush, or don’t clearly state what they want. There’s never a sure way of knowing what they want unless they say it out loud.

Thomas Fiss sings about life, love and its complications. Being able to relate with the listener is a powerful thing and I believe Thomas was able to create that with his audience.

Links:
Official Myspace

Who:  Ruby Summer
Where:  Carlsbad, CA
For fans of:  Lady Antebellum, Taylor Swift

Mini concert review: 

Ruby and Summer Spiro, two sisters from Carlsbad, California, make up the musical act Ruby Summer. They’re small town girls that have big dreams, and this will definitely not be the last time you hear about Ruby Summer. Singing songs they’ve written themselves that are a mixture of country and pop, the two girls have had a taste of success, and its still rising. On November 10th, 2009, they released their EP Conspiracy of Divine Events on Itunes featuring the hit song, I Can Do What I Want. Ruby Summer has also opened for popular acts such as Honor Society and Mitchel Musso. We were able to catch up with Ruby and Summer, and watch them perform a free show on Thursday, January 7th, 2010.

It was a rather chilly evening in San Diego, California but the vibes were warm at the Beachgrass Cafe. The feelings inside the Beachgrass Cafe were comfortable and cozy which comes as no surprise. Ruby and Summer played in front of a hometown crowd of friends and family, and fans that drove out to see the sisters were able to see them sing in a more intimate setting. Even though the cafe was rather small, Ruby Summer performed with high energy from 6 to 9pm. The sisters sang songs from their EP Conspiracy of Divine Events, other original songs they wrote, and covered hits from the pop sensation, Lady Gaga. The two sisters have true talent and real stage presence. Their voices are smooth and soothing, and their songs are not only catchy but they’re inspirational as well. When Ruby and Summer sing, they sing about their own life experiences and you can feel the emotion behind the songs. Even when covering songs by Lady Gaga (they could give Gaga a run for her money), the two put so much heart into their performances, and anyone can tell that this is what they were meant to do.

Audio interview w/ Valerie Roder & Stephanie Mora

The venerable Canadian alt-rockers with the goofball edge is back into the adult world after having released a surprisingly successful childrens album in 2008 and following the exit of longtime member co-founder Steven Page.  The now foursome went back in the studio last year and are set to release their 12th studio album “All In Good Time”, the first post-Page effort on March 30.  Check out in the meantime the first single from the upcoming album, “You Run Away” here on the Musiqtone Blog!

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