Originally,
Something Fierce started as a straight ahead garage punk band, but with the
release of Don’t Be So Cruel, they
have become heavily influenced by early Cure, Gang of Four, London Calling influenced guitar stabs
and a myriad of post-punk influences. Currently, Something Fierce is finishing
up their next LP which, they boast, is “going to
blow the shit out of your ass, into the toilet, it'll flush itself. That good.” Our ears are eagerly waiting.
Interview by Ed
Stuart
Who’s answering the questions?
Steven
Where is the band from?
Slimetown, Texas
Who is in the band and what instrument do
they play?
Steven, guitar /
Niki, bass / Andrew, drums
How did the band start?
Oh, man; long
ago. Various rehearsal sessions
with Niki, a punk rocker with a slick mini-van in my apartment complex, turned
into awful demos, and Andrew joined up a few months later. I knew him from various party
appearances with one instance of projectile vomiting pinot noir onto my back
porch, so he seemed like a solid guy.
In an interview with Redbull.com, it stated “Garcia mixed the album by himself -- the first
time he had done that -- and had to learn how to use Pro Tools software. He
spent four months locked in his room overdubbing and mixing (the band recorded
the album in three days). He added a guitar lick here, a vocal harmony there,
and before he knew it, he’d created more than 20 versions of each song.”
Is the new LP going along the same lines or is the recording process different
this time around?
Unless the plan
changes, it will go exactly like this but with fresh gear. The bass, drums, and rhythm guitar will
likely be tracked to tape at a high-end studio. Then, we'll dump that into the digital realm because, fuck
it, we aren't made of money, and I want control over the process. I want time to think; experiment, and I
want a particular sound that no engineer has been able to deliver. We probably would do well with a
big budget, a big-name producer, and a talented mix engineer, but at that
point, we would be another band.
And we would sound fucking terrible.
The band recently posted this on their
Facebook page “I don't know how to put this...But our next album is going to
blow the shit out of your ass, into the toilet, it'll flush itself. That
good.”
When is the new LP coming out? Are you working with Dirtnap again?
Definitely. Dirtnap is our mothership and has shown
us unparalleled support in every way imaginable. The goal is mid-to-late 2014. I can't yet say what special plans we have, but this will be
the best we have to offer at any point in our history.
Come
For The Bastards was released in 2006 and is a pretty
straight ahead garage punk LP, which Steven, in a Space City Rock interview, described as “[w]e really had no idea
what we were doing while writing Come For The Bastards, and it was very much a
period of finding ourselves and defining our tastes.” On the other hand, Don’t Be Cruel is a mixture of post-punk
and punk-pop influences ranging from Gang of Four, bits of early Cure and The
Clash. What would Something Fierce attribute the writing change to? Finally
defining the band’s taste?
Maturing tastes, growing skill set. However it went down, I think it best
that every band change at some point. You can't make the same album over and over because it will
only be great once. We tend to
move forward at a pace that surprises even us, but there are songwriting
quirks, both derived from influences and fine-tuning our sound, that always
reemerge in the process. For us,
as a unit of musicians, some chords just sound right.
Do you think music can still be a vital
force in such a disposable age?
Absolutely. In one form or another, music is a
undeniably capable of affecting the pulse, though I find that there isn't
enough seeking to be that kind of force.
Disposable songs, dead minds, and everyone is too busy playing the
game.
In a review of Don’t Be So Cruel, The 1st
Five wrote, “with bands like the White
Wires and The Mean Jeans spearheading the
growing garage-pop movement, I wouldn’t be surprised if Something Fierce took over the world.”
How much closer is the band to taking over the world? On a serious note, how does it feel to read comments like
that written about Something Fierce?
Well, we aren't
much like Mean Jeans or White Wires, so I'm usually confused with these kinds
of statements. I love both bands
for a whole host of reasons, but c'mon, we just aren't the same. That said we would take over this
spinning ball of dicks in mid-to-late 2014.
50 years ago people used to buy music and
get their water for free, now people pay for water and get their music for
free. How do you think this affects music in any way?
It does not
afford many musicians the opportunity, the luxury, to find their stride. Some bands start with the perfect
mixture of energy and instinct, and others take many years to grow into their
proper roles. The good shit does
not come easy. You either pay for
it, or you wait for it.
Where can people hear the band?
Bandcamp has the
best collection.
What’s next for Something Fierce?
This record, the road, and a party or two.
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