Punktuation-First off, what's the name of your band:
We are called Fairweather
P-What is the meaning of the name?
F-Well, actually the name has a lot to do with a situation we were put in awhile ago where a lot of our friends stuck with us, and where others (whom we thought were friends) turned their backs on us. More importantly, it was a name that we all could finally agree on.
P-Who is in the band and what does each person do?
F-Pat plays drums, Scott and I play guitar, Jay sings, and Justin plays bass
P-Where do you guys call home?
F-We all started in Fairfax, Virginia although some of us live elsewhere now.
P-What is one thing we might want to remember about Virginia for future reference?
F-I'm not really sure...I can't really speak for the whole state, I suppose. Northern Virginia is a really wonderful place to live as far as I'm concerned; and Ive lived in Bltimore and downtown D.C., and it seems to me like VA is where a lot of great stuff starts out. You know, Gwar is from Nova...
P-Did you know that Virginia is known as "the birthplace of a nation" and that the first peanuts grown in the United States were grown there?
F-Wow...my hometown pride just about tripled
P-What is your home away from home?
F-Hmmm...one of my sisters lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and I go down there a lot, and I really feel comfortable. There's also a fantastic music scene down there, you know Merge Records and all.
P-How would you describe your sound?
F-Dark melodic punk. We make an effort to make all of our songs as powerful as we can make them. I think that's an important factor to our music..passion and intensity.
P-Please give a history of the band, including past projects:
F-We first started playing seriously in January of 2000, when we got our drummer Pat. Previously we had played with some other drummers, but a lot of things didn't work out with them; in fact, the day we were scheduled to start recording a demo, we had to bring Pat in to record four songs he had never heard before, due to a conflict with our previous drummer. He learned the songs in half an hour and laid down the drum tracks in one night. It was shortly after that when Pat asked to play for us full time, and which is when we first began to get serious. We gave our demo to our friend Jamie who was a local show promoter, and he asked to do booking for us. Later, he hooked us up with Dan at Equal Vision, and it worked out that we would make some records and they would put them out. As for past projects, no one has had any serious bands except for Pat; Pat is in an awesome band called Majority Rule. I think their cd is about to come out on Magic Bullet.
P-What are your guys' releases up to date?
F-We put out one demo and our first full length out on Equal Vision
P-What are your sentiments on the new album, "If They Move...Kill Them"?
F-Well, I don't think it's possible for any decent music maker to be fully satisfied with something, I mean, there are things that I notice every single time that I listen to it that I wish we had done differently, and changes I wish I had made in playing, you know how it is. I am, though, happy with it as a first album...I think it has laid a relatively sturdy foundation for us to expand upon and change.
P-What has been the reaction of the public to the album?
F-So far the reactions have been great. There are places where we play where kids go absolutely crazy, which is one of the best feelings in the world. I mean, there are places where kids just kind of look at you, which is cool too, I guess. I think it's as important to have people who don't get your music as it is to have people who do. It gives you motivation to make your music span genres and attitudes. The last thing I want this band to be is to be pigeonholed into playing one type of music...how boring.
P-Who writes the lyrics and what are they about?
F-Jay writes all of the lyrics, so I'm not fully qualified to answer, but I'll do it to the best of my ability...a lot of his lyrics are extremely optimistic in their nature, which I think is quite important. I feel that he keeps his actual subjects vague enough so that they're just vehicles for an attitude or concept; moving forward in life, destroying apathy and stagnation...those sort of things. While his lyrics are rather introspecive, I think they still have an awesome capacity to be identified with.
P-Describe the construction of one of your songs?
F-Oh my god. You're serious. I'm going to assume that you mean the creation process of a song, and not the reasons why certain parts are in certain places. If that's what you're asking, I'm sorry...I think anyone would be somewhat hard-pressed to answer that. Well, usually what happens is that I will bring in a song blueprint recorded on a four-track, or scott will bring in an idea, and from that we will change parts of it together if needed, or if we feel something different when playing it live. There is a huge difference to a song when you're playing it on a four-track than when you're playing it live.
P-If Fairweather could be creating music in any era, which era would that be and why?
F-I guess right now...in the past few years, there has been this uprising of really really awesome bands out there which I find really exciting. It seems like in the early to mid-nineties there were a lot of really amazing bands making music, and then towards the end of the decade, music went downhill for a bit, and now, it's like an indie renaissance which is fantastic. I feel like there are endless influences to draw from right now.
P-Who do you guys feel are some of the most inspirational musicians of all time?
F-Damn, I knew that question was coming. It's such a difficult question to answer...I guess I can only speak for myself...I've always been inspired by Sunny Day Real Estate; I've always felt like they have this commitment to making honest music, which I think is extremely important. Ian Curtis/Joy Division are one of my favorites, My Bloody Valentine, The Who, Ryan Adams just put out a great record last year...I mean, there are really too many to list. Of bands around right now, I think Cave In are pretty damn inspiring, because they've been able to mature and push their music real far, and I think that's awesome. They put on the best rock show I've seen in a long long time.
P-And who are some of the current bands you guys are influenced by?
F-Wow, problably anyone who we hear or know are influences in their own ways...of course The Cure influence us. Lately, Fugazi, Superchunk, Death Cab For Cutie, a lot of cool bands.
P-Any bands that we should watch out for?
F-Sure...my friend Derry is in a great band called Canyon who have a record out on Slowdime, of course Darkest Hour I think are making a new record. Trial By Fire are a fantastic band from here, and I think you can expect bigtime stuff from those guys. Strike Anywhere are making a new record....yeah there is some awesome stuff coming from VA.
P-What inspires each of you individually?
F-Personally, I am an art student, so I take a lot of inspiration from artists like Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Brice Marden, not to mention all of my instructors and peers. Most of all, though, I think I am influenced by the people in my life who I love and care about, you know, they are the ones who really drive me to live my life with passion.
P-What is the feeling like going out to a show and seeing people getting totally into the music?
F-It is impossible to describe...it's shows like that where everything feeds off of everything else; the crowd feeds off of the energy in the music, and the band feeds off of the energy the crowd gives off...it's about the most incredible feeling in the world; there is this crackling and moving electricity about shows like that that just consumes everything, and when you're tuning and no one is playing, there is this huge tension in the lack of music...it's amazing.
P-What is the best show you guys have ever played?
F-At the Solar Haus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It was a house show at this really great house, and the last time we played there, there were 240 kids in this house, and when we started to set our equipment up, we had to pass all our stuff over everyone's head...when we played, it was insane...there were people jumping from this balcony into the crowd, and people hanging from the rafters...kids stepping on my pedals and knocking my cab over...the crowd had to hold our amps up, and I almost knocked the drums over about ten times from being pushed by people. I thought the floor was going to cave in.
P-Do you have any embarrassing stories from a show or practice that we should know of?
F-When we first started playing together, Justin quit the band every week.
P-What has the pinnacle of your guys' career as a band been so far?
F-Getting reviewed in Kerrang. Ha!
P-How do you guys feel about the scene today?
F-I don't really know about that...I mean, we've been fortunate enough to have been able to know a lot of really wonderful people all across the country, and we've tried to stay away from people who are "too cool". I mean, none of us have time for scenesters or rockstars or especially people who think they're the shit because they've been going to hardcore shows for ten years who are washed up and all they have to show for themselves are dance moves or how big their crew is. I think the punk and hardcore scene is great, but it's foolish to make it what you are, as opposed to something you enjoy or do.
P-Have you noticed any difference in scenes from different areas you've been? (apart from the obvious difference that, for example, Canadians say eh)?
F-Yeah, the kids in the northeast still wear baggy pants.
P-What are your guys' dreams and hopes for the future?
F-We want to make the best records that we can and hopefully other people will like them too.
P-What does each one of you do in your spare time?
F-I go to school full time and I spend a lot of time with that taking photos, I spend a lot of time with my girlfriend, I do a lot of long distance biking...
P-A day in the life of Fairweather is....
F-Most of it is probably spent towing our van home.
P-Why does your van break down so much?
F-Because we're cursed.
P-What can we expect from you guys in the future?
F-More records and a lot of touring this summer, maybe next Fall too.
P-What would you like to leave as the final impression to complete this interview (ie. special quote, advice,words of wisdom)?
F-Yeah, if anyone can put a used engine into an 88 Dodge Ram...call us.