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INTERVIEW :: “LIKE” this band :: + FREE DOWNLOADS… and more pics…The Fire Tonight w/ members from Atlanta, D.C., and S. Carolina :: Now w/ Legend Of Zelda theme cover + Official Video, pics and more…

by Adam Keen… — photos by Josh Hardy…
 
This is our 3rd “like”segment here at beatlanta.com. Every couple days we’ll be releasing something new from the band; MP3s to stream or download, videos, new pics, lyrics, an interview and more. So help us out and show The Fire Tonight what the Beatlanta community can do. We guarantee that you’ll like what you hear. These guys have played the Atlanta area a few times this year…their sound is sharp, forward thinking and makes a crowd want to move . This will be a campaign to help get our friends in The Fire Tonight (and other bands to come) some more fans on facebook.
 
You can help by heading to facebook to ‘like’ the band and also by sharing on facebook, twitter, etc. with your friends and asking them to do the same.
 
The band calls themselves “eclectic, progressive, piano rock” and that self described labeling is dead on. The video below is an awesome track showcasing the bands electronic undertones, prog-rock dance-ability and amazing vocals.
 
The Fire Tonight on FaCeBOoK
 
 
THE INTERVIEW
 
B: Who is in the band, who plays what? How long have you guys been together? Is this the original lineup? 
 
Stephen: The band is Collin Derrick on vocals and bass, Jesse James (that’s his real name, I swear) on piano/keys, and Stephen Russ on drums. Collin and I have been playing and recording music together in some form since 2005, but the band “officially” became The Fire Tonight in 2008. It took us awhile to find the perfect person to partner with –  that’s where Jesse came in. He began touring with us around 2009 and officially joined a little while later. Once the three of us started making records we all knew we had finally figured it out. Our former bandmates have meant a lot to us, though. For one thing, Josh Hardy is our original guitarist and he now does a lot of our big design work including taking the gorgeous photo on this page. He is arguably more important to the band than I am, and we consider him a member still whether he likes it or not..
 
B: Why do you play music? 
 
Stephen: I have been playing drums in bands for 15 years now, and at this point in my life I simply can’t imagine not doing it. My day job is totally unrelated to music which is perfect for me, but I have to have music. I play with this particular band because these guys are like brothers to me and we all have the passion to push ourselves into new directions.
 
Collin: I went to undergrad for music and for the two years following worked as a bank teller and an apartment leasing agent. I had little-to-no creative or musical involvement and I was miserable. I realized then that there are some things more important than money. Plus, playing a great show or writing an amazing riff/melody is a rush unlike anything else.
 
Jesse: I can’t remember a time when I didn’t play music. It’s something I grew up with, something I studied, and something I now work in. Quite honestly, playing music feels more like my natural “voice” than any writing or speaking I’ll ever do.
 
B: Describe your music to someone who has never heard it. 
 
Jesse: We’re a piano trio that plays space chords in swag time signatures with soaring melodies. But you can always find the beat and can always bob your head along to what we do. It’s personal, introspective, intelligent, and sometimes just plain stupid. Most of what we do is about fun, and for each one of us, “fun” means something different. Fun and creation, all bound up in one cacophonous barrage of percussive sounds. I think our music can best be described as joy. Piano trio joy. 
 
B: Do you find any benefits to making music with musicians located in different cities? 
 
Stephen: Yes – we haven’t killed each other yet. There’s just no opportunity to! Really though, the distance is an awesome natural mediator during creative conflicts. Musically, I think it brings a lot of the unique flavor to our music. I also think that it benefits us because we LOVE going to other cities and playing. I know a lot of “local” bands struggle with this, but for us we want to be out there meeting new bands, making friends, and experiencing different music scenes. We are forced to and I think it fits.
 
Jesse: It helps us stay objective. Sometimes the hypnotic effect of jam sessions actually harms your creativity lulling you into a weird trance-like state where everything sounds good. Even one stinking note. . . Maybe that’s just me. So being separated means you get to hear what you send to the guys. Again. And again. And again. And by that point, it better still feel good. Otherwise, it’s usually back to the drawing board. It also means you get over songwriter syndrome really quick. You know. When everything you write is the best thing anyone’s ever heard. Emailing songs eliminates that almost instantaneously.
 
B: What are some of the negative impacts you’ve encountered from living in different cities? 
 
Collin: Three people in three different cars driving from three different states to one show – the logistics can get a little complicated. One pro/con is that we all practice and write on our own, which is great for the introvert but a little taxing on the extrovert. The worst though is that we’re all good friends and would be playing video games, watching movies and just hanging out all the time if we lived close to each other. When we do get together there’s very little time for those things and it can make everything a little too “business” focused.
 
B: Describe how your music has changed or progressed since releasing your first album and the release of your remix album. What have you learned about yourselves? 
 
Stephen: We’ve put out two albums and four EPs at this point, but it is totally appropriate to me to think of 2014’s How Could Anyone Do This?! as our first true album. I realize that’s a goofy musician-ey distinction, but to me it was the first time that the band let go of all inhibitions to just create. There won’t be an experience quite like that one ever again, and I think it set us on the path we are on. The album has guitar songs, piano songs, rap songs, etc., so there was no way to reproduce that all live (we weren’t even sure we’d be touring it when we recorded it!). When we started playing the piano trio songs everything clicked and I think we figured out what we should be doing as a band. 
 
B: Describe a The Fire Tonight show. What experience do you hope the fans leave your show with? 
 
Jesse: It’s like conversing with people but without any barriers and without any formal social requirements. I hope that somehow I’m able to communicate musically with the audience – honestly and openly. Some of my best memories are of standing in a venue getting chills from the sounds coming from the stage and knowing that I “get” what that musician is saying. If I can somehow make someone’s day better through our show, that’s reward enough for pursuing music. Period.
 
Stephen: I just hope people have a good time and that we all become BFFs. Life is too short for anything else. I accepted a long time ago that not everyone will like our music, but we can always give them a fun spectacle to watch and we can always be friendly.
 
Collin: I hope they enjoyed the show and the music. The worst are bands that stand like statues and just “reproduce” the music from their recordings so hopefully they got the music plus some visual entertainment. Also, I want them to feel like a part of a community. Music for us is about making new friends and having a good time – so I’d hope a fan would want to come meet us and hang out!
 
B: What local (in any of your localities) bands would you guys recommend to your fans?
 
Stephen: First here’s the cheeseball answer – any of them. Just go see local music period. A lot of it is just really good and just as awesome as “bigger” music. Second, here’s a smattering of options:
 
The Restoration (Columbia, SC) – Full disclosure, I’ve produced a couple of their albums and Collin recorded them, but these guys weave epic folk rock with depressing stories about South Carolina. It’s a trip.
 
Swank Sinatra (Atlanta, GA) – We did a show with these guys in Greenville, SC and we were just terrible that night and really depressed about it. Watching these guys play after us kicked our ass and reminded us why we love music. 
 
Poison Coats (Atlanta, GA) – Trey Hawkins just writes some of the best songs y’all.
 
Good Empire (Charlotte, NC) – We have a long history of playing shows with most of this band, and they are tight. The music is as satisfying as alt rock gets. I am currently begging them to record their first album.
 
Sein Zum Tode (Columbia, SC) – Crazy prog metal with chipmunk vocals. Do it. Now.
 
Coward’s Choir (Washington, DC) – Andy Zipf has been writing and touring amazing songs for 10 years and this is his current project. They have two drummers. It’s as awesome as it sounds.
 
Marshall Brown (Columbia, SC) – I could write an essay about Marshall’s music and how it moves me. Go love on that man’s Bandcamp page.
 
Okay I love local music so I’ll stop now, but here’s some others for those interested: The Effects (DC), Hip to Death (Atlanta), The Beanstalk Library (DC), Grand Prize Winners from Last Year (Atlanta), Dupont Brass Band (DC), Dragmatic (Raleigh), Darby Wilcox (Greenville, SC), John the Revelator (Columbia, SC).
 
B: If you had one thing say to a band that has just formed, what would it be? 
 
Collin: Go find a band that’s doing it right, take them out to lunch, and ask them a million questions. Also, make the music that you love – not what you think you want others to hear.
 
Jesse: Write music every day. You will throw away your first fifty ideas. Or at least rework them until they’re unrecognizable from the seed that started it all. And once you’re past that, you will know what it feels like when you find that perfect start to a song. That’s when you know you’ve got something great going.
 
Stephen: Don’t sleep together.
 
B: What do you think sets your music apart from other bands in your “genre” ? 
 
Jesse: I guess it would be that we have no rules for our sound apart from the ensemble. Piano, bass, vocals, drums. Apart from that, its no holds barred. We borrow from metal, folk music, rock, motown, punk, classical music, jazz. And we don’t stick to the piano pounder format of repeated bass notes and pounding right hand chords. No offense to any of the brilliant guys who make that music, but the piano and bass are liberated from that format and do just about anything you can think of. We arrange less to make a good established sound and more to find aesthetics we haven’t found yet.
 
B: What are the future plans for The Fire Tonight? 
 
Stephen: We wrote an 8 song album that we are planning to record in January and put out as soon as we can. We are going to capture the live piano trio sound that we’ve been crafting. It’ll be our first time recording live to analog tape and the first time we’ve planned to do a vinyl. Like any musician with their new toy, I think it’ll be special. One thing that I know will be cool is that we are partnering with The Print Shop in Greenville, SC, which is an awesome local place that lets artists do printing, offers classes, etc., and they are going to help us put the packaging together. I can’t say more but it’s going to be really unique and sweet. There are also potential music video plans, more touring, and all of that boring normal band stuff. Or maybe we’ll have a catastrophic argument and just break up. We like to live on the edge.
 
B: What is it like to be an independent band?
 
Stephen: I used to answer this with a long diatribe about the industry, but truthfully I wouldn’t know! My friend and great musician himself Tom Conlon says that no musician is truly independent, and that is absolutely true for us. The team of people around us who help us and promote what we are doing seems to grow every day. I mentioned Josh earlier, but you’ve also got Lori Ramey who does our poster designs, Albert Spear who made an incredible video for us, Daniel Machado who is there to constantly give us honest feedback on our music, John Breedlove, Louis Driver, and Ryan Walker who have been instrumental in getting our music going in Atlanta, Raleigh, and DC respectively, supportive family members, and every single fan who has come to the show and bought a record. All of these people are a part of our band whether they realize it or not. 
 
 
The latest release from The Fire Tonight…As always…pay something if you can…
 

 

 
 

 
 

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