Chordstruck Magazine
Ayer Fallbrooke anunció en twitter las fotos y la entrevista de chordstruck magazine. Aun no pude traducir la EXTENSA entrevista, intentare tenerla mañana o este fin de semana 
De momento os dejo las fotos y la entrevista en ingles
Y aqui teneis la entrevista en ingles, proximamente la colgare en español.
What happens when a couple East Coast metalheads get the idea to form a pop-rock outfit, join up with a bassist from Peru, a guitar player from Chicago and set off to make it big in the City of Angels? Ladies and gentlemen, meet Fallbrooke.
Listening to Fallbrooke’s self-titled debut album, it would be hard to guess that the pop-punkers were firmly rooted in hardcore metal. Upbeat, jump around riffs, brooding anthems about failed relationships and saccharine Internet love, sweet four-part harmonies, and crowds of pre-pubescent girls screaming lyrics and professing allegiance and declaring undying love? While it may sound like the scene from a boy band music video, Fallbrooke is anything but. True enough, while the self-proclaimed metalheads did begin the first chapter of their story in Florida (a.k.a. boy band birthing ground) in 2005, it was from a very different perspective that founding members Eric McNeely (vocals/guitar) and Kevin Schwarz (drums/vocals) came together to create the pop-rock outfit, Fallbrooke.
“We all were in hardcore metal bands in South Florida,” says McNeely. “We played lots of shows in really small venues and just had a lot of fun. A huge part of our inspiration is metal music—it’s actually surprising that we don’t play metal now,” he laughs.
Shortly following the band’s modest beginnings with McNeely, Schwarz, an illegal Canadian on bass guitar and the first of what would be many lead guitar players, the band garnered attention from RMR Music Group’s Paul Palmer (also co-founder of Trauma Records) and at his behest, the guys packed up and ventured west to Los Angeles. After their friend and original bassist was deported, they were joined by current bassist Augusto Vega, and began the search for their next and final guitar player. It was in Los Angeles that they connected with lead guitarist Chris Gustin.
“I was going to music school out here in Hollywood, and these guys had an ad online that I replied to, and it’s been almost a year now, since January,” Gustin says.
“We went through several different guitar players. I even tried out my own brother!” McNeely adds. “[Chris] is the fifth guitar player that’s been in this band, but he’s been in the longest. We tried out a few people and within an hour of practicing with him, we just knew that this was the guy.”
After the audition, Gustin’s informal acceptance came in McNeely’s invitation to appear with them in the music video for their single “Losin’ It,” which they were scheduled to shoot just two days later. The single, a radio-friendly anthem about an Internet/webcam crush (penned by McNeely from his personal experience with such a love affair), appears on their iTunes-available debut and is one of twelve infectiously ear-catching tracks produced by Disney pop aficionados Tim James and Antonia Armato. The album, while only available online at present, will soon be supplemented by (at least) two new, “harder” sounding songs and re-released as a physical CD early this year in stores.
“We’re writing a lot of new stuff, it’s just not sounding like the rest of the album that we released in February [of 2009]. We’re a little older and have matured as songwriters,” Schwarz explains.
McNeely agrees. “We wrote the album a year and a half ago, and we’re totally different people now. We’re different musicians, in fact, we don’t even listen to the same bands that we were listening to two years ago. In the past year, going through the process in Los Angeles and working with different producers, our sound has really progressed. The new songs are going to be a lot more rock.”
Though singing the praises of James and Armato, the band is excited to branch out and work with other producers to explore what the industry has to offer. Chances are the new tracks on the album’s re-release will be a foray into a sound a little farther from the youthful pop appeal and a little closer to what the band members know and love.
“I think we’ve further defined our sound now, more so than they did before, so I think knowing that we know which producers will fit us best in the future,” Gustin says.
Additionally, the writing process for the band has grown with them. With Vega and Gustin now in the mix, Fallbrooke has an entirely new dynamic to play with and formulate, so it’s no surprise that the added tracks will have a completely different feel and sound.
“We’ve been trying to switch it around when we’re writing,” says Vega. “Before it was music and then melodies and lyrics, but now we’re just trying everything. Like I’ll think of a melody and we’ll put music to that. We’ve been trying to experiment with different ways of writing and different sounds. We all dabble in other instruments and play kind of the three main rock instruments.”
“When I write, I don’t just write drums,” explains Schwarz. “If I’m writing something, I’ll usually do it on the guitar.”
Schwarz’s guitar skills can be heard (and seen) on the band’s music video for the acoustic version of “Can’t Get You,” currently available on the Fallbrooke Youtube channel, along with videos for their hit “Losin’ It” and the zombie-fied “Take Me Under.”
The team effort is aided by the fact that all four band members live together in Los Angeles, so writing has become more of an organic process, and it shows. McNeely announces that there are plenty of songs currently in the production stages that show a lot of potential and promise that will appear on the debut’s re-release and possibly help fuel a tour. The push for the release of the additional tracks is mainly to give Fallbrooke a single to tour on and hopefully achieve more mainstream radio play to continue to build their following.
“The label is trying to get at least one new song out of us that can be played on the radio—rock radio, specifically—so that when we go on tour, we’ll already have had a lot of great promotion,” McNeely says. “We’re still writing and coming up with more ideas and we’re still working on recording the song though, so a lot of it is still up in the air.”
Although plans for the tour of the self-titled record are less than concrete at this point, the band continues to play live shows around Los Angeles and eagerly discusses their hopes to have the album released so that they can get out on a tour for their fans.
Fallbrooke has an impressive and unique dedication for their fans. They log in exhaustive hours on multiple social networking sites: Twitter, Myspace, YouTube and Facebook, and perform brief webcam sets via Stickam, readily available to the throngs of fans both throughout the country and internationally. The band works hard at answering comments, questions and emails in an effort to remain as closely connected with their fan base as realistically possible. Despite their wishes and best intentions however, their whirlwind schedule has picked up along with their popularity, and individual responses may have slowed slightly, much to their dismay. Nevertheless, it is not only their music, but their constant correspondence and heartfelt appreciation that keeps their audiences coming back for more.
If Fallbrooke’s dedication to their fans can be matched by anything, it’s their fans’ love in return. While playing a small show with Halifax at The Roxy in West Hollywood in December 2009, the majority of people in the small crowd pressed up against the stage knew every lyric, every riff and every beat, and they eagerly cheered for an encore after the short set. The energy reverberating from the audience electrified Fallbrooke’s performance, and by the end of the show it was impossible to tell who had enjoyed themselves more. With shows this enigmatic, it’s safe to say that their future tour will be met with equal success and satisfaction.
Moving across the country to pursue what you love is always a risky move, but if you’re like any of the four gentlemen in Fallbrooke, there really is no alternative. Perhaps suffering initially like the shock of a deer in the headlights, this band has rolled with the punches and exponentially improved their talent and musical skill, as well as their awareness and knowledge of the music industry itself. Fortunately fast learners, McNeely, Vega, Schwarz and Gustin are still realizing their full potential as artists and exploring every road that their music may take them. Considering the success that they’ve met in just a year, it would be wise for you, the listener, to join them for the ride.
