Shadow's Fall's Brian Fair Combs Out the Locks

Close to 20 years Massachusetts's Shadows Fall are still going strong. Seven albums down and more on the way, "Fire from the Sky", is their latest release and they plan to hit the road in the next coming weeks touring alongside Hatebreed and then plan to hit Europe and the UK. Soon after the band will be hard at work writing material for the follow-up release later on touring yet again for the rest of the year. Frontman vocalist Brian Fair took sometime before his touring schedule had hit home to discuss his luscious hairstyle and crazy band t-shirts that are tucked away in his own collection.

1. Can you give me a brief summary as to how the band came to be and where the name Shadows Fall came from?

Brian:  Well the band came together within the scene back in high school. So once the other projects of ours had stopped, Matt and John had put the band together back in 96, then everyone else joined in and everything got serious in like 2000. As for the name Matt stole it from a comic book, he had thought it sounded metal but not genre pacifically like "Slaughter Fest" by hearing it you think "Oh that's a death metal band" no with this name he wanted something that sounded metal so it had a dark vibe to it.

2. Your known for your long dread lock hairstyle, how long did it take you to get your hair that way? How do you manage to keep it that way time after time?

Brian: The last hair cut was 1993 it was really short then but it's been about 19 years or so, and I don't do anything to keep it going, just grow out in its own way. I just wash it and let it do its thing. But it does get in the way like car doors, rolling over it with office chairs if I'm in an office, just normal things that most wouldn't need to worry about haha.

3. How many times have you hit someone with your hair while headbanging on stage?

Brian: Constantly all the time but now the guys know their safe zones, but it does get stuck on the light fixtures above me, guitar pedals, just everything it gets stuck in.

4. Why did you want to go with dread locks as your hairstyle of choice?

Brian: For me it's like a history lesson it marks everything you've done as least for me. So it's like a chronicle of a lifestyle of this type of music. But when a new era comes along it's something you bring with you like tattoos or piercings, it's totally different now than how I was back in high school.

5. Can you tell me about the crowd surfing you had done at the Upstate Concert Hall in New York?

Brian: Haha that was actually the third time that's ever happened, I has crowd surfed to the bar had a shot then crowd surfed to the stage before the lyrics had started. So the first time was in Philadelphia, then with the Albany New York show, the same thing happened so I just took that chance since it was the last night of the tour with Killswitch Engage, we had been partying as well so I had just gone with it and luckily made it back to the stage just in time.

6. Would you ever consider performing an album in its entirety?

Brian: It is something we've thought about and Killswitch Engage had done that with their album "Alive Or Just Breathing", it was a cool thing and for them it was a 10th anniversary, so for them it was a cool thing to do being able to play those songs where you may have only played them once or not at all. So for us to do that we could retire songs that we wouldn't even think of playing again on a record but it would just have to be in the right setting.

7. How easy is it to keep the motivation going on a daily basis for Shadows Fall?

Brian: It's because we still have something to say by creating music. It's what keeps us going with the new ideas we come up with after touring. We just have a lot more to say when we write new music and going back on the road with that new material playing shows again makes it possible. But the time does take its toll on you over the years but that new material is what keeps you going.

8. You guys have toured a lot over the years but where hasn't Shadows Fall set foot in?

Brian: We haven't toured in South America. We would love to get to India, Africa, and Indonesia but it hasn't been easy for us to travel out there. The Philippines, China, Korea, those places we wouldn't have even thought of getting there but we did and it was awesome.

9. What has been the craziest t-shirt design that you guys have come up with for your merch?

Brian: We had a series of rip off t-shirts of beer logos that I loved. Those to me are just fun to do so it makes them special so injecting humor is always fun and of course we always have the typical evil one's too. But our most famous one was the "Eating emo kids for breakfast" t-shirt with the saying on the back "Quit your fucking crying". To us at the time we were tired of hearing all of the whining and moaning these emo bands were saying on the radio, so we wanted something obnoxious to go with it and came up with that idea.

10. How many band t-shirts are in your personal collection?

Brian: I recently had a purge going through all of my shirts putting the one's I didn't wear or didn't fit anymore and placed those into storage. But going on tours constantly you're always getting new t-shirts but for me probably 100-300 t-shirts. But maybe one day I will Ebay the old shirts.

11. What does Shadows Fall have lined up for this year?

Brian: We're going on tour with Hatebreed in a few weeks, so playing the smaller venues is exciting for us. Then after that we're going to Europe with Testament and then the UK with Ill'Nino and then a week of the Metal Alliance Tour with Anthrax. From there taking some time off because I'm expecting my first kid my wife would go crazy if I missed something like that and I don't want to miss the birth myself so spending time with the family changing diapers haha. Also will be writing new material for the next record as well.

12. Is there anything else you'd like to say to your fans?

Brian: We really do appreciate the 15 years of support from the fans and being able to do the coolest job possible. To this day we're able to see our records being sold and the fans picking those up not stealing them, just giving us that remainder that without them we would be stuck at home it just means a lot.