Progressive post-hardcore band FIRE, SAID THE ALBATROSS have a few single's, an EP, along with all new music, including another single, EP, and even a full-length album! Some of the band discusses how they came together, the band's name and bringing all new content to the fans and its public.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Members (order of joining):
Douglas Bishop - Drums
James Falkowski - Guitar
Caleb Gatling - Lead Vocals
Jonah Anderson - Bass
Lucas Story - Lead Vocals
David Houseman - Guitar
Douglas bishop: "The story of "Fire, Said The Albatross" starts before it's actual conception. Our previous guitarist Devon and I had played in our first band together. We were young and were just writing whatever we thought was cool and heavy. After some time, our band fell through and we then played in separate bands for a while. I was playing in a Grand Rapids band for about a year, but that was falling apart too. It was around this time that Devon and I started hanging out again, and I wanted to ask him about starting up a new project, but he had prior obligations to the band that he had been playing in. I hit up a vocalist that he and I had met a couple years earlier in our first band and I asked him if he had any musical groups that were in need of a drummer. He told me that him, his brother, and one of their friends was trying to start up a new band. I ended up driving out to his place, and the three of us drove out his brother's place in Nunica.
This was where I met James. He wanted to jam some riffs with me to see how I played. I guess you could say that it was "love at first breakdown".... or something like that, because we've been writing songs ever since. Him and I quickly started to have this vision of what we would want the band to be. Something new. Experimental. Familiar enough that it's approachable, but different enough to feel unique. We had this old joke between us that we wanted to be like the "hardcore Pink Floyd, or the emo Tool", if that's any indication of the type of sound we wanted early on. We ended up just continuing to write music without his brother or their friend. After about six months or so of coming up with ideas, we thought it was time to find some members. Our first real line-up was the two of us, plus a bassist and a singer. We had played gigs as a four-piece for a while before we picked up a second guitarist. Which was Devon. For a long time after this, we had a lot of member instability. For years, it was pretty much James, Devon, and I as the core members.
Musicians would leave, some would come back. They would leave and others would try out. Friends would try out. We'd have previous members come back, for them to leave again. It wasn't until after Lucas joined about a year ago that our line-up has felt well grounded to me. Caleb had joined the summer of 2017. He was a fan of the band before joining, and we had met him because he had done a vocal cover of one of our songs. Still the only person to do that! Him and I had become buddies and we'd have him come up on stage to perform with us from time to time. The two front-person setup in a band has always been intriguing to me. However as a band, we weren't sold on the idea. That was until the summer of 2017. That following summer, I had come across Jonah online and emailed him to ask if he'd be interested in trying out for bass in the band. I sent him some tracks and asked him if he needed any help with working out the time signatures or the keys of any parts. He responded saying "no", and four days later he posted a video of himself playing through a song of our's in it's entirety. We asked him if he'd wanna come out and track bass for a new song we were working on, and he's been with us ever since. Shortly after this point, Caleb was our only frontman, as our other had to leave the band. We had been on the heavy search for a vocalist. Had some people try out.
We talked about how maybe Devon should stop playing guitar and just sing, that maybe we should just find a new guitarist. None of that was working out for us as a band, so we just kept writing ideas for over a year as the five of us. It was a year ago, almost to the day, that we had met Lucas. I remember sitting on my bed thinking, "there has got to be some place I can just find singers or something". Coincidentally, I just searched on Facebook, "Grand Rapids Vocalists", and a group came up. Called exactly that. I was scrolling through it where I saw Lucas covering Joji and Anthony Green. I could tell that he had something special.
So I sent him a friend request and messaged him. We video chatted later that day about music and the band. The next night, he came out and started recording vocals for us. I told him that the spot was his if he wanted it. Now, after almost a year of this line-up, Devon had decided to leave the band. We held tryouts and a few people were interested in the spot. Which ended up going to David. Lucas would bring him to hangout with us from time to time, so we knew him, but I didn't really know he played guitar the way that he does until he came out to audition. His background with music and guitar playing adds a very interesting twist to the music we are writing. So I voiced my opinion of him joining up and the rest of the band agreed."
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
Douglas Bishop: "The band's name initially came somewhat randomly. I don't even remember where I had first heard of an albatross. I just remember it sounding like a really cool word. I felt that it was important to have a band name that was unique and easily findable. So I started with wanted to name the band, "An Albatross". However that name is already taken (Awesome band. Super weird). I ended up coming across some folklore behind albatrosses. A poem titled, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It essentially tells the story of a ship that is being followed by an albatross, which was thought of as being a good omen.
However, one of the ship's crew shot it down, thus cursing the ship. I took it as something like, "what appears as one thing, ends up being another". Similarly to how some things in life may generally be considered a "good" or "bad" thing, but for you, or me, or anybody else they really wouldn't be. So the "Albatross" represents the uncertainty of outcomes in life, and the things it "Fires" at you through it. The band name still does represent that for me, but it does have deeper meaning now. As when the band was first started, we weren't a concept band. That was an idea that James and I came up with to do way later on in our musical endeavors. If the day were to come where we knew the band was coming to an end, we wanted to finish it all with this grandiose conceptual album. I also don't really remember how it changed from that, to "we should just be a concept band"."
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We are based out of West Michigan, The music scene here is a little quiet right now due to the shutdowns, but before that it was awesome! Tons of new music, shows, and lots of friends blowing up around here such as Timeless, Elan Vital, Hollowfront and Sleep Waker.
4. How would you describe your style?
Progressive Post-Hardcore. We have also been called Mathcore due to our use of odd time signatures. Fire, Said The Albatross has also gotten lots of comparisons to Dance Gavin Dance and Hail The Sun.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We have released three singles and a Deluxe EP. You can expect from us unexpected collaborations, fantasy story elements relating to the songs, and songs for any vibe.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
We are currently working on another single, a new ep, and then we will be finally putting together a full length album.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
We have some live stream shows lined up, but as soon as the world fully opens back up we hope to be back out jamming with everyone
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
We hope to keep bringing fun creative new tracks to the public and we have some plans to create some fun new fantasy inspired projects for all the D&D fantasy nerds like us.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, bandcamp, and all other streaming services. We put all of our music out for free when we can, but if you would like a shirt hit us up on Facebook.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa9crTJfcklcamp8400FCWQ
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1A8AhqXK61KMMu145dDI5U
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/fire-said-the-albatross/1487526304
https://soundcloud.com/fire-said-the-albatross
https://firesaidthealbatross.bandcamp.com/
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
The overall vibe, the composition, and the story elements we incorporate into our lyrics
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