Fair Fjola CD Release Party June 18
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Deck has produced albums from well-known national bands like Modest Mouse, Counting Crows and Iron & Wine.
According to lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Sebastian Coria, lead guitarist Tyler Reinholt sent Deck an e-mail with music of the band. Reinholt said he did not think he’d get a reply, but Deck replied with a phone call. On the following Monday, they were invited to the studio, and a month later began recording with Deck.
While recording in Chicago, the band lived in the Windy City.
Sebastian said Deck was intrigued with the band because they weren’t on a label yet and Fair Fjola had a sound he liked.
“A lot of it had to do with us not being signed,” said Reinholt.
Veronica Coria, who plays the mandolin, ukulele and sings, said Deck listens to all the songs he is e-mailed at least once. Reinholt said Deck doesn’t record with a lot of bands, however.
“He hand picks the bands he wants to work with,” said Eileen Coria Gillis.
Eileen plays piano and vocals. The other band members include Samy Coria on vocals, guitar and piano, and Samuel Gillis on drums, percussion and harmonica.
Fair Fjola’s debut CD, “No One Gets Any”, is available now on iTunes, CDbaby and Amazon. The band also offers fans the opportunity to purchase the CD at their live shows, or it can be purchased at Reinholt’s Town Square Furniture, downtown Warsaw.
A CD release party is scheduled for Saturday from 7 to 11 p.m. at the former Readers World, Buffalo Street, downtown Warsaw. Opening act will be Sioux Ste. Marie. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at Reinholt’s, The Downtown or at the door.
“The way we decided which songs got on were, we didn’t have any more,” joked Sebastian.
Fair Fjola recorded 14 of the 16 songs they had. Reinholt said Deck wanted 12 songs for the album.
“We progressed really quickly because, he said, we were the only sober band he had worked with,” said Eileen.
Each morning, Sebastian said, the band started recording at 10 a.m. In the month they were in the studio, Sebastian said they played their music over and over, so when they played their first gig out afterward, the band’s performance was really tight.
Eileen said Deck liked Fair Fjola’s sound instantly. Deck told them he wanted to implement some of his ideas, like more synthesizer sounds, but Deck always asked the band for their input, Eileen said.
“We learned to play with a metronome,” she said.
Sebastian said he had some issues with the metronome, but learned to use it.
“I would say the whole album is an improvement,” Sebastian said.
“Our standards are raised,” said Samuel. “My drumming definitely improved a lot because Brian is a percussionist and he has a master’s degree in it. He definitely made me raise my standards of what’s good.”
“Brian doesn’t give out free compliments, but right off the bat, Sam got compliments of his playing skills,” said Sebastian.
“It was amazing, fantastic,” Samuel said. “We had a drummer connection. Hopefully, on the next album, I’m not afraid of the metronome and not so shy, but I’m happy with what I did.”
Sebastian said Deck told him not to sing harmonies, but he did tell Sebastian he was the lead vocalist. Samuel said Deck was attracted to Sebastian’s voice.
Veronica said she and Eileen were told to never give up.
“We all had a really cool relationship with him,” Sebastian said of Deck. “With Veronica, he was sugar sweet.”
“He had a lot of faith in Tyler,” said Eileen. “The last couple of days we were there, he just sat Tyler down in a chair and he played the lead and Brian told him what worked.”
“We’d come up with a song and Tyler would come up with incredible touches on the leads. He nailed it on every one of the songs,” said Sebastian.
“The leads for me are one of the stand-out parts of the album,” said Samuel.
“Tyler thinks in music and knows what to do to tug at your heart strings,” said Sebastian.
The recording studio was a real family atmosphere for Fair Fjola, Sebastian said. Even their parents got to visit and meet everyone.
After recording the album, some of the band members traveled to New York for the album to be mastered by Greg Calbi. Calbi has worked with everyone from John Lennon and The Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan and the Meat Puppets.
“Greg was really into our music as well,” said Sebastian. “He mastered the album in a day.”
While in New York, an acoustic music video was made in two days, which is available on YouTube. Sebastian said only he, Reinholt and Veronica appear in the video, which was a “bummer”, because they were the only ones who had traveled to the Big Apple.
As for the order of the songs on the CD, Sebastian said they sat down and picked the order. In the film “Queen: Live at Wembley Stadium”, members of Queen talk about an album being a roller coaster and how it should end on a high note. Fair Fjola members wanted the same idea, and Calbi approved it.
“At the end of it, he was happy with it,” Sebastian said.[[In-content Ad]]Reinholt and Sebastian had hoped to learn about mastering, but found it to be above their heads.
“We went to the mastering studio and it was totally a different language,” said Sebastian.
“He didn’t use layman’s terms so it went above my head,” said Reinholt.
Veronica said they were given five copies of the mastering CD. After New York, they went straight to Chicago to give one of the copies to Deck.
The tracks on the CD include “Walt’s”, “Structures Like These”, “Brown Leaves”, “Missing Plaquemines”, “Settle”, “Mixtape Blues”, “Seemingly Safe”, “Summer Song”, “Building a Bridge”, “Water Tower”, “Wait for Me” and “Indian Summer”.
The artwork for the album is a panorama shot of Chicago by Kristi Haddad. Sebastian said Haddad is a good friend and did the artwork for their friend Nick Stanton. The photo was taken from the roof of where Fair Fjola stayed in Chicago.
While making the CD, another major event happened for the band. Samuel Gillis proposed to Eileen on the roof of Engine Studios. They recently were married.
In the near future, possibly August, Reinholt said, Fair Fjola plans to tour the East Coast for a month.
The experience of making the CD has had a positive impact to the band.
“It raised the bar instantly when we stepped in there,” said Reinholt.
As members of the band continue to write songs, they said they probably have enough material for at least a couple more albums.
Reinholt said, “The next two albums, I can see (the band) going in a totally different direction.”
Fair Fjola can be found on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and SoundCloud.com
Deck has produced albums from well-known national bands like Modest Mouse, Counting Crows and Iron & Wine.
According to lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Sebastian Coria, lead guitarist Tyler Reinholt sent Deck an e-mail with music of the band. Reinholt said he did not think he’d get a reply, but Deck replied with a phone call. On the following Monday, they were invited to the studio, and a month later began recording with Deck.
While recording in Chicago, the band lived in the Windy City.
Sebastian said Deck was intrigued with the band because they weren’t on a label yet and Fair Fjola had a sound he liked.
“A lot of it had to do with us not being signed,” said Reinholt.
Veronica Coria, who plays the mandolin, ukulele and sings, said Deck listens to all the songs he is e-mailed at least once. Reinholt said Deck doesn’t record with a lot of bands, however.
“He hand picks the bands he wants to work with,” said Eileen Coria Gillis.
Eileen plays piano and vocals. The other band members include Samy Coria on vocals, guitar and piano, and Samuel Gillis on drums, percussion and harmonica.
Fair Fjola’s debut CD, “No One Gets Any”, is available now on iTunes, CDbaby and Amazon. The band also offers fans the opportunity to purchase the CD at their live shows, or it can be purchased at Reinholt’s Town Square Furniture, downtown Warsaw.
A CD release party is scheduled for Saturday from 7 to 11 p.m. at the former Readers World, Buffalo Street, downtown Warsaw. Opening act will be Sioux Ste. Marie. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at Reinholt’s, The Downtown or at the door.
“The way we decided which songs got on were, we didn’t have any more,” joked Sebastian.
Fair Fjola recorded 14 of the 16 songs they had. Reinholt said Deck wanted 12 songs for the album.
“We progressed really quickly because, he said, we were the only sober band he had worked with,” said Eileen.
Each morning, Sebastian said, the band started recording at 10 a.m. In the month they were in the studio, Sebastian said they played their music over and over, so when they played their first gig out afterward, the band’s performance was really tight.
Eileen said Deck liked Fair Fjola’s sound instantly. Deck told them he wanted to implement some of his ideas, like more synthesizer sounds, but Deck always asked the band for their input, Eileen said.
“We learned to play with a metronome,” she said.
Sebastian said he had some issues with the metronome, but learned to use it.
“I would say the whole album is an improvement,” Sebastian said.
“Our standards are raised,” said Samuel. “My drumming definitely improved a lot because Brian is a percussionist and he has a master’s degree in it. He definitely made me raise my standards of what’s good.”
“Brian doesn’t give out free compliments, but right off the bat, Sam got compliments of his playing skills,” said Sebastian.
“It was amazing, fantastic,” Samuel said. “We had a drummer connection. Hopefully, on the next album, I’m not afraid of the metronome and not so shy, but I’m happy with what I did.”
Sebastian said Deck told him not to sing harmonies, but he did tell Sebastian he was the lead vocalist. Samuel said Deck was attracted to Sebastian’s voice.
Veronica said she and Eileen were told to never give up.
“We all had a really cool relationship with him,” Sebastian said of Deck. “With Veronica, he was sugar sweet.”
“He had a lot of faith in Tyler,” said Eileen. “The last couple of days we were there, he just sat Tyler down in a chair and he played the lead and Brian told him what worked.”
“We’d come up with a song and Tyler would come up with incredible touches on the leads. He nailed it on every one of the songs,” said Sebastian.
“The leads for me are one of the stand-out parts of the album,” said Samuel.
“Tyler thinks in music and knows what to do to tug at your heart strings,” said Sebastian.
The recording studio was a real family atmosphere for Fair Fjola, Sebastian said. Even their parents got to visit and meet everyone.
After recording the album, some of the band members traveled to New York for the album to be mastered by Greg Calbi. Calbi has worked with everyone from John Lennon and The Rolling Stones to Bob Dylan and the Meat Puppets.
“Greg was really into our music as well,” said Sebastian. “He mastered the album in a day.”
While in New York, an acoustic music video was made in two days, which is available on YouTube. Sebastian said only he, Reinholt and Veronica appear in the video, which was a “bummer”, because they were the only ones who had traveled to the Big Apple.
As for the order of the songs on the CD, Sebastian said they sat down and picked the order. In the film “Queen: Live at Wembley Stadium”, members of Queen talk about an album being a roller coaster and how it should end on a high note. Fair Fjola members wanted the same idea, and Calbi approved it.
“At the end of it, he was happy with it,” Sebastian said.[[In-content Ad]]Reinholt and Sebastian had hoped to learn about mastering, but found it to be above their heads.
“We went to the mastering studio and it was totally a different language,” said Sebastian.
“He didn’t use layman’s terms so it went above my head,” said Reinholt.
Veronica said they were given five copies of the mastering CD. After New York, they went straight to Chicago to give one of the copies to Deck.
The tracks on the CD include “Walt’s”, “Structures Like These”, “Brown Leaves”, “Missing Plaquemines”, “Settle”, “Mixtape Blues”, “Seemingly Safe”, “Summer Song”, “Building a Bridge”, “Water Tower”, “Wait for Me” and “Indian Summer”.
The artwork for the album is a panorama shot of Chicago by Kristi Haddad. Sebastian said Haddad is a good friend and did the artwork for their friend Nick Stanton. The photo was taken from the roof of where Fair Fjola stayed in Chicago.
While making the CD, another major event happened for the band. Samuel Gillis proposed to Eileen on the roof of Engine Studios. They recently were married.
In the near future, possibly August, Reinholt said, Fair Fjola plans to tour the East Coast for a month.
The experience of making the CD has had a positive impact to the band.
“It raised the bar instantly when we stepped in there,” said Reinholt.
As members of the band continue to write songs, they said they probably have enough material for at least a couple more albums.
Reinholt said, “The next two albums, I can see (the band) going in a totally different direction.”
Fair Fjola can be found on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and SoundCloud.com
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