It's not uncommon for family members to form a band together.
The Patridge Family did it. Then there was The Jackson 5, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Beach Boys, Oasis, Hanson and The Jonas Brothers.
Four of the six members of Fair Fjola are siblings, but the other two have been assimilated so much into the band that they're like extended family.
"Us four are related so all the fights we had, we got those out of the way," said Sebastian Coria. "Tyler's been a friend of mine since kindergarten. We're all pretty much family."
"When we get into fights, it's like brother and sister fights. There's no argument we can't overcome," said Veronica Coria.
Along with Sebastian and Veronica Coria, the other siblings in the Warsaw-based indie folk-rock group are Samy and Eileen Coria.
Rounding out the six-person band is Samuel Gillis, who has been dating Eileen for the past three years.
Fair Fjola will perform at the Kosciusko County Courthouse Square June 4 at 8:30 p.m. during the first "First Fridays" event downtown Warsaw. Opening acts will be Nick Stanton at 6 p.m. and the Sock Monkeys at 7 p.m.
When members of Fair Fjola started playing together, a guy from Nashville, Tenn., wanted to check them out. They wrote four songs in a week, Sebastian said. The first song written for the group was "Settle," but "Indian Summer" was the first song they all collaborated on.
Before Fair Fjola was formed, however, Sebastian, Tyler and Samy had been in a different band together four years ago.
"I don't even know if you'd call it a band," said Tyler. "We were planning to move to Nashville."
Tyler did eventually move to Nashville, and the guys went their separate ways. Meanwhile, Samuel started playing musically with Veronica and Eileen.
"Samuel just wanted to be in a band," said Sebastian. "I didn't know how good my sisters were."
Samuel learned to play drums in high school, but Eileen taught him to play the guitar. He picked the guitar and harmonica up in six months easily, Eileen said.
"He got way better than me in six months, and I've been playing for four to five years," Eileen said.
But Fair Fjola members don't play the same instrument for every song. They'll switch around between bass, guitar, vocals and drums as they switch songs.
"I'm probably the least versatile of the band," admitted Sebastian.
"Sebastian is probably the front man," said Samuel.
One of the biggest problems the band has to deal with isn't ego, but schedules. Between jobs and schools, they all have "opposite" schedules, Eileen said.
As for influences, the Coria siblings have their parents to thank.
"My family grew up every morning waking up to Queen or Pink Floyd," said Eileen. A day didn't pass that she doesn't remember hearing music first thing in the morning.
As the Coria family hails from Argentina originally, they also were exposed to some old Argentine folk music. Sebastian started listening to more indie rock, adding to the mix of influences on the Coria family.
While their father had 10 guitars in the house, Veronica said he never pushed playing music on his children. When they were ready to learn and wanted to learn, he offered his help.
Keith Reinholt, Tyler's father, said Tyler was already holding a guitar when he was 3 or 4 years old. Tyler started taking lessons in the seventh grade.
Around the seventh grade, Tyler was introduced to blues artist Buddy Guy. He then started in on other blues artists like Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters.
Growing up, Samuel was exposed to a lot of Neil Young, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan, he said. Dylan is his biggest influence and favorite music artist. His parents also introduced him to Led Zeppelin and Queen.
"My mom always had the Mamas and the Papas playing in the car all the time," said Samuel.
Samy said Fair Fjola wants to be a kind of folk band, and Samuel brings that out.
"We don't try for a particular style, it just comes out that way," said Eileen. A band member will bring a chord progression to the group, and then everyone adds their particular touch to it, she said. "There's no song that all of us didn't add to."
When the band was ready to play out for their first-ever show, they had only been playing together for about 3-1/2 weeks. They were booked into the Blue Lion Coffeehouse in Pierceton.
"We packed it out," said Sebastian.
"They said it was the busiest night they ever had," said Tyler.
It was the day after Christmas, and the weather was pretty bad. Eileen said it took her 40 minutes to get there. Considering how bad the weather was, the band was surprised how many people showed up.
"It definitely made us want to keep playing," said Sebastian.
Since then, the band has started playing beyond Kosciusko County. They just did a little tour, playing at The Bishop in Bloomington and the Vollrath Tavern in Indianapolis.
As to the future of the band, Veronica said they want to take it "as far as it can possibly go."
"If we break even, we'd be happy," said Samy.
"We want to get our music out there. We want people to enjoy it," said Veronica.
"When we did the mini-tour, we took the money we made as a band and had a good time and broke even," said Eileen. "That to me is perfect."
Tyler and Sebastian agreed that there's nothing else they're meant to do but to play music.
Their music touches on every day life and events, said Sebastian. There's no profanity in their music.
"We're trying to show our love to others, the same love we've been shown growing up," said Sebastian.
Fair Fjola likes to embrace generalities in its songs. Sebastian said he hates the kind of songs that tells you directly what's going on. He wants the listener to decide for themselves.The band has released an EP on Auris Apothecary records in Bloomington, thanks to Bruce Woodward. And they've filmed a video for their song "Water Tower" thanks to Zack Gibson. It will be out in the next few weeks on YouTube, MySpace and other Web sites, Sebastian said.
Whether they're recording music or videos, or just jamming in the garage, the members of Fair Fjola said they enjoy playing.
"I still enjoy playing on the songs," said Samy.
"We have fun playing. We love music so much," said Eileen.
"If I wasn't in the band, I would listen to this music," said Samuel. "I think it's awesome it doesn't sound like every other band."
"We're all best friends. All of us hang out," said Eileen. "We make each other laugh, we encourage each other. All of it is just love."
Besides the June 4 performance, other public shows are May 27, 8 p.m., Black Sheep Studio; June 26, Riverfest, IPFW, Fort Wayne; July 2, Pie-Eyed Petey's; and July 31, Syracuse Summerfest.
