Photo by Ellie Matlack
Interview by Madison Boyce
Before the release of their singles “Nothing’s Changed” and “Gone”, we got the chance to sit down with Richmond, Virginia alternative-rock band Fanfare. We spoke about writing, musical inspirations, the future of live music, and more!
Madison Boyce: For those who don’t know, who is Fanfare?
Collin Lassiter: Fanfare is a four-piece alternative rock band from Richmond, Virginia.
How would you describe your sound in three words?
Miles Fagan: Not good…
CL: That’s two words! (laughs)
MF: I want to say alternative pop-punk. We’re taking the word emo out of our genre officially.
CL: Super cool guys! That’s the one!
Zac Harrell: Perfect.
MB: Who inspired each of you to start playing music?
MF: I don’t know, probably like Tre Cool [from Greenday] for drums, then I picked up the bass because Nathan is better at drums than I am.
Nathan Vranas: I would definitely say my parents inspired me. They were always into music when I was growing up, so naturally I started playing. I just eventually shifted to playing drums and I stuck with that.
ZH: For me, my uncle got me into playing guitar when I was about five or six and he played in this church band. He shreds, he’s so good.
NV: Hey man, I used to play in my church band and I had the worst stage fright. I’ve never been as nervous then when I played drums with my church.
CL: Have we all played in church bands then?
MF: Nah, I didn’t go to church.
CL: I would say Blink-182 was the band that got me into playing guitar and then weirdly enough I had a dude at my church who got me to pick up guitar and he kind of recruited me.
NV: Fanfare is the church band!
ML: Alternative-church band! There’s your three words.
MB: When shows are able to happen again, who do you guys want to play with most?
NV: I think it would be really fun to have a show back to just play with all of our homies, you know? Just all of our friends who play music too.
We hang out with them a lot too outside of just playing shows, so we see them a good amount. We all miss shows, so that's what I'll say.
ZH: Yeah, definitely a house show with all the homies would be my first choice.
CL: Literally any show. I don't care who's playing. I don't care if we are the only band playing, I just want to play a show.
NV: I want to play the Canal Club again! Shoutout to the Canal Club!
CL: That’s literally one of the coolest venues in Richmond. Anytime a band comes through, we always try to recommend the Canal Club.
MB: How has the writing and recording process evolved from the beginning of Fanfare to now?
CL: I would say it's gotten a lot better...we used to not know how to write songs.
MF: In the beginning of Fanfare, the way we wrote songs was like, somebody would write a whole song and then take it to the band and we would kind of change stuff. Then, somebody else would write a whole song.
That’s why on our first EP, every song sounds completely different; Collin and our old vocalist would literally trade off writing songs. [Recently,] we started to work on stuff together a lot more.
CL: Yeah, we used to not know how to write a chorus like, our song structures would just be four or five verses in a row. We were just like, "this is how you write a song!"
We went to a producer for the first time, Will Beasley who did [our single] “Pulling Punches”, and he is like the guy. He records everything around here and he’s just so good at what he does.
NV: It's a lot more presenting ideas instead of jamming on something someone wrote.
MB: Out of every song you’ve released, what would you say your favorite is?
Everyone: “Pulling Punches”
What are some things we can expect to see from Fanfare this year?
MF: At least a couple of releases!
NV: We really, really, really want to tour.
MF: Hopefully if people can put on their masks we can go on tour. We’ll see about maybe some other stuff relating to releases...maybe a music video.
CL: We’ve been writing, we've been [recording demos], and hopefully we’ll be able to get back into the studio maybe this year.
If you could say one thing to anyone reading this right now, what would it be?
MF: Wear your masks so we can go on tour, please!
CL: Everything’s going to be okay.
ZH: That's true, everything is going to be okay!
We would like to give a huge thank you to Fanfare for taking the time to chat with us! You can support the band by picking up some merch via their online store and following them on Twitter @FanfareVA.
You can stream their whole discography including their newest releases, “Nothing’s Changed” and “Gone”, wherever you listen to music. Let us know who you want to see us talk to next by tweeting us @lgndsoftmrw!
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