Interview: Fair

Fair's new album has finally arrived and it meets everyone's expectations (review here). The band's guitarist Erick Newbill took some time to tell me about the recording of 'Disappearing world', his side-project and touring. Read the interview by clicking "Read more".






[This interview will be available in French in a few days.]



Hey Erick, thank you for taking some time to answer my questions, how is Fair doing?

You're welcome, and we're doing great! We're breathing a big sigh of relief now that February, 9th has happened and now that the new album is out it feels good to be active doing things with Fair again. We're ready to be playing shows again especially after taking a long break.


How has the reception of the new album been so far?

We've been so encouraged by the reception thus far. We've had people hanging in there with us since the last album and have also picked up a lot of new fans along the way and so far everyone seems to be enjoying the new songs. When it takes a long time to get a new album out, I think you're going to have some nerves about it. The new album felt a lot different to us and we weren't sure what people would think, even though we couldn't be happier with the songs. To have so many people connecting with it right away blows us away. Nothing means more to us than the encouraging messages we get from people that felt like something in our music spoke to them. That's what Fair is about for us.


Let's go back to the beginning. Could you tell us about how Fair got created?

The four of us have been friends for a long time, having been involved in other musical projects with each other, or just traveling in the same circles. Aaron and Nick have been playing together since junior high school! We ultimately came together as one incarnation of the band that Aaron was using to play his solo stuff. We quickly decided it would be a lot of fun to start a brand new band and began writing new material under the name Fair.


People have the image of Fair as a band apart from the scene, enjoying a particular freedom not a lot of bands can experience. Do you have this feeling?

We do in some ways, yes. Since Fair isn't a career for any of us, we are able to make the music we want to make without some of the pressures some bands face. We take what we do seriously, and the band is important to us, but it's not a singular focus in our lives and that makes it a lot more enjoyable.


Does that mean you have less pressure while writing/recording?

Definitely. There's never been a point where we felt like we had to write a certain kind of song to appeal to a certain crowd, or please a record label. I think if that became the case we wouldn't want Fair to continue. It's always been about four friends making the music we love making. The time we're able to spend doing Fair is some of the most rewarding and enjoyable time in our lives. In some ways it can almost feel like a vacation to get into the studio with Aaron, Joey, and Nick because it's so much fun.


How was the process of writing and recording 'Disappearing world' different from 'The best worst-case scenario'?

It was a lot different actually. For 'The best worst-case scenario' almost all of the songs were written in the studio by Aaron or myself and were basically finished songs when we committed to recording the final versions. One of us would write a song, all the lyrics, and then get input from the other three members. That approach worked well for that album and we are happy with every song. For 'Disappearing world', we wanted to stretch ourselves and write in a way none of us were used to. For starters, we had almost 20 songs up for consideration before we even went into the studio back in December of 2007 to start recording. Five more songs came quickly after that so we were working with a pool of 25 songs. The difference this time is that Aaron and I intentionally left the songs "unfinished" so that there was a ton of room for collaboration. We got into a room together as a band with our instruments (this happens less and less today in the world of easy digital recording), hashed the songs out and finished them as a band. We all wrote on this record and put our individual stamp on each song. Writing this way was not only way more fun, but the songs went in directions that they never would have gone before. We decided to try a lot more with piano as a primary instrument and that changed the outcome of most of the songs. When I listen back to my demos of the songs I wrote, some of them aren't even recognizable anymore and it makes me realize that we met our objective. I remember telling the guys at one point that this stuff is what I thought Fair would sound like when we started the band.


There is an retro feeling on this record, was it deliberate?

Yes and no! We definitely set out to make music that reflected all four of our influences. It just turns out that we are all heavily influenced by music from the 60's, 70's and 80's so it happened naturally. It came from sharing an unspoken collective vision about where each song was going.


What influenced you for 'Disappearing world'?

Musically, we all just went back to our roots and the music we love. Lyrically and thematically, we were intentional with each song and this album has deep meaning for all of us. Sometimes when you write lyrics you sort of "go with what sounds cool" and aren't always worried about the deeper meaning of each song. That's a fine way to approach songwriting, but this time we felt like digging deeper. It's difficult to reconcile being human in a terribly broken world. And oddly, it can be confusing to see glimpses of beauty when you're used to that broken world. We're exploring those feelings a lot on this album, and want people to discover what we have - that there is genuine hope and beauty and to embrace that and not become cynical.


Would you ever consider having a Fair record produced by someone else than Aaron?

We've talked about that a lot actually. It would be a lot of fun to work with another producer that we all respected, but it would have to make sense and be the right situation. We wouldn't hire another producer just for the sake of doing it, but if it felt like it was going to make the music that much better we'd go for it. Our band is extremely hands on with production, so I could see it being more as a production collaboration than a standard producer/band arrangement. It's always nice to have another set of capable ears.


How would you describe Fair's music and which current bands do you feel close to?

When asked, I always call Fair a "melodic rock band". We scrap a song quickly if the melody doesn't grab us, so that description seems to work (I hope!). For me, I am most fond of Blur, Catherine Wheel and Pixies. I know it's a stretch to call those bands "current" but that is the music that I connect with most and have for a long time. I like anything that makes me "feel" something. There is so much music out there that I know in my head is good music, but if I don't feel it in my heart I don't tend to listen long. I know that if I get shivers from listening to a band, I'm onto something. In the time since our last record I've gotten really into Mew and Muse. I rarely listen to music to relax and Muse especially is a band that I can turn up loud in my car and just deal with whatever I've got going on.


Could you tell us about your other band, Subways On The Sun?

Sure! The motivation behind Subways on the Sun is that I tend to write songs on a fairly consistent basis, and obviously there's not room for all those songs on the Fair albums. It's been about eight years since I was the lead singer in a band (since Aaron produced my old band Wes Dando) and the songs I've been writing lately, combined with some songs left over from the two Fair albums, are songs that mean a lot to me personally and so I've decided to create an avenue for that. I'm collaborating on the writing with my great friend Lars Katz and we're having fun working on this music. We're spending time recording demos right now at Lars' home studio and want to be playing live during 2010 at some point. Nick is going to play bass and we're talking to a couple drummers too. It just felt like the right time to branch off a bit from what we're doing in Fair and I'm excited to see where the band goes.


Is there any release planned?

My goal at this point is just to put together a good live set. I have the tendency to get obsessed with over producing demos like I am making a record and this time I just want to get a set of songs roughly demoed that I am proud enough to play live. Ultimately I want to find a label and release a Subways On The Sun album, but step one is to get out and play and see where things go. Playing live is my favorite part of being a musician and I want to be doing more of that. In the meantime, we do have one song out on the 2009 Abrazos cancer benefit compilation that is available on iTunes and supports the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.


What's in store for Fair in 2010?

We want to work hard at promoting the new album this year. There are some tour plans in the works and other exciting things that I think people will enjoy. It seems like a lot more people are interested in what we're doing than four years ago, so we want to do our best to connect with everyone.


A lot of fans would love to see Fair tour more, what do you think about it?

It would be great! But, since we all have families and other jobs it isn't always a possibility. When the right opportunities arise, we try and make them happen. For Fair it's about quality over quantity and we're working to make some things happen for this year and beyond. I know how important it is to me to see bands I enjoy live and want to give people that like our band the opportunity to see us too.


Do you consider playing in Europe anytime soon?

We'd love to! I'm not sure if that is going to be feasible for us, but it would be great to get over there and play. I've been to Europe a few times as a tourist and would love to get back over there and play shows. Anything is possible!


[Thank you very much to Erick for doing this, don't forget to check out Fair's new album, 'Disappearing world'!]



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