Hey! Please introduce yourself and your role in the band!
Hello there, I’m Chris Mojan and I play guitar in Fireworks
For those unaware of Fireworks, how did you come to be a band? Give us a brief history of how you started to the present day…
A few of us got together and decided to wanted to start a band that we could have more fun in take a little more lightly. We were already best friends and hung out all the time, so starting a band just seemed to be the right idea. We started as a band called, “Bears” and played really fast really technical pop punk. Most of the songs were pretty long too, and didn’t make much sense haha. The lineup was just Kyle, Dave, Tymm and I. We then sort of found our niche and decided Dave should just sing and our friend Brett play guitar. We came up with the name Fireworks because it’s the first thing someone suggested when we didn’t want to use Bears anymore, it just stuck. We then recorded some demos, Jeff from RFC heard them, liked them a lot and we did our EP.
Which bands would you say you sound like and which bands are influences on the Fireworks sound?
We hear we sound like New Found Glory, Hit The Lights, The Movielife etc. Which is a real honor we love all those bands. Not to sound too typical but I think our influences are pretty endless. We mainly all grew up in the age of cheap compilations(punk o-rama,life in the fat lane, hopelessly devoted etc..) and mail order which made it real awesome to hear so many different bands for a few bucks. That whole mindset has really carried on, we’re not really the kind of people to only listen to a few bands. Best record of all time though is “…and out come the wolves” by Rancid. Just thought i’d throw that in there.
Pop-punk certainly seems to be ‘in’ right now with bands like NFG, Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong and Hit The Lights tearing it up. Why do you think it’s cool to like pop punk again?
I think people just finally realized that it’s okay to like catchy music. I remember a few years ago bands like NFG were considered “guilty pleasures” to friends of mine. I always wondered why. I think it simply is just the fact that a few people figured, Im in love with this music, and im going to come out of my shell and support it, and the rest followed. I really do think NFG had a lot to do with this “punk rock revival” of sort. Right around the time Catalyst came out, it seemed like everyone got super psyched on them again, for good reason too, amazing record. And they just cut through every scene and genre, everyone loves them. It’s like the people who weren’t old enough to really make any waves yet when Sticks and Stones came out finally had a big say and could express that by the time Catalyst came out. Sort of like when your finally old enough to vote.
How did you hook up with Run For Cover Records?
We had put up a my space with 4 songs on it that we recorded in our friend Mat’s basement studio (Studio Minx) We started getting a ton of awesome feedback from them, one of them being from Jeff. He loved the songs and wanted to put us out, it was as simple as that, we really lucked out and love Jeff for that, among other reasons. I then met Jeff, unplanned at Bamboozle, headwalking for Lifetime. What a mosher.
I read somewhere you’re due to put out a 7″ in the near future…which song(s) will you use and when can we expect it? I gather they’re may also be a cover song in there..
Yeah, we’re actually releasing a 7′ on Run For Cover called, “Adventure, Nostalgia, And Robbery” in May. It’s going to be 4 songs, 1 new songs, 2 old songs, and one cover. The cover is going to be “Heart A Tact” by Kid Dynamite, also to be featured on the compilation, “Carry The Torch” on Copperlung Records. There’s a ton of awesome bands on that comp that everyone should check out. We’re just in the stages of getting the songs back and starting to promote it, so you’ll hear alot more about that. If you actually go to runforcoverrecords.com you can hear the 1 new song streaming.
Will this be your last release with Run For Cover? Have you hooked up with another label yet for future releases?
As of now this will be our last release with Run For Cover. We are trying to figure out what the next release will come out on, and hopefully will have that all set in the next months. It’s frustrating, but we’re real excited and have a ton of new material we’re really excited about releasing.
How did the split with Save Your Breath come about? Are you stoked with the response so far? Do you plan to come over to the UK to tour the split at all?
Basically all via email. We got hit up about doing it, were stoked on it, and the process was real smooth and everyone involved rules. We want to come over to the UK so bad. We always seem to get a good response from the UK so ideally we’d like to make it over there by this fall, we’ll see though. Last time I was in the UK a 10 year old tried fighting me in Hull, but besides that we’re excited.
How has the internet helped you as a band? Do you think bands place too much emphasis on myspace/facebook instead of touring? Has it become easier for bands to get ‘big’ without putting in the effort?
The Internet has helped every band. I won’t even go in to depth because it’s just an all around resource that works. The internet is why Jeff heard us and we’ve developed so much support from people. We still keep busy touring as much as we can, but the internet definately helps fill some gaps. This is no reason for bands to rely on the internet though, sure it works for some, but seems to lack the integrity and strong work ethic your band gains from trying on your own. It just weirds me out when we have to fill out forms for whatever reason and there are questions like, “how many my space plays do you have? friends?”, I didn’t realize how much people really cared about that stuff until then. And It’s sad that stuff like that really can make bands, considering any person can listen to their own band and spend all day adding friends, but some may consider that the same as working hard with touring and promoting, who knows.
Which bands are your favourites to tour with? Any band you’d love to tour with but haven’t yet?
We’ve been extremely lucky and are real close friends with most of the bands we’ve toured with. 2*Sweet really makes me happy as does First To Leave, and This Time Next Year. These were the first bands we really did any sort of touring with. Then we went out with bands like Set Your Goals, Just Surrender, The Swellers, The Wonder Years, Monument Monument And Crime In Stereo and love those dudes as well, among others im forgetting. We’d love to tour with a lot of bands, and there are also a lot of bands in the back of our mind we’re sort of dreading touring with if it ever does just seem to happen. But you really don’t know until your out there with them. I’d like to tour with a real mixed genre package, like a punk band, pop punk band, hardcore band and indie rock band. Or something like that.
Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton?
Obama said knock you out…although it would be real nostalgic to have Bill in the news again, I don’t know about Hill though. I speak for myself. I notice you didn’t throw John McCain in there…hm.
Paris Hilton or Nicole Ritchie (bearing in mind the Madden brothers seem to have them…)
Girls don’t like boys girls like cars and money. A friend of mine who works at a big concert venue told me he once walked in on one of the Madden brothers humping some girl in this weird attic part of the venue. I’ll probably ask him which one it was, then make sure not to choose his significant other. With that line up though, It’s hard to make any wise decisions.
Thanks Paul, your Punktastic. Thanks UK, your also Punktastic, but because of Paul.