Hot on the heels of the release of their debut album ‘Designed to Be’, this week’s Introducing article is focused on Stourbridge rock outfit, Fans of Faye.
Fans of Faye is made up of Zachary Hart (Vocals), Matthew Vale (Rhythm Guitar/Vocals), Ian Grant (Lead Guitar), Jamie Kerr (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Jack Sidaway (Drums), and they describe their sound as “emotionally and lyrically driven rock music… whatever that means.” adding that “[we]’d suggest people just check out the album, which sums us up much better than [our] poor effort here!” We’ve had a listen to ‘Designed to Be’ and we can report back that their description is pretty accurate – the whole album is kind of like an Englisher Twin Atlantic. It’s an atmospheric album with big choruses and brooding verses, and streaming below is current single ‘Ghosts’
So, how did Fans of Faye come to be? Well according to the band, there’s “no especially exciting story as to how the band started”, which is fair enough – all too often you hear bands regale stories of how their coming together was some special ‘meant to be’ moment. The real interest and in some ways the main motivation behind the band comes with the story behind their name; “The name came about when a very close friend of ours was tragically killed in a car crash returning home from University for Christmas. She had always encouraged me to play/write music and write lyrics. I feel I owe her a lot. Until that point we had changed names almost weekly but that hit us hard and I personally wanted to change the name and pay respect a major factor in us being a band. She was called Faye Newton and so we became, the ‘Fans of Faye’.”
Releasing a debut album is generally one of the most exciting parts of being in a band, and it’s no different for Fans of Faye – “We’re dying for people to hear it! We’ve been playing music for a long time, since the beginning we’ve imagined what our very first full length album would look and sound like.” They’ve ensured that their vision of their debut album has remained true by releasing ‘Designed To Be’ through their own record label, Little Windmill Records, and by working with a handpicked team who know the band and share their vision of what their debut album had to be instead of relying on an established label to do the work for them, Fans of Faye have kept true to what they’ve always wanted and as a result the music sounds fresh and original. It’s pretty different to what’s already out there, and ultimately this ethic and subsequent end result is what will set them apart from the rest in what is an already bustling genre. Going into the end of 2012 and the start of 2013, the band say that “the plan is to keep playing as many shows as possible and generally put in the hard work [we need to]” – a list of their upcoming shows is available at the end of this article.
Line-up changes aside, when asked what their favourite moment of being in the band has been so far they said that it was definitely releasing the album because (in their own words) “This band and this album have been in the making for the best part of a decade, so it really feels like we’ve arrived and are ready to take things forward. I guess in many ways it feels like the beginning.” Which, if ‘Designed to Be’ and the reaction it’s received so far is anything to go by, Fans of Faye are set to have a very big 2013 indeed.
DECEMBER
06 BIRMINGHAM Ballroom
JANUARY
20 SHEFFIELD 02 Academy
https://www.facebook.com/fansoffayeuk
http://www.fansoffaye.co.uk
CHRIS MARSHMAN