On a profoundly chilly yet exciting night, up and coming alternative rock band Fatalist invited me to their 'secret lair' to review their newly recorded 5 track CD - live and in person. I was intrigued as to what might lie ahead. And rightly so.
With Gary McCarthy on Guitar, Sean Hammond on Bass, AJ Pepin on Drums and Lloyd Ghose on Vocals the band Fatalist began the serenade with extremely heavy and bass-laden instrumentals... Which were electrifying. This intro instantly got me wanting more; 'Greed' was the first song of the evening - Lloyd's use of angst-ridden screaming vocals were genius, emotional metaphors hidden within the lyrics. The chorus whispered 'I know what you want from me' repeatedly as Lloyds vocals crept up, louder in each sentence, building up to a climax of loud screams to finish...God this feels like sex. Sean on bass was like a kid in a candy shop; I have never seen a bass played like that before, almost as if it were a lead guitar. AJ definitely kept to his side of the bargain as beat-keeper, and even added in some additional beats to mark his territory. The band playfully broke into a jam of heavy instrumentals and beats as the echo sounded like a scream from hell.
"Wait and See" was every bit as exciting as "Greed", however, starting a little more softly. It made me want to mosh, yet I contained myself and continued to be a professional (just about!). The eerie sound effects and vocals made me feel like I was in a movie, but then the pogo-like guitar ad bass pricked up and once again I felt like a punk in the mid-80s.
Lloyd began to jump around at the end of the song, as an introduction to 'Krakatoa'; not named after the Volcano, but after an incident which left Lloyd without a toenail... "Krakatoa" seems to reflect the angst of teenagedom, the confusion, the paranoia, with lyrics like 'I do want this...I don't want this' repeating themselves over and over.
And then they jumped into a rocked-out and tricked-up version of Destiny's Child's 'Survivor'. I hardly recognised it, it sounded completely original and strangely inviting. It had heavy instrumental breaks, aggressive vocals and screams in appropriately angry moments and drum beats that could surely deafen the most hardened of ears. Lloyd rapped sections as guitarist Gary sang backing vocals, a nice mixture of overlapping rap with rock lyrical brilliance.
They hardly broke between songs, they just kept jamming, with Bassist Sean making up jazzy solos of his own throughout.
But they had to finish, and when they did BCR sat down with the band to get down to the nitty gritty of who and what was Fatalist.
Vocalist Lloyd Ghose and Guitarist Gary McCarthy started the band around four years ago, whilst original Drummer Matt and Bassist Ross left due to musical differences in regards to style and taste. Sean Hammond and AJ Pepin soon replaced them and it was evidently a good move for the band, as their sound has developed and matured and they have a real grip on their pieces (ahem).
I asked the band why they call themselves 'Fatalist', and queried whether it was due to a lack of positive thinking in their lives. They laughed off my probing Freudian questions and told me that they had simply closed their eyes and picked a word from the dictionary.
Fatalist do not seem to take themselves too seriously, as musicians and in their lives as a whole, again, this became evident via the 'Moony' Lloyd pulled to his band mates (which they assured their female fans he does at regular intervals!).
While the ice had well and truly melted during our meeting I decided to probe a little more into the guys as a band:
BCR: Has the band always been called Fatalist?
Lloyd: erm (laughs and appears hesitant as if hiding something)
Gary: 'erm, yeah always been Fatalist!
BCR: Something tells me you're not telling the whole story here...
AJ: 'Yeah, 'Fat-a-list''
BCR: The good thing about you, other than your unique sound and energetic performances is that you don't pigeon-hole your music or your fans. Who or what do you consider your target audience to be?
Gary: Anyone that will listen, anyone who wants to rock out!'
Sean: 'Anyone with ears...or without'.
BCR: You're a very down to earth grouping of (mostly) 21 year olds who have won many "Battle Of The Bands" competitions as well as throwing yourselves into the usual horror of toilet tours. Do you think success is only relevant when a band becomes famous?
Lloyd - 'Obviously it would be great to be known by a large audience, however as long as we enjoy the music, and others around us, then it doesn't really matter if we become famous or not'
Sean - "If a band sells a lot of merchandise!'
Lloyd and Gary both focus on getting the crowd going. They have intense stage presence and give energetic performances. While AJ concentrates on having a good time and 'getting it right', Sean prefers to focus on conscious movement - 'not standing still', and most importantly... keep his trousers from falling down'.
As individual musicians and performers they have an eclectic blend of styles and tastes they aspire to and are inspired by, from Kill Switch Engage to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and having heard several of their tracks including some early stuff, it can be noted that they started off towards more rock-orientated rap vocals with heavy guitar, whereas now the use of rap is virtually non-existent. Yet the heavy guitar and drum sounds are ripe and have developed immensely.
Lloyd: The straying from rap-oriented lyrics just occurred naturally; the newer material, instrumentally speaking, called for this feature, and that's what we focused on.
Gary: Also the music we've been listening to and life experiences developed our music and content.
AJ: We discovered 'Kill Switch Engage' and evolution discovered us.
BCR: How is the deal with Chromium Records working out for you?
Gary- 'Its shit! It's fucking crazy! We had to pay 150 quid for nothing!'
Lloyd- 'Yeah, can you believe it!?'
AJ and Sean- 'It sucks balls to be honest!'
Gary- 'Yeah, but we may have a tour in the summer'
BCR: What makes you different from the rest of the bands out there?
Sean- 'Lloyd gets his ass out a lot!'
Gray-' We try to make every song different, yet still a Fatalist song
Sean- 'We are the only band I currently know of who use twin lead between bass and guitar and have two singers who can actually fucking sing! Plus, AJ is a Monster with double kick!'
So many bands out there are being labelled and praised for being innovative, raw talents, however if you actually listen to them, whilst studying their performances, it's evident that a lot of them are just another mass-produced group. Fordist models put out there by white collars and suits, attempting to pass themselves off, by their management and PR companies, as the 'real thing'...the next 'big thing'.
BCR: If you had to sell yourself in five words, what would they be?
Fatalist: Energetic, raw, melodic, driven and original.
Fatalist on Myspace
Fatalist official website
