FEEDBACK REVIVAL

“Is it tomorrow yet?” Feedback Revival front man Dan Fenton asked from his microphone one evening in May at the Basement while playing the club’s weekly New Faces Nite. Fittingly, the guys were the final act on the bill, taking the stage just at 11:30 PM.

Reminiscent of The Black Crowes and Kings of Leon with a proper blues tinge, Fenton’s scattered creativity is a true reflection in the songs he crafts for the Indie band. There is a mythical blending of gospel, soul, and raw rock that is unified mercifully by the rest of the band that includes guitarist Nathan McFarland, Justin Miller on bass and drummer Joe Logan.

Being the son of a New York Pentecostal preacher is just a small part of what makes Fenton tick. And though there are plenty of religious references in Feedback Revival’s tracks, don’t paint them into a contemporary Christian corner. In fact, Fenton doesn’t appreciate the band being painted into any corners.

“I went through all kinds of very interesting, zealous religious things growing up and you just kind of learn over time through experience,” he said. “Ya know, whatever it is that you believe, you hold on to that and that’s, I think, what’s most important. Some people get wrapped up in the politics of it all and just become FOX News or whatev-er, but that’s not us at all.”

The group’s songs are actually a lot more enigmatic than most contemporary Christian music and it delves deeper into more secular topics like drinking, lost romantic love, cars, commentary on society and even hookers.

“For me, the music has always been about the common man,” Fenton explained, with a history to back it up. “My dad wasn’t one of these Southern super church pastors. It was like we grew up and there were times we lived in the station wagon. There are five kids in my family plus my two parents and we didn’t know we were homeless because my parents have a great sense of humor, so we just thought we were on a very extended vacation.”

His sense of relating to the people isn’t just shadowed in the lyrics. It shines through the entire group performing at a little club near downtown Nashville. Expecting a three-song set, the crowd of close to forty people got eight tunes including the new, never-before heard “Baby Don’t Leave.” Fenton described it as a natural evolution forward when it comes to Feedback Revival’s sound. “It’s more of a darker bluesy type tune. There’s a lot of our music that’s pretty heavy rock and a lot of intense stuff. And after doing it for so many years, I kind of want to try different things and try things I maybe wouldn’t normally do.”

Obviously, that line of thinking can only make Fenton and Feedback Revival a healthier and richer experience for fans and those who have yet to hear their variety of musical progression, which has already experienced plenty of growth.

Before their formation, Fenton and Miller founded and toured with the harder and edgier group Education of Monkeys which obtained a solid regional following. Their popularity even afforded them a tour of the UK in 2003.

But back in 2012 Nashville, the guys simply want to carve out a niche for themselves and develop a sound that is distinctly their own. Not that they mind comparisons to AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, and Mc5, but Fenton would truly like to hone in on a noise that is purely Feedback Revival. Plus, with two EP’s under their belt, it can only intensify.

“We don’t ever want to sound like somebody else or have somebody say ‘That sounds just like The White Stripes or that sounds just like The Black Keys.’ I love those bands, but I don’t want for to somebody to mistake it,” Fenton explains. “And there are a lot of bands that go out there and basically emulate other artists and I am definitely, musically, as far as the writing side, influenced by other music like Tom Waits. But it’s an homage thing. You pay homage to those bands. But the goal is basically to say ‘Okay. That’s a Feedback Revival song.’”

At the end of their hour-long Basement show, the crowd just wasn’t ready to go home. After charging through numbers like the raucous “Eleanor” and the gritty guitar-swilling “Big Black Tooth”, fans insisted they not take off without doing “Hell and High Water” – one Fenton describes as being his mama’s favorite.

“She wanted to know if I could do a song that didn’t have me blaring in the microphone,” he said with a laugh. So, like a good son, he obliged with the mellower version to the band’s more granular stuff.

– By Angela Gimlin - In Phase Magazine

Feedback Revival’s “Hell & High Water” is a gritty rock and roll album full of soul. The sound is raw and overt and the desire to crank the volume is immediate. The band’s influences, like Led Zepplin and Red Hot Chili Peppers, are apparent and yet they have their own unique sound. Ranging from high-energy guitar riffs to the stirring acoustic guitar on the title song, the band shows it’s range and ability to master all things rock and roll. - In Phase Magazine

Dan Fenton, originally from New York, started his musical adventure into rock & roll apart of a hard rock band called Education of Monkeys. Since the days of teaching primates how to rock, Fenton journeyed down to Nashville to form the quartet Feedback Revival. Compared to acts that range from Zeppelin to The Chili Peppers with a mix of the White Stripes and The Black Keys, Feedback Revival is without question a proud & loud rock band. Just ask Ed Hurt over at Nashville Scene - "These guys make loud, mean rock ’n’ roll, so you might want to take them at their word."

Last week the guys were featured on the Local Lightning Spotlight with both some radio air-time and a section on Lightning 100's website. Hell or High Water is the band's debut LP that was released in January. Thirteen tracks total with titles that conjure up visions of gritty southern angst with a fast and loud style. Not bad for a New Yorker!

Tonight is your chance to catch the Feedback boys live at Mercy Lounge w/ Blackfoot Gypsies, Hardin Draw, Long Gone Darlings and Sam Lewis.

Time to kill before the show, check out the new video for "Big Black Tooth" which was released last week, enjoy! - Good Bamm Sho

When Dan Fenton and his bandmates pondered where to pursue rock stardom post-college, they must’ve been at least a little swayed by the home addresses of the Kings of Leon. An added incentive: They’d already forged a connection with a Nashville production team from the Christian rock world. That latter affiliation might explain why the band now known as Feedback Revival seems to have so many more songs that wrestle with the consequences of giving in to temptation than songs that flaunt rock ’n’ roll hedonism. That doesn’t mean they play nice — Fenton’s a raw-throated yowler, and the guitar riffs are industrial strength. Blackfoot Gypsies make just as much noise with a two-man lineup. Singer-guitarist Matthew Paige and drummer Zack Murphy specialize in seriously overdriven blues-rock and the occasional wild-eyed, down-home instrumental. You can rarely tell what words are coming out of Paige’s mouth on their debut EP, but it doesn’t much matter. They (and their guest bassist/keyboardist) tear into the songs with the sort of abandon that can only come from players as young and riled as the Woodstock crowd was then, as opposed to now. The rest of the lineup represents other corners of the Southern musical landscape: string band Hardin Draw, the Long Gone Darlings (whose alt-country is more indebted to indie than alt-rock) and first-rate country-folk troubadour Sam Lewis.
— Jewly Hight - Nashville Scene

ARTIST: Dan Fenton of Feedback Revival

SONG: Carry On

BIRTHDATE: 03/02/1983

HOMETOWN: Lansing NY

CURRENT LOCATION: Nashville TN

AMBITIONS: Create, love and enjoy life

TURN-OFFS: Closed Minds, Hate.

TURN-ONS: People, Music, Bon Fires

DREAM GIG: Opening for Tom Waits

FAVORITE LYRIC:“As he dreams of a waitress with Maxwell House eyes And marmalade thighs with scrambled yellow hair” (The Ghost of Saturday Night -Tom Waits)

CRAZIEST PERSON I KNOW: I’ve know a lot and I imagine I am the answer to this question for many others.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: American Girl (Tom Petty) - American Songwriter Songspace