Finding Fiction

"Finding Fiction possess a musicianship and dedication that is defining today's DIY indie-bands."

FULL INTERVIEW - August 29th, 2009

Finding Fiction is a New York based band, whose members’ posses a musicianship and dedication that is defining today’s DIY indie-bands. They are the quintessential web 2.0 band that understands a great sound is just as important as a great web presence and marketability.

Finding Fiction, which consists of vocalist/guitarist, Mario, (phenomenal) drummer, Scott, bassist, Tim, and the newly added (guitarist, keys, vocals), Adrian, just released their first LP, Idaho by the Sea, on June 2nd, have embarked on their third nationwide tour, stopping by San Diego's Beauty Bar tonight, August 30th, at 10:00p.m.

In a recent interview, freelance journalist, Kevin Farr (San Diego Punk, UR Chicago, Culture Bully), caught up with bassist Tim and vocalist/guitarist Mario to discuss new changes with the band, where they've been and where they are going.

KF: You guys have been through a couple of line-up changes over the past year, can you talk a little about how your sound has developed in the wake of changing guitarists?

Tim: “Our guitarists keep getting mugged, but based on statistics, it's almost impossible that Adrian will be mugged. He's more likely to get struck by lightning or beat me in c-lo lo or pusoy dos (sp?). I think the biggest change has come most recently, Adrian joins us as the 4th member and our sound is changing every day we rehearse and incorporate his ideas on keys, guitar and vocals.

Mario: I think keys definitely add a fresh dimension. We had a few on Idaho, but it'll be interesting to really spend time writing material with keys. Adrian also has a great voice, so I think our sound will definitely begin to widen with more harmonies and production. He actually has a pretty sweet studio in his basement too, so I can see us experimenting with more studio sounds this time around.

KF: You guys recently released Idaho by the Sea, how are you feeling about the album and the response it is garnering? I understand you guys are working on some new songs already, what sound can we expect on these new tracks?

Tim: Idaho by the Sea was a blast to record with Jeremy at Battletapes. The response has been all positive and people are really digging the sounds live and on the record. We've only had 1 bad album review and truthfully it was refreshing to hear some constructive criticism.

Mario: I feel proud of what we accomplished with Idaho. It was a great first record and I feel it really captured the "snap-shot" of where were as a band, which, to me, is what a record is supposed to do. Looking back, there were moments I wish we could have spent more time on, but we really did the best with what we had and even with its limitations, it never lost intent. I think you can hear it. That's what counts for me. I mean, there were some real magical moments on that record, the kinds of things you can't plan out, and I love that.

KF: Do you guys feel like you’re still in the process of discovering your sound?

Tim: I think we have only just begun to make music together and it just keeps evolving and we are really excited. Everyday we rehearse it just keeps evolving and I'm just really excited to have keys in the mix and to be writing new songs as a full band, the 4 of us. Rehearsal is amazing, we walk out and it just blows my mind what we come up with together, I've recently been wanting to tour less and spend more time in NYC really working on sounds and getting ready to record this new material. It will definitely be noisier and have more keyboards for sure.

Mario: Ditto with Tim. It's really all we can do to stay as open as possible to one another and be open to what happens next. It's a constant work-in-progress and we're still learning more and more everyday.

KF: What do feel has defined the life of Finding Fiction thus far? If the band were to disband tomorrow, what would you characterize as the most important or dynamic aspect of the band and its sound?

Tim: I think what has defined us so far is the work. We have just been busting our asses and touring literally from day 1. Come to think of it, our first show wasn't even in NYC, haha, it was in Philly on a short regional tour that we did before playing Les in NYC.

Mario: I'd definitely agree it's been our work. We basically all came together with the determination that this is what we wanted to do for a living. Luckily, we picked a line of work where we can actually document every step along the way.

KF: Who smells the worst after shows?

Tim: When it comes to smells, Josh, our last guitarist trumps everyone. His feet where so rank that I snapped in Indiana last tour and thru his rancid sneakers out the window while we were going 70 mph on the highway because I just couldn’t take it!

Mario: Josh definitely held the medal in that category. Who’s next, is anyone's guess. I may just stop showering on this run and see how 'Jim Morrison' I can get.

KF: Who gets hit on the most before and after shows?

Tim: We are not Motley Crue unfortunately and there is no line of sex charged ladies waiting backstage, actually rarely do we even have a backstage or green room.

Mario: Yeah, most after shows are still spent trying to figure out if we made enough gas/food money or have a place to sleep.

KF: Who eats the most food?

Tim: That is tough, I don't know.

Mario: Tim. I still have YouTube footage to edit of his entire face covered in peanut butter.

KF: Who eats the weirdest food?

Tim: Mario definitely eats the worst food, he will literally grab a can of clam chowder off the van floor in the summer and eat it straight from the can. It's disgusting and the whole van reeks. I think we all eat weird food concoctions, involving combinations of canned soup, ramen, canned vegetables, mac and cheese, PB&J, or expired deli meat that was on sale.

Mario: If eating cold clam chowder is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Boys will be boys. For more information on Finding Fiction, or to buy the LP, Idaho by the Sea, check out their website www.FindingFiction.net. - San Diego Examiner - Veronica Mungia

"...there's something worth listening to...a pleasant anesthetic made from shoegaze, grunge, and Sunny Day Real Estate..." Mike Riggs City Paper - Washington DC

Full Article:
There’s nothing immediately remarkable about New York’s Finding Fiction. All four members sport the requisite indie outerwear, including dopey hats tugged down on toussled hair and lackadaisical candid shots. Lead singer Mario Santana shamelessly admits that he writes songs by sitting in front of his “Macbook at 3 a.m. noodling out guitar licks and piecing together witty lines from some book [he’s] reading at the time.” If Gen Y died en masse, Santana’s PR quips would serve as the entire generation’s epitaph. Luckily for Finding Fiction and its H Street audience, there’s something worth listening to underneath that trendy wrapping: a pleasant anesthetic made from shoegaze, grunge, and Sunny Day Real Estate–era emo. That the band remains accessible despite its disparate influences makes it a rare dingy in a sea of artists who’d rather drown in their own noise than be too easily understood. - Mike Riggs - City Paper - Washington DC

"Finding Fiction have done well for themselves...their hook-heavy, shoegazing indie rock calls to mind other New York bands like The Strokes..." - Kristen Powell The Eagle, American University Paper

FULL ARTICLE:
For most bands, the tour is where your stories come from. For some bands, like the New York-based quartet Finding Fiction, there's no place like home.

"Our guitar player [Nathan Corsi] got mugged basically like two weeks ago," said Mario Santana, lead vocalist and guitarist. "It's kind of weird, it's usually more exciting in New York ... Being poor or broke kind of makes for a really good, fun story."

Finding Fiction will be leaving New York and stopping at DC9 this Thursday.

Santana, Corsi, bassist Tim Farr and drummer Scott Eisenberg got together less than a year ago via a Craigslist ad that advertised a can of soup per diem. All of the band members are New York transplants, which may be why they reap so much inspiration from their surroundings.

"Moving to New York is probably the most inspiring thing any sort of artist or writer can do," Santana said. "It's the most alive city, it's pulsating ... There's just so much life here ... like sitting on the subway can be inspiring. Just walking down the street or freezing on the way home, in a weird way, can be inspiring."

The sounds of the city are evident in their music. Their hook-heavy, shoegazing indie rock calls to mind other New York bands like The Strokes and a slew of international favorites whose names include "the," like The Hives, The Vines and The Von Bondies.

Maybe it's their universal sound, or maybe it's their chipper attitudes, but the members of Finding Fiction have done pretty well for themselves playing together wherever they've been. They set up shows with local bands to create local followings and get their name out. The band's commitment to grassroots, word-of-mouth-style public relations has helped them to weather the current economy.

"It's actually helped us," Farr said. "We have a pretty good staff of people helping us. A lot of interns. Our interns are either in college or people who have been in the music industry but have lost their jobs and would rather help promote a band - send some P.R. e-mails - versus watching TV all day."

Their low overhead - much of which is dedicated to paying for gas - has made touring even now potentially lucrative.

"We've been really lucky when we've been out," Santana said. "We've been able to actually break even, if not make a little bit. Usually bands lose money when they're on tour."

With this level of success, of course, comes the accordant luxury.

"My parents actually just hooked us up [for our upcoming tour]," Santana said. "They got us a case of Red Bull, and peanut butter and jelly, and two cases of soup. And we got a box of Ramen noodles."

So that can of soup per diem was no joke.

"Mario refuses to cook his cans of soup," Farr said. "He only eats them cold in the van." - The Scene - American University Paper

"...their first full-length 'Idaho by the Sea' is so dang danceable...infectious songs that carry frontman Mario Santana’s heart-held vocals."
- Spokesman Review - Spokane, WA

FULL ARTICLE - Sept. 11th, 2009
Finding Fiction’s novel approach -
New York band does it all, from writing to booking

They write, record and release their own music, book their own shows, and control their own destiny. The members of New York’s “Finding Fiction” exude the essence of DIY, and it paid off this year as they completed a cross-country tour to the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, in advance of their debut album.

Self-released in early June, Finding Fiction’s first full-length offering, “Idaho by the Sea,” is a combination of intelligent and infectious songs, built with rising guitar lines and spry rhythms that carry frontman Mario Santana’s heart-held vocals.

Finding Fiction – singer/guitarist Santana, plus guitarist/co-vocalist Joshua Coleman, bassist Tim Farr and drummer Scott Eisenberg – recalls a garaged-out Buddy Holly, or a more reserved version of Longwave, somewhere between the lines that separate pop from indie, or rather connect them.

At times understated, other times anthemic, but completely unpretentious, Finding Fiction laces purist, straight forward rock and roll with subtle explosions and suggestive left hooks that might catch the listener off-guard – if it weren’t so dang danceable.

They don’t hide behind washed out riffs or vocals buried in layers of keyboard squeals. Instead they use selective experimentation to accent the rock-solid, undisturbed grooves.

Even when they strip away the distortion and mellow down the warbles on synth – or take out the drums altogether – the core of a song reveals Finding Fiction’s strength in writing simple and compelling music.

Then they turn on the effects, add a touch of digital drama and bring devil-may-care dynamics to that unassuming melody that dances at the center.

With qualities that are equal parts engaging and unexpected, Finding Fiction is, as Santana states in the band’s bio, a mix of perspiration and inspiration. - Spokesman Review - Spokane, WA

"...a fresh indie rock sound and amazing work ethic." - Scott Sweeney

FULL INTERVIEW

Finding Fiction is a band on the move from New York City. With a fresh indie rock sound and amazing work ethic, they are poised to make a run at success in 2009. In addition to recording a new full-length, the band is spending the winter on tour and hitting up South by Southwest, the preeminent music conference in America. This week they are in Chicago. You can catch them at the Tonic Room w/ Penthouse Sweets & The Wiitala Brothers this Wednesday. Review Chicago caught up with them while in Indianapolis.

Coming from New York, how has the response been in the Midwest, which is usually hesitant to accept East Coast bands?

Josh Coleman: Personally and musically it’s been great.
Tim Farr: I mean NYC is really competitive in a good way, so coming to Midwest feels very accepting. A lot of people are really enthusiastic about the music and genuinely interested in hearing the new record we’re recording next month.
Mario Santana I feel like the response has been amazing. I haven’t felt any sort of hesitance towards us really. Scott: people seem intrigued since by the fact that we’re from New York and out in the Midwest, response has all been positive.

Every band hates the dreaded ‘who/what do you sound like’ question, so I’d rather know who are some of your biggest influences?

Josh: Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth, Wilco .
Tim: Currently some bands getting notice/or not but are still a huge influence is 31 knots and film school, they’re doing it.
Mario: I’m influenced my a few more recent bands out of NYC like The Walkman or The National.
Scott Eisenberg: I really like the Dismemberment Plan

Good Choices! I am a Dismemberment Plan fan myself. So, Have you all played Chicago before?

Tim: Yeah, we played Reggie’s music joint in December. That place is cool and they treat bands real well. We played with our friends from Indianapolis called Stereo Deluxe and a few other bands. It was a good show. They gave us food and drinks.we didn’t have a place to crash and so the let us sleep in the green room, we’re going to get back there soon I hope.

What is one thing you have learned about each other that you didn’t know before spending all this time in a van?

Josh hates computers but loves leaving his socks in the van - he also thought there was per diem for touring with us. Scott used to have an immensely long beard that we want to resurrect, oh and he brings enough crap on tour to build a small town. Mario loves to eat soup or canned vegetables cold and straight from the can - he also brought a sick library of books for us to read like Survivor by Chuck and Hollywood by Charles. Tim can’t do as many push-ups as Josh but always gets us paid by the venue.

Is this your first time playing SXSW? What are you looking forward to the most?

Josh: Yes, it’s the first time for us as Finding Fiction. Some of us have played with other bands though. We’re really excited to be there and to listen to all the great bands. Right now were sorting through booking an official show, but unofficial house parties and such will definitely be in store.

Any plans for a new release? Where can fans pick up your current releases?

Tim: We are recording in Nashville at Battle Tapes Studio starting on March 1st with Jeremy Ferguson. We are all super excited, all the dates leading up to will ensure the music’s tight by the time we catch up with Jeremy…and then hopefully we’ll deconstruct it all (laughs).
Scott: Hey!
Tim: What?
Scott: You can get our current EP on iTunes or CdBaby for those independent supporters, or come to our show and we’ll happily hook you up.

Thanks to Finding Fiction for taking time to speak with Review Chicago! You can catch them basically everywhere this year, but most importantly, at Tonic Room on Wednesday. You can check out the bands music at their Myspace page.

- Scott Sweeney - Review Chicago

"Idaho by the Sea is a delectable album with alluring lyrics...I dig the harmonies and we play it over and over here."

Full Article - Sept 10th, 2009

Alluring lyrics

with artistically played tunes,

big city indie.

Idaho by the Sea is a delectable album that has been played over and over at Check It Out Music. With a killer opening song from there on out it’s enough to keep our interest and it’s relate-able. With a lot of indie music now out in the scene it’s always a treat when you find an indie band that sticks out. I have a few people to thank for telling me about Finding Fiction. I dig the harmonies, and I like that the album is like a storm cloud soft but still rockin.

I am excited to catch them live this Friday September, 11th at Art Music & More at 9pm. Tickets are $6 in advance or $8 at the door! Art Music & More is located at 608 West Second in Downtown Spokane. Click here to get your Finding Fiction fix. - Check It Out Music Blog

“Finding Fiction's songs are pretty damn catchy. Sometimes, we just want to sing to something nice in the shower; you know, like verses and choruses and things. It's early, but Brooklyn's Finding Fiction could be the new band that does that for us.”

FULL PROFILE -
We admit that deep down we're really pop at heart. You know, sometimes we just don't feel like the all-over-the-place angularity, and the shattering walls of sound, and the crazy layered techno tricks, and the vocal shreds. Sure we like that stuff... a lot. But c'mon, not ALL the time. It's bad for the blood pressure and bad for our wallet (too many Aleves).

Sometimes, we just want to sing to something nice in the shower; you know, like verses and choruses and things. It's early, but Brooklyn's Finding Fiction could be the new band that does that for us. Longwave was that band. So was Idlewild. We got mighty clean listening to those two back in the day.

Finding Fiction's songs are pretty damn catchy. Catchy enough that they make us want to get really dirty, just so we have an excuse to get back in that bath again.

So, we'll take Finding Fiction's music as a sign that it's finally time to start digging out back and see if we can find the buried door that unlocks the secret world of fairies, leprechauns and talking bears. We've been dreaming about that since we were six. Thanks for giving us the inspiration to follow our fantasies, Finding Fiction.
- Oh My Rockness - NYC

'...cleverly structured, catchy-as-hell chord progressions...I don't think we'll be able to get them out of our heads.'
-Drew Citron, Jezebel Music

FULL LIVE SHOW REVIEW:
Maybe it was frontman Mario’s Buddy Holly glasses or the adorable Carl Perkins-esque guitar. It could have also been the 4-on-the-floor backbeats and catchy-as-hell chord progressions. Whatever it was, something about Finding Fiction recalls the glory days of pop.

Last week at Death By Audio, these crusaders of the alt-pop anthem performed selections from their new album to the glee of a healthy-sized Wednesday night crowd. It was refreshing to hear some straightforward, pretense-free rock for once, without any additional flamboyance. The kitschiest it got was lead guitarist Josh Coleman’s bare feet, which, he wryly announced, would help him correctly push the pedals. Oh, and the fact that I was casually invited to join their pre-show frisbee game. But frivolity aside, their sound is tight, cleverly structured, and easy on the ears.

Mario Santana leads the pack with understated, cursory vocals that recall Stephen Malkmus sans Jicks. Despite his veritable presence in each song, the real star wound up being the lead guitar, whose finger-tapped, wandering melodies provided a much more fleshed-out sonic layer. The band combines elements of garage and math rock to arrive at that quintessential moment (circa 2001?) when punk rock realized it had emotions. Listening to Finding Fiction is like traveling back to a time when bands like Mock Orange and Counterfit ruled the day. It’s certainly a trip down memory lane, and it’s nice for once to be nostalgic about something you have actually experienced.

But Coleman had me wondering: what would happen if indie rock were to lose reverb and distortion? If these guys were left to their barebones devices, their pure pop sound, would it be so bad? The worst that would happen would be mayhem on the dance floor. It seems to me that they have yet to embrace and own their most valuable assets – once they do, I don’t think we’ll be able to get them out of our heads.

That being said, Finding Fiction is a band to watch grow and change in the coming months. Catch them on tour, in which they are pretty much perpetually engaged, until arriving home at CMJ this fall.

You can stream songs from Finding Fiction’s recently released Idaho by the Sea from their MySpace.

by Drew Citron - Jezebel Music - Williamsburg/Brooklyn

'...many new indie bands are stepping into a DIY culture, where it's as much about business models and work ethic as it is about the tunes...case in point: Finding Fiction.'
-Steve Snyder, Rochester Insider


FULL INTERVIEW & ARTICLE:
Nowadays many new indie bands are stepping into a do-it-yourself culture, where it's as much about business models and work ethic as it is about the tunes.

Case in point: Finding Fiction, which plays June 16 at Dub Land Underground as part of the first annual Underground Music Fest, from June 12 - 20. Ask this New York-based pop-rock group — which stoked a healthy buzz at South By Southwest — to describe itself, and they talk less about genre or musical influences and more than about a marketing mentality.

"We're a DIY indie group who doesn't really rely on anyone to do anything," says Tim Farr, the group's bass player and self-designated press liason. "We formed through Craigslist, we've brought on interns across the nation through Craigslist, we recorded our own material, and we just decided to stop waiting on labels to make their decision. I think it says a lot about our passion and focus.

Both Farr and Mario Santana, lead singer and songwriter, chuckle when they think back to June, '08. Farr was working at a New York City ad agency and Santana was waiting tables, having just moved from San Diego. They both had dreams of playing music for a living and were putting online ads out there in hopes of creating a band that would help them sign with a label.

Those online ads, Santana says, put him in touch with musicians he had never encountered out in California and as a result he reshaped his sound, style and the way he thought about building a music career.

"When I write out lyrics or songs for the first time, there's a lot of signer-songwriter elements," he says. "But it's really the band who helps to reshape that, forcing me out of that element to write instead around the shape of our tunes. As Tim and I started working more together, it kept getting more and more interesting."

Farr and Santana — along with fellow band mates Josh Coleman (guitar) and Scott Eisenberg (drums) — took that initial spark of inspiration late last year and ran with it, quitting their day jobs to focus on music, marketing and touring full-time. Smaller gigs turned into appearances at events like South By Southwest and North By Northeast in Toronto, where they will be heading after their Rochester show.

What's earned the praise of some critics is the naturalism of the band's first album Idaho by The Sea, an organic sound that Simon Beck of 5th Column Media, dubbed as a balance of "the ethereal with the melodic; the grit with the refined."

On tracks like "I'll Buy" and "Less than Love," one can hear the band accentuating this balance, incorporating both the unpredictable texture of a live performance with the carefully-managed tone and balance of a studio production.

Racking up more than 30,000 miles in a single year on their Dodge Ram — a van the band has lovingly dubbed "Ron Burgundy" — Farr and Santana said it's been a hectic roller coaster of a year. But amid all the chaos, they both see something sort of poetic in New York City musicians opting to take it upon themselves, with the help of a virtually-connected army of strangers, to advance their careers.

"We talk about this all the time, the Zen aspect of New York City. There's so much movement here, so many paths crossing," Santana says. "I moved to New York precisely because I didn't want to fall victim to the low-key Los Angeles mentality. New York's all about figuring it out and getting it done — and that's the mentality we're trying to bring to our music too."
-Steve Snyder - Rochester Insider - Rochester, NY

"...reminiscent of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco — in a good way."

FULL ARTICLE
NYC band playing tonight at Dragon’s Den

There’s an interesting band among those on the bill tonight with Big Blue Marble playing at the Dragon’s Den. They’re called Finding Fiction, an indie band out of Brooklyn.

They do guitar-rock with an emphasis on vocals and lyrics. Not to pigeonhole them, but to me, they’re reminiscent of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco — in a good way.

The band has one EP (”Plastic and Changed”) and has been recording a full-length CD in Nashville. This week they’ve been out touring from New York City and are stopping over here before heading on to the South by Southwest conference in Austin. You can get a preview of their stuff at http://myspace.com/findingfiction.

According to the Dragon’s Den schedule, Finding Fiction will play after Henry Dunkle out of Birmingham. He will probably start around 10:30, maybe a little later. It’s the Dragon’s Den — you know the drill.


- New Orleans Music Blog