Still Fighting It

Hailing from the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York, Still Fighting It is comprised of three eclectic musicians: drummer Justin Swank; bassist/ vocalist Marc Vitticore; and lead singer/guitarist Matt Vitticore. These three artists have diverse backgrounds in music and songwriting. Swank, who has been playing drums since he was four years old while listening to his father’s music, developed his uniquely stylized percussion skills in a band known as Johnson’s Noise. Marc Vitticore, first learning bass in a group with Matt known as Blue Sky Rebellion, has tinkered with guitar and keyboards, acting as the harmonic counterpoint in many of his musical endeavors. Matt Vitticore, once performing as a singer-songwriter known as Keegan O’Malley, has written music for various projects since the summer of 2000, releasing two independent acoustic albums in 2003 and 2005. The three of them united in early 2007 with the initial goal of completing a double-album Matt composed as the second part of his 2005 solo release, The Open Road. After several rehearsals, the tide changed. While continuing to work on the same material intended for the double album, they decided to record an EP and tour as a trio in the summer to promote the new music. Currently, they are recording with engineer Rafael Estrada of Trackmaster Studios in Buffalo, NY, owned and operated by Robby Takac and John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls. Bands and musicians such as the Goo Goo Dolls, Barenaked Ladies, Ani DiFranco, and The Flaming Lips have recorded at Trackmaster.

During the recording sessions, Estrada described "the red light fever", in which rookie recording artists would perform differently when they knew the recording button was on (or the red light). Estrada would then ask the band to play through the tracks "for the fun of it" so that he could hear them play. In reality the tracks were being recorded without the band knowing. Estrada wanted Still Fighting It to be in a relaxed atmosphere. When he revealed his secret to the band, they soon realized the importance of staying loose during the recording process. "We had to learn to let go, in a way. Your mind can either work against you or for you. In this case we were able to relax and fight through the nerves of our first time in a major studio. We wanted to honor the experience we had with Raff at Trackmaster and the idea of overcoming the challenges of a rookie recording. So we named our upcoming album, the Red Light Fever EP..."