TIP Rich: So who is who in Fight Plan? How long have yall been a band and how did ya come up with the band name?
FP: Rob is our thrasher guitarist; Aaron is our magical low-end with the unicorn mane.
Andrew is that guy that screams all the time; April is that blur behind the kit, who is also screaming all the time.
We’ve all been in various bands before we formed Fight Plan, but this is definitely the most rewarding band for any of us.
As for the name;man, we came up with a long list of crazy stuff before we came up with ‘Fight Plan’. It didn’t take long for that one to get to the top of the list. We feel it conveys our aggressive style, and our methodical work ethic.
TIP Rich: What do ya think of the Austin Punk scene? Has Austin always been home to the band? Are there any favorite venues ya enjoy playing or bands ya enjoy playing with?
FP: The Austin Punk scene is a very encouraging dysfunctional family, and we love it. FP started here at the start of 2012, and we’ve consistently played at least 2 shows a month with some really great bands. The guys in Threes Away have always treated us well and invited us to play Red7 with them a couple times. The inside stage over there has some of the best sound in the scene right now.
TIP Rich: So who are some of the bands influences and how do they inspire your music? Also tell us about your songwriting process.
FP: Well definitely the fast skatepunk bands of the 90’s: Lagwagon, Pennywise, No Use For A Name, Bigwig and (the obligatory) NOFX; and of course Descendents! Who doesn’t love them?!
;but we’re also into that good ol’ hard rock & roll a la The Bronx. That stuff makes us want to Get Drunk & Break Stuff, which incidentally is the title of one of our songs. ;)
We usually start out jamming a random riff, and if everyone is into it, it blossoms into a beautiful song butterfly. Sometimes we’ll accidentally write the main skeleton of a song in just a couple hours. Otherwise, a good song can take a few months to run its course. We’ve been so busy playing shows and recording lately that we’ve got some almost finished songs in the books just waiting for us to come back around to them! Lyrics are usually secondary, but Andrew always has a good story or theme running throughout the whole song. Ask him about any of them and he’ll enlighten you. Some of our songs are about work rage, getting drunk with your friends, and not letting people get the best of you.
TIP Rich: Tell us about any upcoming shows or releases.
FP: We’ve got a HUGE show coming up on Friday, July 5th at Holy Mountain (next to Red7), at which we’ll get to play with Lower Class Brats, MOD, Say Hello To The Angels, Two Fisted Law (CT), and a few other great bands. It’s the ‘Altercation Records Mid-Summer Night Scream!’ and it’s definitely the biggest show of our lives so far!
In August, we’ll be back down in San Antonio opening for Darrow Chemical Company (NY) at Fitzgerald’s on Friday the 23rd.
There are a few more in the works, so keep up with any of our interwebz pages.
TIP Rich: Do you have any plans to tour? If you could tour with anyone who would it be and why?
FP: Lately we’ve been trying to get outside Austin at least once a month to build up fanbases. We hope to be finished with our full length album by the end of the year so we’ll most likely tour soon after to promote it.
If we could tour with anyone, it would be all of our friends in a huge Deadhead style shaggin wagon. Our diehard fans are honorary members of The Wrecking Crew (another song of ours), and they always make a lot of noise and push each other around in the pit; even when the ‘pit’ is just a sparsely occupied floor in front of the stage.
TIP Rich: Tell us about your live shows. What all goes into getting ready for one?
FP: We practice pretty diligently for all of our shows. If we can theme a cover song to the show, we’ll make a list, pick one out, and practice the crap out of it. We also like tying certain songs together in the set to make it a cohesive experience for the crowd. We try not to have too many awkward moments of silence between songs, but hey, ya gotta drink sometime, right?!
TIP Rich: Lone Star or PBR?
FP: Lone Star all the way! Even though it often results in the bubble-guts, it beats the hell out of that nasty hipster crude, which brings me to your next question-
TIP Rich: What are your thoughts on hipsters?
FP: Anyone that has seen us probably knows our stance on hipsters, as one of the first songs we wrote is called Hipster Kill. Those pretentious bastards are trying to ruin this fine city, but we’ve got a tight knit punk rock family to show em up. Their fad is due to expire soon anyway;so we don’t lose any sleep over them, that’s for sure.
TIP Rich: Labels? D.I.Y. or a major what are your thoughts?
FP: Every band should start out doing everything themselves. That way you can figure who has your best interests in mind (that’s usually only you and your bandmates). Once you get big enough that you feel managing your band is taking you away from songwriting and having fun with it, then I guess you should pitch to a major. We’re nowhere near that point yet, and we’re not sure we ever will.
TIP RichOk time to pimp out your stuff. Do yall have a website? Where can others hear your stuff or buy your merch?
FP:
www.fightplanband.com is up, but it’s under a bit of constructionwww.facebook.com/fightplan is our main hub. Fans can check upcoming shows, listen to a few songs, laugh at us and the stupid shit we post, and contact us directly. We love hearing from anyone!
At our show at Holy Mountain on July 5th, we will be debuting a new shirt! Designed by the super-freakin-awesome-and-ultra-nice-guy Chris Shary, artist for Descendents & ALL, as well as Teenage Bottlerocket and others! We couldn’t be more stoked about him helping us out.
We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish since we started this band, all thanks to the love from the Austin punkers!
It can only get radder!!!
CHEERS EVERYONE! See you at the punk rock show!
- Fight Plan
