This Is Pop Punk Promotions with an exclusive interview featuring Fairmount. Fairmount is a four piece Pop Punk band from Philadelphia, PA. Check out the single “Walls” at http://fairmountpa.bandcamp.com
(TIPPP): Who is Fairmount?
Alex Mola - Vocals
Danny Lapetina - Guitars
Giovanni Vera - Bass
(TIPPP): Where are you from?
(D): We are actually all from different areas. This band started to take shape in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, but Giovanni and I both live in Philadelphia now and Alex lives in Maryland.
(TIPPP): How long has Fairmount been a band?
(G): Danny and myself wrote two singles, one including Walls, back in late summer 2013 and then took a few months off. We were having trouble finding a drummer and vocalist, but after picking up Alex in almost January, yet still unable to find a drummer. We decided at the music video to go on as a 3-piece, picking up a show/tour drummer and second guitarist as they come along. So, we’ve been a serious band for a little over a month now.
(TIPPP): Where did the name Fairmount come from?
(G): I’m usually the one that comes up with the band names, at least in our previous projects, and I was coming up with good names but not future headliners, name in the big lights type of names. After awhile, I was just getting so frustrated that I said out loud “Whatever, I’m just heading to Fairmount to get some damn chinese food” then it hit me.
(D): It’s a neighborhood in Philadelphia and it ultimately doesn’t mean anything more than that. Our main priority was that it would sound good, and we feel like it doesn’t need to be meaningful or purposeful.
(TIPPP): How did Fairmount become a band?
(G): Danny is originally from hardcore/metal hybrid In Alcatraz 1962, Alex is from An Obsecure Signal, From Atlantis and Texas In July. Myself, I’m just a tour goon who tends to go out on tour every once in a while, doing Vans Warped Tour. We really wanted to break free from the heavier stuff and focus on something different. Danny and I have been best friends since 2005 so that was a piece of cake, the real problem was finding a vocalist that we enjoyed having. We searched and Danny remembered Alex from touring and how he was working on a solo project, the first time us 3 hung out together as a group (besides one show up in New England back in 2012) was just a few short weeks ago to shoot the “Walls” music video.
(TIPPP): How would you describe yourselves as a band?
(G): Weird, we’re just really weird but in a good way. We’ve worked with people in the past and it always seemed like high school, certain people talked to certain people, just cliques forming. Not in this band. From the get go it was literally brotherhood. If you saw all of us together the first time we met, you wouldn’t think that most of us were complete strangers.
(D): We definitely aren’t a band that will claim to be the most unique or creative band out there in our genre. I think the best way to describe this band is that we are literally just writing songs that we like without reservation and without worrying about what anyone else is doing.
(TIPPP): How do you feel the scene in your area has helped your band grow?
(G): To be honest, none of us know much about the Philadelphia scene, Danny moved here less than 5 days ago. I’ve only been here since January, Alex is from an entirely different state. The areas that we do know have been a huge factor and reacting so well to our new sound, we can’t thank them enough. As for the Philadelphia market, we still have to break into that.
(TIPPP): Who are your influences/favorite bands growing up and currently?
(D): When Giovanni and I started this project, our biggest influence or incentive was actually not so much a band, but more of getting away from metalcore as a genre and doing something that would be fun and less stressful for us. At the very start of this project, I was really into what The Story so Far was doing, but throughout writing I found that looking back to cornerstone bands that I grew up with like Blink-182 were really helpful in the process.
(TIPPP): Tell us about your single “Walls”
(A): It’s about maybe things don’t happen for a reason and that I have to do everything for myself, not expect life to just unfold as it is but make it so everything that I want to happen, happy myself.
(TIPPP): What was it like making the music video for “Walls”
(G): It was definitely an fun experience, nerve wracking because most of us has never been in or on the set of a video before so it was more “You go first, no you go first!”
The video was directed by our good friend Travis Fatchaline and unfortunately we had to cut it short because I kicked one of the lights on accident and we lost power to the entire place, we still had a lot of footage to do and only one day to do it.
(TIPPP): Any big plans for 2014?
(D): ..... ; )
