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MUSIC SPOTLIGHT
Fly in the Ointment was actually a project that came to fruition during a flight from Sacramento, Calif., to the Shoals in 2001. "It gave me time to think," said the 32-year-old singer, songwriter, musician and sound engineer. Chandler, who assumes the name "Tom Stone" for his musical endeavors, wrote the lyrics and the music for the disc "Gravitation, Pulleys and Puppet Strings." He enlisted several local musicians, or "hired guns" as he referred them, to record the disc at his home studio, Red Room Productions. Chandler handles vocals, guitar, synthesizer and bullhorn and will do the same on FITO's next-project. "It started out as a studio project," Chandler said. "I wanted to do something heavier." At the time, Chandler was involved in some jazz-oriented projects, jamming with the late Brian Vick and local musicians Kevin Sledge and Zach Gooch and FITO member Brent Romine. "I just wanted to do something a little different, with a different message," he said. That message, Chandler said, is left to the listener to decide. Chandler, who was a computer technician at the time, said the disc was influenced by post 9-11 events and world news. "The first album was very political," Chandler said. The band played about a dozen shows and was well-received by fans. "GPPS" features heavy guitars and thought-provoking politically influenced lyrics. Chandler has assembled a new band that he believes is dedicated to eclipsing the success of "GPPS" with the upcoming release, "Walking Backwards." "I feel good about what's going on," Chandler said. Bassist Zach Thomas said this incarnation of FITO is going for a sound that is more "extreme" than-"mainstream." The lineup that also includes 26-year-old Jesse Mardis on guitar, 19-year-old Joey Troup on drums and 26-year-old Romine on samplers, percussion and background vocals, shares Chandler's vision for FITO. "I've been a big heavy music fan for a long time," Romine said. "After a while, I listened to more jazz and classical music, then went right back into my old heavy metal roots." Thomas, has played with a variety of local musicians in the Shoals through the years, including the Kings of Outer Space. Thomas said he's been playing with Chandler for about 2 years. "This has been a culmination of things," Thomas said. "Walking Backwards" will continue to be political, but Chandler said the message won't be slanted to the left or the right. "People accuse us of Bush bashing, but we're not," he said. "We support the troops." He said the songs could take on different meanings for the people who hear them. While Chandler penned the entire first FITO project, the new band has more input this time around. "We work as a unit," Thomas said. "The chemistry is definitely there with everyone involved now." FITO does not plan to rush the completion of "Walking Backwards." "We're perfectionists," Mardis said. "The music is abrasive and grating, but we still try to make sure every note is crisp and on time." Chandler echoes those thoughts and adds that he can be a taskmaster at times. Russell Quinn, who handles public relations duties for the band, said some bands make the mistake of playing live before they're ready. Thomas said the group is about three-quarters of the way through the CD project. The band has a Web site and a presence on MySpace.com, which is helping FITO build their fan base not only in the U.S., but overseas. Chandler said in 2003 he took a version of FITO to the UK, where they did 18 shows. Chandler said a friend in England set him up with several musicians to back him up. They rehearsed for about six hours and they were ready to play. He's sent FITO discs to fans in Denmark and Quinn said the Web site is getting hits from Russia. Metal fans should be on their toes when FITO return to the stage. "We have a convincing live show," Mardis said. "We want to get out and slay." Russ Corey can be reached at russ.corey@timesdaily.com or-740-5738.
UK Based Nathanial Kerrigan This article appeared in the University of North Alabama's official newspaper THE FLOR-ALA. http://www.florala.net/news/2005/03/10/Lifestyle/Making.A.Buzz-890012.shtml?page=1 Making a buzz Fly in the Ointment to play at The Smokehouse Friday By Jennifer Hill Published: Thursday, March 10, 2005 Fly in the Ointment has recently come back into the public eye with a new crew expecting to become a societal influence. F.I.T.O. will be performing their "politically fueled, punk-influenced barrage of sound" at The Smokehouse on Friday, March 11 starting at 9 p.m. F.I.T.O. is the brainchild of Tom Stone, who started the studio Red Room Productions back in 1997 as a part of Living Reef Records. Stone was in and out of various bands while working on the studio project that later became F.I.T.O. In 2003, F.I.T.O. released its first album under the publishing company Paranormal Parachute Flight Gear, called Gravatation, Pulleys, and Puppet Strings. The original members of the group were Stone, Daniel Hodge, Kevin Sledge, Chris James, Kevin Reed and special guest Wallace Schulte. "F.I.T.O., you notice, was started when G.W. (President George W. Bush) got into office. I just felt as a musician-I felt that we as musicians-should be giving it to the people," said Stone. "We should give them an objective look at what our particular opinions are on situations, and see if they agree. So I started writing this album. "We have songs like 'Bland Matter,' that talk about how we're all just nothing but numbers. That's what Bland Matter is-we're like binary code," said Stone. "And it goes back to spiritually, too, because we have songs like 'The Compromise' that sometimes talk about certain things, not only politics, but also perverse sexual activity in the church. "That's what 'The Compromise' is about-you're bringing your faith to your church and yet the preacher is reaching out and grabbing you in a way that you feel ... broken. Not only can you apply that to your perverse missionaries of the faith, but you can also apply that to the actual government. " Now, the group has a new member lineup. Along with Stone, F.I.T.O. added Jesse Mardis on back-up vocals and guitar, Scott DeFreese on drums, percussion and back-up vocals, Zach Thomas on bass guitar, Brent Romine on traditional percussion and vocal instrument and Kevin White on percussion and sampler. F.I.T.O. has a wide collection of influences. "The first band that I was just severely hardcore about was Metallica," Mardis said. "And I happen to know how to play every Metallica song that there ever was...and then I started really getting into Pantera. But there's been a million bands through out like Prong, Kings X, Iron Maiden, Helmet, Black Sabbath, Anthrax, Deicide, Dillinger Escape Plan, Morbid Angel, Death, Cannibal Corpse, Pig Destroyer ... Faith No More ... Acid Bath ... Frank Zappa ... and some hair metal-but that's just me because they always had just radical guitar players and I love anything where someone just completely rocks out." According to Stone, his earliest influences were, "Fantomous, Boy Sets Fire, Minor Threat, Agent Orange, Shellac, Steal Pole Bath Tub. Also, R.E.M. definitely for me, because they we're one of my earliest influences of my early days and my early music, because I thought that they were the best ever as far as songwriting goes." Their music seems to draw an audience of all ages. Fans young and old, anywhere from ages 14 to 40, make up the wide range of the fan base. "We have stuff for everybody," said Mardis. "We have stuff you can dance to, stuff you can bang your head to, stuff you can sit next to your woman and cry or whatever. I mean you know what I'm saying, not necessarily sit next to your woman and cry, but stuff for everybody" "There's just so much different stuff going on that it really does show a diverse amalgam of music and a dexterity that you don't find in other bands because we all come from different corners of the music spectrum...I've got my whole punk rock background," said Stone. "I'm metal as sh*t," says Mardis. "But that's what's beautiful about us, that's what we always say it's like a huge head-on collision, a big train wreck of all this pretty stuff." F.I.T.O.'s music writing process may seem different from other bands' techniques as well. Stone says he developed a lot of their mixing and vocal techniques from the inspiration of Bob Mould of the '80s band, Husker Du. "We start everything backwards. Instead of having the guitar part first, we start the drums up. We start out with beats and emotions. It's totally like art. We start with the background first and work up towards the foreground. So it's layering. It's a technical process, but it does give us the results we want, which is diversity." Right now, the band is in the process of completing their sophomore album entitled Walking Backwards, which should be released mid-summer. They say it's, "nothing to do with trends or market surveys, and everything to do with a group of guys, preference and commitment to follow where their hearts take them, be it somewhere angry, manic, seductive or frightening." Fly in the Ointment is usually a phrase that signifies a difficulty that causes anxiety, an inconvenience that detracts from the usefulness of something, a small problem or troublesome detail-and this is just what the band wants people to think about them. "We're trying to put forth a bigger message perhaps to get people to look at a bigger picture to not suffer from tunnel vision and not just think about you and your life and what you're doing right now, but think about the bigger picture to what your life is affecting outside your actual little terrain of habitat," said Stone. "All of us have an impact on the earth, and animals, harmony, the whole thing, that's what we're all about." For information about booking, Russell Quinn can be contacted at rquinn@fitoband.com For the latest Fly In The Ointment songs and updates, visit www.fitoband.com. |
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