Sounds: Fighting For Ithaca

www.myspace.com/fightingforithaca

With smooth and strong vocals alongside intense drumming & elaborate guitar riffs, Fighting For Ithaca are about to take the world by storm. Their songs are incredibly catchy and you just have to rock out to them, they're the songs that you sing along to in the car, in the shower, with your friends, and at their shows! We would recommend Fighting For Ithaca to anyone who's looking for music to go along with epic life journeys or long road trips with your best friends. They are absolutely amazing and give a whole new meaning to Canadian music, we here at Sounds were completely stoked to be able to interview these guys and expose them to the nation. Check out what Tommy, Curtis, Patty, Keigan and Jon had to say.

S: Tell us something about yourselves that's odd/out of the ordinary.

FFI: Curtis is a trained hypnotist and conspiracy theory expert, Keigan has jammed with Joan Jett, Jon is missing a thumb, and Patty and I are both from french Canadian families.

S: How did the 'bromance' between the 5 of you start, how did you guys meet?

FFI: Curtis found me and our first rhythm guitarist on craig's list, and then recruited Patty who he'd known for a while. We went through a few drummers and then had the incredible luck of finding the master of insane beats, Keigan Funk, also via craigslist. And recently we lost a guitarist (which is why there are only four of us in the music video) and then brought Curtis' bro Jon to kick up the guitars a notch! Now we feel as if the lineup is stronger and more cohesive than ever and that we have finally found all five ideal members for this band!

Curtis is a trained hypnotist and conspiracy theory expert...Jon is missing a thumb

S: Can you let us know if your EP, "Thanks For Waiting" will be released in mainstream stores such as HMV or Sunrise Records? If not, where can your fans pick up the hard copy of your tunes?

FFI: In a week or so, our album should be available for order via CD baby.com, and although HMV etc.. won't actually be stocking the album, they should be able to order it for you.

Or come out to a show if you live in the vancouver/lower mainland area! And if you don't, hopefully we'll be coming to you sometime soon!

S: What was the most memorable show that you guys ever played?

FFI: I think I can speak for all of us when I say I say the Vancouver date of Warped Tour 2009. Despite being on at the same time as some pretty killer bands like A Day To Remember and The Devil Wears Prada, we actually had a ton of people come watch our set. Even El Hefe from NOFX came and checked us out! This show also has the disticntion of being Jon's first show with the band. He wasn't even an official member of the band yet, but we only found out we got the gig three days in advance and didn't have a guitarist! So we called Jon in a panic and in three days he had mastered all our songs flawlessly and played a killer show with us! So I guess you could say that Warped was Jon's "Trial by Fire" :P

S: For all of the aspiring artists out in the world, what do you think the most important piece of advice is that you could give them?

FFI: My personal advice (Tommy, Bass) would be that because art is of such a personal nature, learn a lot about yourself, figure, what drives you, what inspires you, what your influences are, and most importantly, what your talents are. If you channel all of this knowledge toward doing what you love than regardless of commercial success or not, you will always have that fulfillment of creating something true of yourself. In terns of making a career of the arts...networking. It's all who you know. If you can deliver a product that you are completely confident is good, then it's just a matter of getting that to the right people. And practice a lot.

S: If you were to put together your own tour, who would you tour with and why? Also, who would you share a tour bus with?

FFI: I'd put us on tour with Story of The Year and Blink 182 because a) both of those bands kick ASS! and b) because I think FFI's sound falls somewhere in between both of these bands' styles. We're probably share a bus with Story of The Year because I doubt the pop punk elder statesmen in Blink would want punks like us on their nice bus. And from what I gather from watching Bassassins, them SOTY boys is some crazy mofos!

Art is of such a personal nature, learn a lot about yourself, figure, what drives you, what inspires you, what your influences are, and most importantly, what your talents are.

S: If you had the chance to be a part of any other band (whether broken up or not) who would you be with and why?

FFI: Personally I would say The Doors. I would love to have been the bass player they never had. (Tommy, Bass)

S: Who were your number one influences when you formed 'Fighting For Ithaca'?

FFI: Personally we all have a ton of varied and ecclectic influences. In terms of FFI I'd say my own influences were Funeral For a Friend, AFI, Alexisonfire etc...but my bass playing is influenced by a lot of different sources like Ska and Reggae, 1950's rock and roll, hip hop, and the band Joy Division.
As a band some I'd say Story of The Year, Anberlin, and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus could be claimed as a collective influence. It also seems like most of us have been listening to a lot of All Time Low lately.

S: Where did your band name come from?

FFI: Curtis thought of it. It's a reference to Homer's The Odyssey, in which Odysseus is stranded far away from his home of Ithaca after the Trojan war and takes something like fifteen years to fight his way back, confronting the God Poseidan, making a detour to the land of the dead, being imprisoned by and enchantress, and finally assaulting an attack on a mob of suitors asking for his wife's hand who have taken over his house. The band name is basically about fighting to get where you belong. Fighting for your place in the world.

S: What's one habit that someone in the band has that you could all do without?

FFI: Pat has a habit of exposing himself that we could probably all do without.

Check out their official video for 'Cause and Effect' via youtube below!