Toronto band From Fiction: hail to local talent!

By: Carole Park

Posted: 1/26/05

Since 2002, when From Fiction started to play shows in and around Toronto, the band has became a staple in the Toronto music scene. Their music spread by word of mouth, they've played with the likes of Wilco, Mission of Burma, The Rapture, and Death From Above 1979, and their exposure is still growing. The band of friends is comprised of guitarist/vocalist Adam Barnes and Quentin Ede, Bassist Owen Marchildon, and drummer Rob Gordon.

Rob Gordon, a former Vic student, took some time to sit down with The Strand for a chat.

The Strand: How would you describe your music?
Rob Gordon: Just hard rock.

Many people use the term "math rock" to describe your music, what do you think about that?
I don't know, it's a pretty empty term, but I guess it is in the sense that it's intricate in terms of interest, but yeah it's a pretty empty term it doesn't account for every other part of the music.

How has the music progressed since the band started?
It's gotten a little harder and a little more emphasis on just not being complicated or anything like that, just hard rock.

In other interviews you guys have described yourselves as a live band. Why?
It's just cause I think it's the most important part. It's more than the compositions and stuff like that, trying to write songs that is the experience live. It's not really for the bedroom, holding hands, and making-out.

Some of the band members are involved in side projects. Do those in any way affect From Fiction?
It's not that any band has to be one specific thing. I don't understand why you would limit yourself like that. Sometimes you get to play out other sides of your own personal taste so it's good to have those things. Like especially Quentin, I think he satisfies a lot of his love of more simple... song writing on his own instead of forcing it onto From Fiction. Owen is also in a country band.

When the band started out there was some negative feedback, and now the same publications have more of a positive response. What do you think of this and critical feedback in general? Or does the band not really pay attention to it?
I don't think we really do. Especially with all the people, I mean it's just their job. I think one of the best, my favourite review we got was from Chart magazine and the guy compares watching our show to passing a kidney stone and I thought I've never been so excited when I read that. You don't want to force polarization on the crowd by being a jerk. It's better that people have a definite opinion then being "you're okay, nice..."

How is it like touring with Death From Above 1979?
It's pretty good. Its been fun to play with lots of different bands. But I think of all the bands we played with last year I enjoyed playing with them the most, and the crowd is usually pretty good. They're always there for hard rock in the first place; there's never any confusion about that.

Are you guys planning to record anytime soon?
Yeah real soon, February 20th we're going to Chicago to record with Steve Albini for like a week. Yeah, it's a pretty big deal for us because he's our favourite producer.

How did you guys get in touch with him?
We looked up his phone number; he's a pretty down to earth guy for someone who's got such a reputation. And you know he's just straight up: he runs his business like a business. He answered the phone when we called; he never heard us and just booked us then.

Are you guys looking to get signed anytime soon?
Hopefully, I don't know. We haven't really talked about shopping around; we're lazy like that. But getting a label in general I think it's pretty touchy subject for a lot of people, so...

It's more do-it-yourself for now?
Generally yeah, if someone comes up to us it would be nice, especially since we're going to down to Chicago. We're going to play some shows there and we'll see what some of those labels have to say; they're pretty open minded.