Pete : The pleasure's mine brother, I'm always up for talking about rock'n'roll!
heavy paradise : Firstly, I would like to congratulate you for the participation of FARCRY in Firefest! It sounds really exciting! How do you feel about that?
Pete : Thank you sir, we are quite honestly thrilled beyond words to be a part of this year's event, which many are calling "the best lineup yet"!
heavy paradise : So, can you tell our readers some words about FARCRY?
Pete : FarCry basically started out back in 2006 when John Kivel (Kivel Records) reached out to me on the HeavyHarmonies.com message board and asked me if I had any interest in being part of a new project. In 2007 he met Mark Giovi (lead vocals), whom I hadn't worked with since the mid-80's and we brought him in.
From the first moment the intent was to create a melodic rock band and I'll leave it you to judge whether we were successful in that endeavor! After our debut "High Gear" was released in 2009 we restructured the rhythm section of the band and brought in Ronnie Parkes on bass, Tommy John on drums, and Angelo Mazza on rhythm guitars, all of whom became our live and recording band from that moment on.
heavy paradise : Your debut album,"High Gear", was a very good melodic hard rock album. Great melodies, catchy songs and, of course, some really huge guitar work. It also received great reviews from all over the net. Do you want to tell me some more about "High Gear" album?
Pete : Thank you so much for the kind words! "High Gear" represented about 3 years of ups and downs in the process of bringing together the band at the time and recording the album. To date, "High Gear" is the recorded work I'm most proud of by far, embracing a variety of styles within the classification of "melodic rock". The response we got from all over for both the album release and the subsequent live dates was overwhelming and was far more than I ever could have expected.
Pete : Absolutely! "Optimism" is heading for an April, 2011 release, and in some ways picks up where "High Gear" left off, but in many ways also expands on it. One thing I think will definitely be noticeable is just how well the band gels on this release. You can actually hear one of the new tracks, "Best of Me" by going over to http://www.reverbnation.com/farcrytherockband and becoming a fan. Once you become a fan, it will allow you to listen to one additional song from "High Gear" as well as the new track from the upcoming "Optimism". Don't forget to let us know what you think!
heavy paradise : The songwritting in FARCRY is it one man's responsibility or is it a team work result?
Pete : Basically, every album starts with song selection where we pretty much lay the foundation of what the album is going to be made up of. At this time we bring in songs from both band members as well as outside songwriters. There isn't a whole lot of internal collaboration within the band as we don't really live near each other. On "High Gear" Mark and I contributed some songs, and we also had a number of songs contributed by Jason Pawlak, an excellent songwriter whose contributions are some of the high points of the album.
The band was in kind of a state of flux before and during the recording of "High Gear" so I'm glad we were able to pull in some help in the writing department. With "Optimism" you will hear a lot more of my music, with six of the tracks being mine, and having some great lyrical contributions from outside.
For instance the pre-released track "Best of Me" I mentioned earlier has killer lyrics/vocal melodies written by Steve Newman (Newman). In addition to that you'll hear a song by Mark, one from Angelo which again contributes to the band really gelling on this one.
heavy paradise : Are there going to be differences in the sound of the new album?
Pete : On the production end Ty Sims, who also produced "High Gear" has really stepped it up and is delivering some of the best sounding stuff I've heard yet, which I'm really excited about! Other than that, we're still a melodic rock band, we're not going "modern" or "experimental" or anything like that.
heavy paradise : Except FARCRY, you have been involved in the ROCKARMA's "Bring It" album. I dare to say that was another highlight for me! Was ROCKARMA one band's album or do we have to expect more in the near future?
Pete : RocKarma's "Bring It!" release was something I just kind of fell into as we were in the process of putting together FarCry and getting into the studio. I was asked by Mr. Kivel if they could use a song I had written the music for on the album, and if I wanted I could do the guitar solo as well. So never saying no like I do (a blessing and a curse), I said hell yeah! I ended up doing the solo for that song ("BadJune") as well as the solo on "I Know" and then did a few live gigs over the next year (2008).
Had a great time doing it and genuinely loved the music. Unfortunately there were a lot of broken promises and other questionable issues coming from the RocKarma camp, so I picked up my morals and got out. I don't know if there will be another album from that band or not, but unless something really weird happens, I won't be involved in it.
Pete : I would say that RocKarma is pretty much 100% "hair metal" (not an insult IMO), whereas FarCry is a bit more diverse, but all within the realm of melodic rock, sometimes even touching on a little hair metal sounding stuff... :-)
heavy paradise : What are your influences, Pete?
Pete : How much time do you have? ;-) Seriously I have a zillion influences from a variety of genres. Obviously my heart belongs to melodic hard rock so those influences include many of the obvious choices: George Lynch, Viv Campbell, Jake E. Lee, Warren DiMartini, Doug Aldrich, Scotti Hill, Andy Timmons, Reb Beach... but I've also listened to a ton of other musicians that have left there mark as well, maybe you can hear them, maybe not... Jimmy Page, Mick Ralphs, Mick Jones, Steve Jones, East Bay Ray, Jerry Garcia, Ravi Shankar, David Gilmour, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Elliot Easton, Warren Cuccurullo... the list goes on... and on... I listen to a TON of music...
heavy paradise : How do you see the hard rock scene in the U.S. in comparison with Europe?
Pete : It's hard to tell living in the US and not actually being in Europe as much as I'd like, but within the US let me start out by saying we have some of the most loyal fans/best friends a band could ask for, but overall the US seems to have a more fickle audience that wants to either relive the nostalgia of the old days and go see the bands they remember from that time, or they just listen to whatever crap is on mainstream radio. Unfortunately for us we fit somewhere in the middle of that so it can be tough at times, but we're always up for a challenge!
I feel like in Europe they seem to be almost unwaveringly loyal to the bands they like, old, new, whatever... unless you really screw things up they're staying with you. They're also open to new music from the genre they love, and that's one of the reasons we've decided to try and focus not just on the US (which we will continue to do of course, we love you guys!), but also on the overseas markets. When it all comes down to it, we just want to keep playing!
heavy paradise : From the new 'blood' of melodic hard rock is there any band that impressed you most?
Pete : Again, because I listen to way too much stuff, so let me just throw a few names out there in no particular order... I'll try to follow the new blood thing as being after 2000... Jettblack, Distorted Wonderland, Black Stone Cherry, Stonerider, Charm City Devils, Khymera, Allen-Lande, Bombay Black...
WHITESNAKE: Can't wait for the new one, "Good to be Bad" kicked ass!
DOUG ALDRICH: Awesome player, loved him since he was in "Lion"!
GEORGE LYNCH: A perpetual influence, love his style!
GOD: Is all in your interpretation.
DEVIL: Lives inside all of us, up to us to determine whether he gets out or not...
SUCCESS: ...is not monetary.
FIREFEST: Let's go!
FARCRY: ...as a friend said, "2011 is the year of FarCry"... bring it on.
heavy paradise : From your live performances over the years, which was the one that you are going to remember for ever?
Pete : WAY back in the day, been playing for a couple years maybe. Had to restart a song a couple times because I couldn't play my own guitar part, and someone in the back yelled out "YOU SUCK!" I will never forget that.
heavy paradise : If you had to the chance to make your imaginary band, which would that be?
Pete : Assuming there are no rules about living or dead... ah, ya know what? I don't even have to list individuals, just bring back Ray Gillen and put Badlands back together... :-)
Pete : THANK YOU for being there for us, thank you for buying the CD's and not downloading them, and thank you for going to the shows and not just watching the YouTube clips!
http://www.facebook.com/FarCryBand
http://www.facebook.com/PeteFryRocks
heavy paradise : I would like to thank for this interview Pete and wish you all the best for the future!
Pete : Thank you sir, thank you for the great questions and the opportunity to answer them brother!
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