04/24/09 - Ah, Spring! The birds are chirping, people stop caring what that self-righteous groundhog said way back in February, and music is in the air. If you were wondering what that melody drifting across the airwaves was, I am fairly certain I have an answer for you. The music you were hearing was that of a local band called Fairhaven.
This isn't your typical adult-hating, Sublime-covering, good-song-butchering garage band. Fairhaven, with its genuinely deep lyrics and complicated instrumentals, took the 2009 WBRU Rock Hunt by force, competing against around 200 bands and eventually winning the contest.
Don't be fooled- as far as the Rhode Island music scene is concerned, the Rock Hunt is "it." This is the key that opens the door to a whole new world of opportunity.
Fairhaven shares the honor of winning the Rock Hunt with such acts as M-80, The Lingo and, most notably, Zox. Though we were not able to interview the whole band, I was able to sit down and chat with Nick Pagano, the bass player of Fairhaven
Nat Tingley: So Nick, who is Fairhaven?
Nick Pagano: OK, so Alan Connell is the lead singer and he plays rhythm guitar, Trevor Gould is our lead guitar, pianist and background vocals guy. My name is Nick Pagano (laughs) and I play bass. I'm also a Communication studies major here at URI and I'm 21-years-old. Our drummer's name is Jared Gould and that is Fairhaven.
NT: All right- so for those of our readers who don't know, what exactly is the WBRU Rock Hunt and what did it entail?
NP: Basically, the way the Rock Hunt works is that every January WBRU promotes what they call the Rock Hunt. Almost every local band applies because it is so huge. You have to apply, send pictures and links to MySpace and most importantly send music.
Basically, a few weeks/ months later, WBRU called us and told us that we were semi-finalists out of 200 bands.
For those 12 semi-finalists, there were four separate shows played at the Wheelhouse, three bands a night. Out of the semis, four bands were chosen to compete for the win at Lupos.
Honestly, it was just awesome to have made it to the semi-finals. I mean, 200 bands is a lot of bands. It was also awesome to have played at the Wheelhouse, but when we got the call to play at Lupos, that was really the best ever.
NT: So the name Fairhaven, what does that mean?
NP: (laughs) Okay, so the name have nothing to do with Fairhaven, Mass or Fairhaven, Conn. Our band name came from the street Jared (drums) and Trevor (guitar, piano, vocals) grew up on and the street that they first started practicing on.
NT: Now that you've won, what are some of the next steps for Fairhaven? Any possibilities of touring?
NP: Well right now we have a few things going. As far as the next year, we want to stay local and take advantage of what WBRU has given us. WBRU is giving us a great deal of local exposure and we're getting about one to two plays a week from them.
We are going to be opening up for Zox May 23 so that is a big thing.
At this point, with the fame we've achieved with the Rock Hunt, we play a show on pretty much a weekly basis, at least one show a week.
The main plan for the future that we have in mind is to create a full 12-track CD. At this point we have a four-song EP that we've been giving away for free and putting up on MySpace.
On top of that we are just going to try and book as many shows as possible and open for as many big bands as possible all in the name of trying to get as big as we can.
As far as touring, like I said we are going to stay local so that means the Rhode Island, outer Massachusetts, and Boston areas. We have been talking to big name people in the industry and they have advised us to stay local for now and then later on start to tour elsewhere.
NT: How long has Fairhaven been a band?
NP: Well Jared and Trevor are brothers, so you could that Fairhaven has been a band since they started playing music. As far as being a real band, Fairhaven has been a band for about eight years. I joined Fairhaven about two years ago. So, for me, two years. For them, eight.
NT: What are your and the band's musical influences?
NP: For me, my big influence is the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Personally, I also really like Pink Floyd, you know, the classics. As a band, we are influenced by bands like Incubus, Coldplay, Death Cab, the Chili Peppers and Third Eye Blind. Oh and Zox! From a local standpoint those guys are awesome.
NT: There has been a great deal of talk these days as far as different methods of getting your name out there.
Not to offend you by comparing you to Soulja Boy, but he can attribute all his fame to YouTube and MySpace. How has the digital age affected your group?
NP: Like, as far as the MySpace thing, I don't know how other bands made it without it. The thing is that it does a good job of helping people remember us. Our live shows are really intense and fun for the people who see them but the MySpace page is a free service we can use so that if fans like our stuff they can go online and listen to our EP for free all day.
As far as our claim to fame the Rock Hunt has obviously been a huge milestone. Youtube, not so much.
Soulja Boy has a gimmick and we don't really have one of those. All we really have on YouTube are a couple live show videos taken with a cell phone. MySpace and WBRU have really been the best tools we've used to promote ourselves.
NT: So as we wrap things up here, is there anything you would like to say to your fans, the URI community or the people who haven't heard your music but are interested?
NP: Well, first off to all the people who know us and who have seen us before, all we can say is thank you for coming out and giving us all the support, we really do appreciate it.
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