Exclusive Interview with Electro-Pop Act, Recess

 – Thanks so much for having us on here! We are Recess – a 4 piece theatrical, anthemic pop/alternative/rock band out of Cleveland, Ohio. We have been in a band together for over 9 years now, basically growing up together playing shows every summer all over the east coast. Over the years we started to distance ourselves from our cover band roots as we grew as individuals and people, and brought our creative influences to the table collectively with the release of our debut EP “Boundary Lane” last July.

– We used the the internet as our main tool and we cannot be more grateful to be alive in the age of technology. Alex met the Fondales at a talent showcase at the age of 9 when they were all just little kids, but I myself found out about the band through YouTube. At the time, I was a young aspiring drummer looking for a project to start or get into. I found out about Recess on YouTube because, at the time, they had a video with over 1 million views on a cover of a Journey song at a mall in Northeast Ohio. Blown away with what I saw, I did exactly what my parents told me not to do my whole life and decided to message an internet stranger (Alex’s father) to see if I could land myself an audition with Cleveland’s most promising young kids’ band. It ended up being the boldest and smartest decision I’ve ever made.

 – We all are inspired by such different artists it almost surprises me how we find common ground as band members. Alex is big into glam rock and pop with bands such as Coldplay and the 1975. Vincent is inspired by legends such as Steve Perry and Dio, whereas Anthony seeks inspiration from alternative/rock acts such as The Gorillaz and Imagine Dragons. And then there’s me: hugely inspired by artists from all corners of the industry from SOAD and Avenged Sevenfold to Taylor Swift and J. Cole.

– Our creative process is really simple; we never force a song to be finished, and, if we feel we are hitting a wall, we simply put it down and come back to it with a fresh mindset. 99% of our songs have started with a strong melody or hook that basically sets the basis and vibe for the entire record. When you have a strong melody, it helps to paint a picture of what we want to song to be in our heads. After that, it’s all about letting the song almost come together and write itself. We have had songs that have sat in Dropbox folders as demos for months before we could all finally look at each other and agree the song is what it’s supposed to be.

– “Leaving Home” is actually a pretty heartfelt record contrary to what people think. It isn’t written about a time or specific event, but more so the compromises of being an aspiring musician. “Leaving Home” is about the sacrifice of leaving your family, significant others, and friends in order to live on the road for years at a time to do what you’ve always wanted to do. It’s about watching your siblings grow up through a phone screen and missing out on all the little moments in life with them and friends in order to go play arenas full of thousands of people who don’t actually know who you are. 

– The only thing we really don’t want to be considered is a “boy band”. It is such a loose term that pretty much sums up our band and sticks us with an image we don’t feel is necessarily fitting. Basically, we have too many epic orchestras, choirs, war drums, and bravado in our live show to just be lumped together as the next big “boy band”. We also perform and play all of our own selective instruments and create/produce every musical element ourselves.

– FDTG is our next step forward as a band. Like Anthony always says to me, “**** ceilings bruh. We have to one up ourselves,” and thats basically what we tried to do with this record. “Boundary Lane” was a very organic, almost grassroots record that really didn’t feature big production or polished pop elements.  We wanted a very warm Ed Sheeran-esque record that simply epitomized our sound and gave the world an idea of what we are capable of. FDTG has a different approach. We set the groundwork with “Boundary Lane”, but with songs like “When the Sky Comes”, which features a stadium anthem pop hook, or “Leaving Home” with intense orchestral backing, we really had no limitations to how far we want to stretch our sound, and we really just wanted to make it even harder for our listeners to single in on what exactly our genre or style of music is. 

– Honestly, having been together almost a decade, we have such a strong bond, not just as members of a band, but as a group of friends, that we feel inseparable and ready for any challenge our careers throws at us so long as we have each other. We met at an age so young that, at the time, we couldn’t wait for practice to end so Anthony and I could run up to his bedroom and play Modern Warfare 2. Knowing each other that long and essentially growing up together has cemented us together as a true family unit, which I personally believes resonates very strongly in our music and social media presence. The genuine love we have for each other as brothers is clear as day to our fanbase, and I think that makes us more approachable and relatable than anything. 

– We’ve dreamed of being on a bus with each other driving through the middle of nowhere almost longer than we’ve known each other. It’s the vision we all fabricated and shared when we first met each other in 2010, and its that same vision that drives and motivates us every time we are in the studio, playing a show, or even making one of our notorious stupid skit videos on Instagram that people cannot seem to get enough of.