Recorded and mixed by Greg Thomas (END, Misery Signals) and Chris Teti (The World Is a Beautiful Place … ), with mastering by Kris Crummet (Dance Gavin Dance, Issues), Twisted World Perspective, the newest offering from Wheeling, West Virginia based metalcore band fallfiftyfeet pushes onward with an unrivalled force, blending mathy, chaotic hardcore, post hardcore and metalcore ingredients to create their own mixture of styles and plant their flag down in their local music scene. Today, we dive into the details of their project through a special interview below!
fallfiftyfeet‘s new album “Twisted World Perspective” is due out July 9th. Follow the band on Facebook, Twitter, Bandcamp and Instagram.
Hey guys! Pleasure to have you here on IDIOTEQ. How are you? How’s Wheeling?
We’re great, just been working on more content for this album rollout! Wheeling is just about as awesome as you could imagine, and I genuinely mean that.
You started this band on the ashes of False Accusations. What happened with that squad and what was in the idea of forming a new project that inspired you to kick off a new era with fallfiftyfeet?
Well, me (Jim) and Dave had started FA as an interenet band when we 15 year old kids who met on tumblr. We’re 25 now, and we did a lot of learning and growing up in the 8 years of us being a band. We had some lineup changes and after starting to work on some new stuff we decided we’d be better off basically completely rebranding and coming out of the gate strong. When we were in FA we were kids who wanted nothing but to tour, and that was awesome, but, we didn’t put nearly enough into content for the band or even wait to do proper roll outs for releases. It was always just get the new thing out ASAP so we can go back on the road.
Has your experience with F.A. lead to changes within the stylistics and sonic structures for fallfiftyfeet?
Most of the stuff written for this release was written while FA was still a band but I’d say of course. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the response we had gotten previously, but everything to do with how I have changed as a listener of music and how that influences my writing. I never wanted to repeat myself on any FA song because I thought it was bad or boring. But over time as I’ve observed how some of my favorite bands approach song structure, even in complex nuanced genres like mathcore, I’ve learned that you can repeat phrases or ideas without getting boring, and give the listener a bigger chance of catching on to what you’re doing in a first listen and remembering it.
Why ‘fallfiftyfeet’?
Sounds sick. Doesn’t really have a meaning to it, but we wanted something catchy with a bit of alliteration in it. Dave was the one who came up with it and he said it was heavily inspired by band names like From A Second Story Window and Fear Before the March of Flames. I also think it’s just packaged really well, fall is 4 fifty is 5 and feet is 4. It’s a nice even assembly of words all smushed and lowercase to standout if you see it typed out.
Your debut LP ‘Twisted World Perspective’is due out July 9th. Please give us some details on your creative and recording project leading up to this milestone.
All the songs for TWP were written in like a two year span up to the recording of the album, which actually started in April 2019. Songs like Shortcuts to Hell, Anything That Can Go Wrong…, and Commit to the Bit, were written in 2017, but most of the rest of the album was all written late 2018. At the time I was really trying to incorporate familiarity throughout all the songs, without just always repeating parts. So you’ll hear a lot of me utilizing rhythms in different ways throughout a track, or building off of one riff by adding or taking away aspects of it, or even just changing the drum beat behind a part.
Recording this record was so stressful, but working with Greg and Chris at Silver Bullet Studios was the most amazing experience you could ever ask for. Greg is hands down THE most thorough, passionate, and genuine producers I have ever worked with. This album actually would not have been finished without his willingness to keep going. Specifically because, when we came into the studio we had hired a session drummer because we didn’t have one, long story short, that guy wasted about 4 days of our recording time flubbing through the songs that he had not practiced, and dipped before the album was finished. After that I was ready to call it a day, or cut songs and just make an EP, but Greg said fuck that and made us push through. We ended up going back in and having our friend Julian Dinowitz record the drums on the record, and it turned out great. Despite all the bullshit we went through I would not have it any other way. The final product made it all worth it.
Personal struggle and hoping to find a way out of your own personal hell build a tough lyrical foundation for the album. Can you take us through some of the content and messages you’re trying to convey through this release?
Dave wrote a majority of this album after having a few real bad experiences and anxiety attacks while on some undisclosed psychedelic drugs. There are songs that deal directly with that like Shortcuts to Hell and Situational Thriller, but there are still some tracks that are really just us talking about our personal issues with self doubt, the shit that everyone deals with, imposter syndrome, that sort of thing. Twisted World is a song I wrote and it’s really just about how for a while I had super bad jealousy issues with seeing people doing “better” than me in music. And that’s super shitty and not how you should look at it at all. You should be happy for your friends who are doing well because they work hard too, you don’t see all the behind the scenes work every band does to get where they are. But I was at a place where I had been playing shows to no one for years and thought that for some reason that granted me validation to be pissed off and jealous about other peoples fortunes, it didn’t. But I feel like music is about being honest, and that’s how I felt, so I wrote about it.
Where does your desire for creating and doing this band stem from?
I think me and Dave are just really inspired by bands and musicians we hear and that’s what keeps us wanting to make music. We’re the type of people that are pretty much always trying to seek out something new to listen to, never fully content with what’s in our rotation. So making music just gives us another way of giving ourselves something we think is fresh that we like to hear. Also, I don’t think any of us have ever wanted to do something other than make music.
Give us a brief overview of your local heavy music scene in Wheeling and how it links with the bigger scenes in neighboring states and cities.
The scene now is fairly small. Because we come from a rural area there aren’t a ton of local bands, so I wouldn’t even say there’s a “heavy” scene. There is just kind of a local scene in general, and all the bands play together regardless of genre because that’s pretty much all there is.
That being said there is some rich music history in the Ohio Valley (which is the area we’re all from, surrounding Wheeling and encompassing a lot of small towns.) Before I was involved in local music, there was a bar/venue called Yesterdays that used to have a bunch of small-mid level touring acts come through. And then there was a decent sized basement show/legion hall type hardcore scene going on in the early 2010s as well. What blew my mind is a couple years back I found a band that was formed in Marietta, OH and had roots with members in Wheeling as well, called The Minus Tide.
Absolutely crazy good metallic and sludgy type metalcore/mathcore. They were like mid 00s and they RIPPED. I always wanted to try and get them back together and to play the venue I had a couple years back, but never could, and unfortunately just a few weeks ago one of the founding members, Michael Iafrate, passed away. RIP. Check out The Minus Tide. Also, research your local areas music history. We’re from the middle of nowhere and I have found SO much history that I am proud of, you’ll be surprised what you find when you dig.
Awesome. Can you share some more cool up and coming local bands worth a check?
Vulgar Royalty is a sick sludgy hardcore band from Morgantown, WV.
Stage Moms and The Overlooked are some sick Pop Punk outfits from right around us.
Gator Shakes is some sick southern style Metalcore beer chugging rock music from Pittsburgh, Pa.
Thanks so much for your time. Feel free to share your final words and take care!
Go pre-order Twisted World Perspective vinyl right now or it will sell out and you’ll feel dumb. Also stream us on spotify and put us in the playlist you put on while you’re in the shower.
