A couple of years since our last chat, we caught up with North Carlina hardcore pack Fever Strike, the band we chopped it up with back in 2018. Since we last kicked it, they brought on their homie Scott Denhalter to hold it down on bass. With Scott in the mix, they’ve been steady writing and gigging, including a sick Midwest tour with The Threats (featuring the cats from The Chariot and Listener). They even laid down an LP called “Spin” with Patient Zero Records last year. And just last month, they came through with a double single, “Grinner//Eleven44“.
Today, we caught up with the crew to reminisce about the past four years and put you on to some dope new hardcore bands from NC that you need to peep.
“Fever Strike blends a progressive style in the vein of Snapcase and Turnstile while keeping to the simple roots of hardcore.” – Patient Zero Records
Fever Strike are: Teddy- vocals, Travis- drums, Justin- guitar, Scott- bass, Tipper- guitar
Asked about their past 3 year as a band, vocalist Teddy comments: “Plans were to actually have the album out early 2020 but do to all of our busy work schedules and personal life adventures plus the pandemic, other plans and goals were pretty much made for us haha.”
“The pandemic was almost helpful to us because it gave us more time to fix a few things on the album that we knew could be better.”
In the lead-up to their LP drop last August, they scored a major opportunity to hit the road with Death Before Dishonor for a sick weekend run. And they didn’t stop there, playing gig after gig straight through to the end of 2021. This momentum carried them right into the spring of 2022, when they linked up with Gloves Off for a run through the northeast and Midwest.
“On that run we had the last minute great opportunity to open up for the legendary hardcore band Skarhead, in Chicago.” – recalls Teddy.
“Since then, we got back to grinding and playing shows left and right and writing.”
Expounding more about their creative process, Teddy seems to be satisfied with the current potential of the band. “Justin continues writing the best songs for out style and it definitely challenges me to come up with perfect lyrics for every riff and break he writes. I love it.”
They are optimistic about their potential, hoping to reach an even wider audience and expand their live schedule. With an eye on the future, they eagerly anticipate an enjoyable summer season in 2023.
“A lot of times we are told our live performances out do our record.” – says Teddy. “So needless to say we love playing shows and bringing the energy along with it.”
Other bands wise, any of the band memebrs are really involved in any other projects to speak of. “But I know Scott is working on some stuff with one of his old bands known as Kong who are from Raleigh, NC.” – adds Teddy.
“While speaking of Raleigh there are some great bands coming out of that city that are pretty awesome, like Fading Signal, Eyez Wide Shut and Soul To Keep.
Fever Strike confirm that The North Carolina scene in general has some great talent all over, involving so many different genres and not just in “hardcore.”
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Lastly, we asked Teddy to give us his thoughts on one of the new songs, and here’s what we’ve got.
“”Grinner” which is 1 of the 2 new songs we just released is a song that is almost an exact conversion that a good friend of mine and I (Teddy) would have. She was always so excited to see me perform or just to hear what new material the band had. Even if we werent playing, she would always want to see me dance and smile. She went to a show once without me and said “a show without you just isnt the same if dont see your silly grin” haha.”
“The song also express how I personally and can imagine my friends faces and how excited they are for a show just for the atmosphere and the art of it. Watching people dance and get pumped to sing along with a band. It’s an adrenaline rush. Sometimes we run late to see a band that you want to see as my friend Tara was also good at being fashionably late and I would have to cut my hellos short because I had to dance or had to rush the stage for a sing along.”
