| Driven Far Off

Artist: October Fall
Album: Albatross
Label: Decaydance / Fueled By Ramen
Purchase: Smart Punk
Release Date: February 21, 2006

Overall: 8.5
Lyrics: 8.0
Music: 8.9
Production: 9.4

It surely has been a season in Hell for October Fall. This Chicago band has had quite an amount of drama over the past few months. With the unexpected dismissal of their bass player and questionable tourmates, there’s been a backlash from their old fan base. However, their past few tours have been gaining them more and more fans, and with a stint on Fall Out Boy’s upcoming arena tour, the kids are gonna eat this up.

All situations aside, it’s easy for me to say that this is a well written pop album. That’s right. It’s a straight up pop album. If you try to classify this as anything else, you’re just trying to nitpick at it. Try to picture if you will, a harmony-heavy, adolescent Something Corporate and you’ll have a feel for October Fall’s sound.

“Second Chances” opens the album with a spacey synth part that is joined by the bands’ normal instruments of choice. The tame verse builds up into an explosive chorus and the song proceeds to burst through your speakers and grab your attention. Then out of nowhere, there’s a country part in the middle of the song. I don’t know what prompted the band to put it there, but it seems like it fits.

“Caught In the Rain” has a melody that makes me think of an older song that I can’t remember the name or lyrics for, but I know it sounds similar to something. The beat of this song actually kind of makes me want to dance. It’s not a dance song by any means, but it’s danceable. I know that sounds contradictory, but listen to the song and you’ll probably want to grab someone and start spinning around.

The third track, which happened to be the original title of this album, “Keep Dreaming Upside Down,” is my favorite track here. During the bridge, we can hear female vocals come out of nowhere. They’re from none other than Paramore’s Hayley Williams. We all know I’m a sucker for this girl’s voice. It mixes with Pat’s for an amazing harmony, and that helps this song stick out. The drums for this song pound away and are another point you’ll probably focus on when listening.

“Walking,” which was made available on Purevolume and Myspace last year, tones things down a bit and gets serious lyrically. It’s another strong track that if you didn’t hear it before, you’ll enjoy more and more with every listen.

“It Was Summer…(Baby Steps)” would be an ideal single if the chorus was as energetic as the previous songs’. This is radio-ready material right here. These guys can craft a damn good pop song. I really like this track and my only complaint is the lack of the explosive chorus it deserves.

A SoCo-song-worthy piano part leads off “Tounge Tied.” It’s slower than the other songs, but it’s not a skippable track. I absolutely love Pat’s voice on this song. He hits some great notes all throughout it. The chorus starts off whispered and builds up, and it’s a great display of Pat’s range.

For a long time, “Hey Hey” was the only song anyone had to listen to on Purevolume and Myspace. The album version has been slightly modified, but if you’re familiar with the song, you’ll notice some of the notes in the instrumentation have been changed. The lyrics and vocals are pretty much the same. The piano sticks out way more in this version than the demo.

“Here We Go From the Top” is more of the same. It’s another song with a strong vocal display.

“Keep It Comin’ ” hops around from traditional rock to electronic. It’s complete with the spiteful lyrics that the “Taking Shape” EP had.

The last two songs on the album were the only ones I didn’t enjoy listening to as much as the others.

Like them or hate them, October Fall have delivered a debut full of songs that showcase the band’s pop-sensibilities. Anyone can write a pop song. It’s hard to write ENJOYABLE pop-songs. That’s what these are. I enjoyed listening to this album. Couple the enjoyable melodies with the synth lines that are sprinkled throughout the songs, and the different instrumentation here and there, and you’ve got a nice departure from normal piano-rock. Pat has a knack for writing catchy, hook-filled songs. I’m a sucker for them. I’m a sucker for this album. It’s my new guilty pleasure. This band isn’t here for “scene cred.” They’re here to make something of themselves, and if marketed correctly, this album should get into the right hands to make these guys relatively big.

Track Listing
1. Second Chances
2. Caught in the Rain
3. Keep Dreaming Upside Down
4. Walking
5. It Was Summer…(Baby Steps)
6. Tounge Tied
7. Hey Hey
8. Here We Go From the Top
9. Keep It Comin’
10. A Part of Me
11. If We’re All Alone, Aren’t We In This Together

I had the pleasure of interviewing Pat and Clark from October Fall in Nashville behind The Muse. This interview had to be conducted in one of the weirdest places….we were next to “The World’s Largest Adult Bookstore.” Hmm. We also had some nice homeless fellows try to bum change from us, and we didn’t have any, but Pat was nice enough to offer Halls cough drops.

Trevor: Can you guys state your names and what you do for the band?

Pat: I’m Pat D’Andrea, I play guitar and sing and write the songs with Clark.

Clark: And I’m Clark Harrison. I play guitar and sing backgrounds…a lot.

Trevor: You guys formed in 2003 right?

Pat: Kind of.

Clark: Yeah, kind of

Pat: Well like, me and Clark have been writing music together since the sixth grade and we’ve been best friends for forever. It’s really weird. We can’t get rid of eachother. And um, basically, we went across the street one day and there was a drummer there and we kind of played with him and we met Boats, our piano player. He just happened to be sitting at this new drummer for-one-day’s house hanging out and waiting for a ride home.

Clark: Yeah, it was really weird.

Pat: So basically me and him started the band a while ago, and then Boats was the last surviving member. Everyone else was kind of replaced. So yeah, I guess 2003-ish

Clark: Haha sorry.

Pat: Yeah, we elaborate.

Trevor: So were you guys getting big crowds back then or small shows?

Clark: No.

Pat: No, it’s weird. We were playing acoustic for a while and like, the chicks are great.

Clark: Haha yeah.

(Laughter)

Pat: No, no, that was Almost Famous.

Clark: There was a group of like, 20 girls that would follow us around for a while, though.

Pat: Yeah, but then when we started playing a different sound, we started getting a pretty good following for a while. And not that it died of or anything, we just started changing our sound and maturing.

Trevor: So playing this tour, how big have the shows been? I mean, obviously you played a pretty small show tonight, but like, is it reminding you of when you started or…?

Pat: No, I guess now because we’re on such a different level musically since we recorded our record and everything. We just have so much fun on tour.

Clark: Yeah, I guess it’s kind of like we’re starting over.

Pat: It’s really a good thing because we want to be known as a different band. What’s weird is our first show was at The Fireside for like, fifty people in Chicago. Have you ever heard “Somewhere Down on Fullerton” by Allister?

Trevor: Yeah.

Pat: That song’s about there, but it was really weird. Like, we had a really good first show and ever since then, we just promoted the shit out of our shows.

Trevor: Oh man, I totally forgot about Allister being Chicago kids. Have you heard their new stuff?

Pat and Clark: Yeah, some of it.

Trevor: Oh, it’s good. Like, I don’t know..for a while I was kinda…

Pat: Skeptical?

Trevor: Yeah, well about Drive-Thru now. I wish it was my tenth grade year all over again, because that’s when Drive-Thru was really starting to pick up, then the whole Geffen thing happened. I don’t know, they’re working on getting things back to normal.

Pat: Yeah, they are. Richard and Stefanie are our friends. We actually hung out with them while we were in California recording our album. They’re really cool dudes and they know what they’re doing.

Trevor: Yeah, they’ve always seemed really down to earth.

Clark: Yeah, they’re really nice.

Trevor: Okay. Obvious question. You guys signed to Decaydance, which is Pete Wentz’s imprint.

Pat: Yep.

Trevor: How does it feel having a guy like Pete love you guys that much, that he will sign you and put his trust and faith in you?

Clark: It feels good!

Pat: It’s awesome. What’s cool about it is, it’s really weird. We’ve liked Fall Out Boy for a really long time and we used to go to their shows when they were around our hometown. I was definitely one of like, the three kids they were playing to at Wherehouse Music, like this little venue. It’s really cool that he got interested in us and stuff. Like, when we hang out with him we’re not like, “Oh it’s Pete from Fall Out Boy!” It’s Pete and he’s our dude.

Trevor: Yeah, well see, that’s like how I am at any show I go to. I saw them back in April at the Fueled By Ramen Tour, and I just saw Joe walking around. I was just like, “Hey man, what’s up?” and we talked and it was great. I don’t know. It’s just fun to see kids freak out around bands, though.

Pat: Haha, oh yeah, dude.

Trevor: Yeah, you guys are people, too.

Pat and Clark: Yeah, totally!

Trevor: Now, did you guys record this summer, or before?

Clark: We recorded in late July through the middle of September of 2005, so yeah, this summer.

Pat: Yeah, we went to San Diego. We worked with Mike Green, he did the Paramore record and the Over It record, which is what got us involved with him. We went out there and did like two or three weeks of pre-production and basically me and Clark worked on a lot of stuff with him.

Clark: Yeah, we’d go over songs and stuff.

Pat: We went out there with the frame of mind of making a really good rock record, like something that was not going to get thrown away in ten years. Something that can still be played in ten years.

Clark: Haha, yeah. Try to keep it as timeless as possible.

Pat: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Like…Billy Joel shit, you know?

Trevor: I like the Piano sound. It kind of reminds me of the Socratic stuff and Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin.

Pat: I love Jack’s Mannequin. I love Andrew McMahon. Let the record show that.

(I show Pat my Andrew-“I Will Fight” band)
Trevor: I will fight.

Pat: Dude that’s awesome!

Trevor: Yeah, as soon as they got that up, I was like, “I’ve got to get one of those.”

Pat: I have mine in my backpack.

Trevor: Really?

Pat: Yeah. He was a huge influence on me, but that’s not why we have a piano in the band. We just liked that guy and that kind of fell into our laps.

Trevor: What’s some of the content that you guys have written about on the new album?

Pat: Well, when I was writing lyrically, I was looking at from the perspective..we had actually a whole record.

Clark: We had a good nine..ten songs like solid that that was how they were exactly going to be on the record.

Pat: We were going out there and I was playing the songs every day trying to see if I really liked them and I kind of had a little bit of a problem with them. I was like, “You know what, this sounds like a lot of bands that are out there and I don’t want to do that. I was like, “Let’s test ourselves.” We have good structures in some aspects but when we got out there we’d try to do an all out rock band. I was doing lyrics, too, so when I was writing these songs, I didn’t want to be dwelling on the moment. I didn’t want to be like, “Oh, this girl cheated on me.” or “This girl did this and I’m really pissed about it.” so I was writing with more of a hopeful vibe. That’s what the song “Walking” is like. One of the lyrics is, “Just keep on wishing on the stars outside your window.” and it was more like an insightful look.

Clark: Yeah, and it has something to do with the name of the record.

Pat: Yeah, the name of the record is “Keep Dreaming Upside Down.”

Trevor: Do you have a release date for that yet? I know, the website said early 2006.

Pat: February-ish.

Trevor: Everybody’s releasing albums in February on Valentines day.

Pat: Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to do that.

Trevor: Please don’t.

Pat: If our record came out on Valentine’s day, I’d definitely be doing something else. Haha.

Trevor: Okay, your labelmates, Panic! at the Disco. What do you think of them selling their 9,500?

Clark: It’s incredible. It’s just like wow.

Pat: Yeah, that was actually Fueled By Ramen’s biggest first week ever.

Trevor: Yeah, that’s nuts.

Clark: It’s ridiculous.

Trevor: Their promotional campaign where they posted the clips on their myspace, and the full songs on purvolume, that had people talking. Are you guys going to try something similar?

Pat: I’m not sure yet. We’re talking with John, like..we run through John Janick a lot. He owns Fueled By Ramen. He is the man. Like, him and Pete have this great relationship going. John does a lot of the business stuff. We always say, “In John Janick we trust.” He should seriously be on the next dollar bill.

(Laughter)

Pat: So we’re trying to think of ways to release the new songs and stuff. We have like, four months to prep people for what’s going on.

Trevor: You guys have had “Hey Hey” up for a pretty good while now.

Clark: Yeah, it’s a little bit changed now. The album version is different from the demo.

Pat: But most songs are like that.

Trevor: What do you have planned after this tour?

Clark: I think we have a few plans.

Pat: Yeah, we’re kind of up in the air with stuff. We’re basically going to tour tour tour.

Clark: Yeah, we’re going to stay on the road.

Pat: There’s 365 days in the year. We want to be home five.

Clark: Those are holidays, and if we don’t have to be home on the holidays, that’s fine, too.

Trevor: Alright guys..thank you for doing this interview

Pat: Oh no, dude, thank you.

Trevor: Haha..in front of…

All: The World’s Largest Adult Bookstore
(Laughter)

Pat: Thanks so much.

October Fall
Decaydance Records
Fueled By Ramen

October Fall – A Season In Hell

October Fall Interview October 6th, 2005