Fast Car To Florence - Interview.

 

One of our favourite bands that we discovered during isolation are the exciting, two piece that hail from Nottingham, Fast Car To Florence!

Fast Car To Florence are a Frenetic Alt Rock two piece hailing from Nottingham, UK. The duo combine a blend of Alt Rock and indie instrumentation with big, catchy sounding vocal hooks to create an overall unique and anthemic like sound.

Having released their EP ‘English Skin EP’ on May 8^th which featured their singles ‘CRY’ and ‘English Skin’ we caught up with the talented two piece which consist of Isaac Anderson and Chris Barber to find out more about them such as their inspirations, how the band formed, what Irish artist their loving at the minute and their creative ways of coping as a musician during isolation and staying connected with listeners...

                                  

Tell us who you are?

We are Fast Car To Florence from Nottingham, U.K. We are made up of Isaac (Vocals and Guitar) and Chris (Drums).

What was the inspiration behind the formation of your band?

We met playing in a covers band that was put together by an agency and played weddings and parties every weekend, across all areas of the UK – so we’d had months of experience performing together before Fast Car to Florence even existed. Playing weddings for a job got very dull – playing the same set of cover songs over and over again – and almost made us fall out of music a little bit. The monotony of doing that together inspired us to create something of our own that made us feel excited to play music again.

Can you remember the first time you wrote a song and what was it about?

Isaac – The first song I ever wrote was when I was eight, and it was about dying and going to hell. Pretty steep…

Chris – The first song I ever wrote was with my first band at around ten years old, about my brother, and it was called ‘Salad Dodger”… I’m not proud.

What was the first record you ever bought?

Isaac – A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out by Panic! At the Disco. I saved for weeks to get it when I it first came out and didn’t stop listening to it for a month.

Chris – Pretty Sure it was an Eminem album!

Do you have any other hidden talents outside of music?

Isaac – I have a pretty expansive knowledge of dinosaurs.

Chris – I used to be quite athletic, I should probably get back into that…

What is your favourite song to perform?

Isaac – I love playing our track CRY. That track in itself is a real unbridled outpouring of all kinds of different emotions and it’s such a good feeling just letting it out on stage.

Chris – I’m the same, CRY seems to have such a good vibe live, really easy to get into it.

What was your craziest experience on tour?

Touring really isn’t as crazy as you’d think! Not really a ‘crazy’ story as such, but there’s always been some kind of phenomenon that’s stopped us from playing in the city of Sheffield (U.K). The first time around the show got snowed off and the second time, the venue cancelled it on the day because of the football world cup in 2018. Maybe Sheffield just doesn’t want us…

If you could invite 5 musicians to dinner, dead or alive who would they be?

Isaac – Billie Eilish, Kurt Cobain, Prince, Paul McCartney and John Williams. That would make for a pretty interesting conversation.

Chris – Dave Grohl, Kevin Hollingworth, Tom Delonge, Corey Taylor and Steve Jobs!

Has your music evolved since you started making it?

Definitely! We’ve both been pretty much doing it all our lives so there would be an issue if it hadn’t!

Do you have a record label and are you a member of any music organisations?  

As a band, we’re currently unsigned, so we have no label – we’re 100% independent. Separately, we’re members of the Musician’s Union, PRS and PPL.

If you could change anything about the music industry what would it be?

Too often, bands and artists make decisions weighted in favour of pleasing ‘gatekeepers’ – record labels, radio, etc… rather than focussing on building and nurturing a community around their music. The people that listen to your music and buy your merch and gig tickets should ALWAYS come first – they are the ones that keep moving you forward – it’s such a simple concept, but it’s forgotten frustratingly often.

Have you been to any concerts within the last year that have inspired you?

Isaac – One of my favourite bands is Enter Shikari, and I saw them live three times last year – twice in one day at Reading festival. The energy and passion that goes into their craft onstage is so exciting.

Chris – I saw Angels & Airwaves in New York last year for the first time in about ten years. Their drummer always inspires me and seeing them live again was pretty special!

How do you handle mistakes during a performance?

Practice hard so that they don’t happen in the first place! Otherwise – continue as if they never happened – nothing is worse than allowing yourself to be removed from the moment.

Who is your favourite Irish artist at the moment?

We’re both big fans of Niall Horan’s new album.

If you could have your fans remember one thing about you, what would it be?

To have an impact on their life in some way or another. We want to leave people with positive memories about us and our music – whether those memories come from seeing us live, connecting with other people through us, or our music helping them navigate a certain period in their life.

How are you dealing with the current impact of COVID19 as a musician/band?

It’s a tough situation for musicians everywhere, but it’s so inspiring to see the ways that people are adapting. We did a live streamed gig – ‘Live in Isolation’ – that was a full 35  minute set that we played together, in two different places at once. That was really cool, it was so exciting seeing the reaction online, and knowing that we were helping to keep people entertained and connected when gigs aren’t doable. It’s been a bit of a blessing in disguise to take a bit of time to step back from ‘playing the game’ – planning releases, videos and touring – and to be able to connect with our family of listeners a bit more on a human level. We think that everyone is a bit more fragile than usual at the moment so it’s great to have that community there.

What is your go to song to distract yourself from hard times?

Isaac – Michael Jackson – Pretty Young Thing. Love a bit of MJ.

Chris – Hammock – I Can Almost See You

Can we expect any new music from you soon or if you have just released new music can you tell us a little about that?

We’ve released two singles so far this year – CRY in February and English Skin at the start of April. At the beginning of May we released the English Skin EP which contains both of those tracks which we’ve just mentioned plus a special acoustic version of English Skin that we recorded while in lockdown. We released a special run of limited edition physical copies of this EP and the pre-orders all sold out within a day which blew us all away.

Is there any advice or insights you would like to give to anyone reading this who would like to pursue a career as a musician or within the industry?

Stay motivated – you’ll fail at something so many times before you get it right. Be open minded, as situations never turn out the same as you think they will and believe in yourself – if you don’t, no one else will. Stay creative and busy – work on your art every day if you can and most importantly, everything about music is subjective. Remember, you just have to figure out what’s best for you!

                 Photo: Tom Goddard

Fast Car To Florence are described as Loud, Passionate, Energetic and Full of Feeling.

If you’re a fan of The 1975, Foo Fighters, My Chemical Romance or Catfish and The Bottlemen than Fast Car To Florence are right up your street!

Twitter: @fastflorence

Instagram: fastcartoflorence

You can check them out on Spotify here

Join their Fast Car Family Facebook Group to be the first to hear all their latest news and have access to exclusive content here

Watch their latest music video for ‘English Skin’ here

MusicBox PR Team