Phoenix-based Fervor Records is already home to local "futurepop" group Super Stereo and NYC's Tarik NuClothes, as well as the owners of a massive vintage music record catalog that provides music for some of today's best television shows. Earlier this week the company announced the addition of local Latin reggae rockers Fayuca to the stable of the label's recording artists.
The band recently wrapped up an extensive touring leg along the southwest that included dates with Authority Zero and have been chomping at the bit to get back in the studio for their next project.
We caught up with frontman Gabriel Solorzano about the new deal and how having a nationally recognized label behind them is helping to make life a little easier for the Westside musicians.
Up on the Sun: How did the signing with Fervor come about? Gabriel Solorzano: Well the last record did pretty well for us but it didn't do as great as we wanted it to. We've grown a lot since that last release and we thought for this new CD we definitely needed to reach out to other sources; either a record label, a big time investor or a real sharp promoter that really believed in the band. Jim from Authority Zero advised us that the first thing we needed to do was get together a solid demo, package it well and pitch it to a few labels. So that's what we did. We went into a studio, put together a demo and sent it to a bunch of labels. Fervor was among them because we knew they were local and had a good grab on the national scene. So we reached out to several labels but they were the ones that really fit. They were looking for bands and we were looking for a label and it just ended up being the right time.
We reached out to other local and indie labels but ultimately it came down to two.
What drew you to Fervor? Their tenacity. Not to take away anything from the other labels we were considering but, they were so focused and smart about their approach. They had an outline of more of what we wanted to do at the end of the day. They understood our music and were passionate about it. While we were on tour we had a two hour long conversation with Jeff and Dave, the CEO's of Fervor, and they made us feel like they thought we were real good musicians.
We just feel like we need to hit a home run with this next album and we need the push from an experienced label.
What's first on the agenda now that the deal is complete? The first thing we did was have a series of meetings, hour long conversations and sit downs about where we think our music can go. It helped us get motivated because we've been playing the same circuit for a while and we got to be a little stagnant. After that Dave and Jeff were like, you guys need to buckle down and start writing. So we literally just locked ourselves in and started writing music to put together the best album we possibly can.
Do you guys have an expected release date for the new album yet? We set goals for ourselves and a timeline, but there isn't a date we can put a finger on right now. We're hoping for the spring but, we found ourselves rushing to write the music and get the deal signed that now we want to relax and take our time with the recording.
What future plans does the record company have for you guys? Have they outlined a plan for spreading your sound nationally? We've been touring for a couple years now and everything we've built along the way as a kind of do-it-yourself band we're backing with the right people. We've talked about film and T.V. exposure and utilizing the Internet to reach the masses. We've also talked about touring and shows but right now the plan is to make the best record we possibly can and they're going to promote it the best that they can and go from there. So the plan now is to keep growing and releasing music. Before we were our own label, so a lot of that stress was on us. That's stuff that musicians hate dealing with because they don't know how to deal with it. All the crap that musicians just don't want to do, they take off of us and inspired us to write better music.
We're super excited about the signing. We talk about it every single day.
The Crescent Ballroom will host Fayuca's signing celebration with co-headliner's Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta on Friday, December 30.
