Getting to Know… Fathom Farewell | Interview 🎤

In the 361^st Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from Worcester, MA melodic metalcore band, Fathom Farewell.

“Our music, while being very heavy, is a little more vocally driven than the typical metalcore band.” 🤘 🎙 Fathom Farewell! The band later adds, characterizing their style, “We genre bend somewhat but also have all spent a great deal of time honing our chops and gaining experience performing live, so we go off like fireworks onstage.” Like other Getting to Know Q&As, we get the inside scoop on the Worcester, MA melodic metalcore band’s genesis, goals, musical influences, and of course, current, and future musical endeavors. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know…Fathom Farewell: Interview No. 361!

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Fathom Farewell distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

We definitely have a distinctive sound!  Our music, while being very heavy, is a little more vocally driven than the typical metalcore band.  Large, driving, mostly clean hooks, mean gritty verses, we have some straight up rock songs, exist primarily in the metalcore atmosphere but delve all over the spectrum to even tech death on some of our future unreleased material.  We genre bend somewhat but also have all spent a great deal of time honing our chops and gaining experience performing live, so we go off like fireworks onstage.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Fathom Farewell form and what were some of the goals or visions you had early on?

Well, Fathom has had a few different iterations over the years since we formed in 2015, with 🎙 Alex Cohen the vocalist as the main stay consistent member.  The goal since Alex got together with the first guitarist of Fathom (wrote 💿 Drowning Limits EP), has been to get big locally and then take this to the next level and become big nationally and then internationally.  We grew very quickly in New England and now have a large fanbase spanning the region, however, when we began taking steps to get to the next level (networking with out of state bands and promoters to expand our market, investing in professional assets to market to the industry, planning tours to gain tour experience, etc.) and members got a dose of all the work and sacrifice this truly requires, multiple former members simply did not have their lives oriented in a way where it made sense to continue.  However, we still consider the majority of our former members family.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Absolutely.  Honestly when Fathom began, we just wanted to put out an EP and play big shows at the Worcester Palladium.  Our goals didn’t really extend beyond that in the beginning.  We achieved those goals in the first 6 months of being a band and I’d say every 6 months to a year since have gradually gotten bigger and bigger to now where our aspirations are to sell out stadiums someday.  Of course, no matter how talented you are or how great your material is, it’s a lottery ticket shot in the dark that your project ever reaches those heights that so few bands ever do, but this is what we do and will do forever so may as well aim as high as possible.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Depends on which instrument you’re asking about.  Vocally, Alex is very heavily influenced by Maynard James Keenan, Chester Bennington, Lajonn Witherspoon, Josey Scott, Serj Tankian and Brandon Boyd.  They simply were the music he grew up with and learned to sing over so naturally those influences come into play.  Alex has written all the lyrics Fathom has released.  I’ll focus on the 💿 Kraken EP in terms of instrumentals which was written by our former live member (he still works with us behind the scenes) Steve Almon.  Steve is very influenced instrumentally by Northlane, Monuments, Periphery, Greeley Estates, Memphis May Fire, Underoath, and Silent Planet.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Lol well.  We did a CT and tri state run back in 2018 with the lineup that wrote the 💿 Consume The Earth EP, playing CT, NY, NJ and the night before NJ we got a gritty hotel room in New Haven CT, that we didn’t realize was gritty until arriving.  Like 2 am people wondering around drunk outside and bars on every window gritty.  Get to the room and it just sets in that this is not a nice hotel.  So, being far less responsible than we are now, of course we got a handle of rum and drank probably most of it between the 4 of us and a few girlfriends present.  Thankfully our drummer at the time didn’t drink much so he was able to drive us where we needed to go the next day but for the rest of us, it was somewhat of a hilarious hijinks trying to get from place to place with the most extreme hangovers some of us had experienced up to that point.  We played Atlantic City that night and there’s actually a YouTube video of the whole set and it was maybe one of the better sets that lineup had ever played somehow.  Of course, no thanks to the hangovers, definitely would never try this at home kids, have never and will never drink like that again but hey, stories.  Also, more recently pretty much every time we head up to Plattsburgh NY to play a Metal Nite at the Monopole it’s just an amazing night of fun and hilarity.  The people up there are delightful and as down to earth as it gets.

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

Honestly we haven’t dropped it yet 😛 however of the songs we have released, 🎵 “Kraken” I feel most clearly communicates what’s in my head when I’m at my worst and expressing that has made it easier to identify when I’m headed down that path and course correct.  Writing that song has honestly made it easier to make improvements on my mental health.  The music video is also super cool because our videographer at the time, Ryane Seekamp, came up with this amazing concept of having Sid from Toy Story grown up, still doing his thing and having become more nefarious as an adult and then finally hitting a breaking point and reflecting on what he’s done.

But also 🎵 “Save Your Breath”.  So many living things are misunderstood.  We were specifically thinking of Pit bulls when we wrote that song.  I’ve known so many pit bulls in my life that were raised by good people, and they are so precious to us.  The fact is every year nearly 1,000 families lose their dogs, a high percentage of these situations occurring with pit bulls, because police kick down their door on a false tip, effectively breaking and entering into an innocent civilian’s home in many cases because they got the address wrong.  The reason this ties into the dogs is in many of those cases of false tips or miscommunicated addresses, there is a dog present, and with the law the way it is currently all the dog has to do is bark in order for the police to legally murder them.  This law needs to be amended so there are consequences for police who murder dogs without cause because it is a much more common occurrence than it should be.  The “Save Your Breath” music video features one of those precious pit bull babies in my life as the main actress and we portrayed one of these scenarios in the video along with how it can affect the person or people involved.  Of course, she was given all the love and attention all day through the shoot and was a very good girl.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

We all have very busy lives around music.  Alex is big into martial arts and gaming and is self-employed playing solo acoustic gigs all over New England 5 days a week under the name Alex Cohen Acoustic.  Dustin is a Twitch streamer and also works full time in the hotel industry.  EJ is a full time fire fighter and part time mechanic.  Alicia is a full time music teacher at School of Rock in Attleboro, MA.  We all have fairly nontraditional lives and music is our collective priority.  Our jobs understand this and allow us time when needed for touring.

Closing out, what is Fathom Farewell currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

We are dropping a new single on June 13^th called 🎵 “Vitriol”!  We’re very excited about this one, it’s conceptual and surrounds night terrors and the supposed entities that surround those who have them.  Throughout the song it goes from the perspective of the fearful person to eventually conquering their demon and invading the demon’s dream, to then terrify the demon right back.  It’s also a metaphor for the waking nightmare some of our population lives day to day due to some of the terrible symptoms stemming from the way our society currently operates.  Those in constant poverty, those who have lost their homes, those whose psychological issues keep them from living a comfortable life, those who are discriminated against, those wrongfully imprisoned, and of course the list goes on and on.  I wholeheartedly believe we have it within us to make the world a better place and everything we write is meant to inspire that change wherever needed.

Thank you so much for sharing and taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.

Follow… Fathom Farewell: IG • Facebook • Twitter • Spotify • YouTube

Getting to Know… Fathom Farewell: Interview No. 361 [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Fathom Farewell; Tumisu via Pixabay]