Hardcore heroes Fist Fight have just dropped their sophomore album Notebook Full of Hate which was co-produced by Ahrue Luster of Ill Niño and Machine Head fame. Notebook Full of Hate is a very solid collection of blue collar metal anthems and cathartic shout alongs with some excellent guitar work and crushing beats.
What was the driving inspiration behind the creation of Fist Fight?
Dustin: Jon, Adrian and Nick created the skeleton of Fist Fight and brought me on later. I like the fact that I can bring the music that I hear in my head to the table to be discussed and after everyone has a chance to contribute, hear it on wax. Everyone writes in Fist Fight and brings their influences with them. That’s why you can hear touches of hardcore, thrash, and even punk, but everything is definitely metal. It’s exciting to pick a subject, write a story and get feedback from people that follow you. It’s a life long game. We will never stop the music hustle. It keeps us young.
Adrian: Passion for music was the initial inspiration, so we built it from the ground up. Everyone just came together pretty seamlessly. Kinda like we are meant for this!
Joey: I wasn’t there for the inception of Fist Fight, as I didn’t join until a couple years after they started up as a band.
Jon: We want to have an impact on people’s lives with our music. We want to reach people worldwide to connect with our fans.
Nick: For my part, I had been trying to put together or be a part of a band like this for the last 10 years or so. Being in bands that ended up not working out for this reason or that. I started to notice the things that did work. So when all the right pieces fell into place with Fist Fight, it makes me feel like we have something worth being excited about and to keep driving this machine forward.
Who are the band members and what are their roles?
Dustin: Vocals, lyricist, tape holder, maintenance man, keeper of the set list
Adrian: Bass, backing vox, song writing, booking, resident asshole
Joey: Joey Cushman, Drummer aka Main Beat Maker/part-time lyricist & song writing
Jon: Guitar, backup vox, song writing, promotions, resident rock-star
Nick: Guitar, engineer, production, song writing, resident nerd & no singing!!!
What sort of musical training have the members of Fist Fight taken part in?
Dustin: I used to try karaoke but never considered singing in a band. Who would want to hear that anyway? I do some warm-ups and lessons from Melissa Cross to keep from blasting my chords and to learn how to breathe while jumping around.
Adrian: I’ve always wanted to be a rocker since I was about 8 years old, and when I was about 14 my friend I we’re planning on starting up a band with me on bass, even though I never knew how to play. Unfortunately, we were involved in a car accident where he sadly perished. Out of respect for our dreams of musicians, his parents gave me his guitar and put me through formal guitar training for 6 weeks. From then on, I’ve been self-taught and trying to hone my craft for the both of us.
Joey: Well I started playing music when I was about 10 years old. My grandma actually pushed me into learning how to play music back in 5th grade. So I started with the trumpet, and played in both Concert and Jazz bands until my freshman year of high school. Then I jumped over to guitar for a little while (cause, you know, every cool kid in class needs to learn how to play guitar), then bass. I was actually a bass player in a little garage band with some friends of mine, and during a break I asked the drummer if I could play around on her drum set…… 30 seconds into picking up those sticks I knew I found my only true love!! I’ve never even thought about playing any other kind of instrument since then.
Jon: Not sure, what’s training (laughs).
Nick: Been around musicians my whole life, but I am self-taught. Wanting to push myself to do better than the last album though, I started taking lessons with Greg Burgess from Allegaeon. Amazing guitarist and an awesome dude. His advise on playing to my strengths and identifying the weakness’ to improve on, has been a huge push for me. No matter how good you are there’s always something new to learn.
Who does what in the song writing and assembly?
Dustin: I constantly write vocals and try to piece together melodies. I love to hear a song take shape and become something.
Adrian: Well, we each bring something to the table and whatever we all decide we like as a whole, we all add our input and shape it as such, real organic process.
Joey: We all generally play an equal part in the assembly of the songs, though that varies from time to time. Nick, Jon and Adrian usually have a couple of ideas they have been working with, they toss those ideas to the rest of us, and we try to make something cool out of it.
Jon: Songwriting is done by all of us. We write the music as Dustin writes the vocals. Sometimes we chip in on other areas. We always give suggestions here in there for each other. We push each other to strive. And we have an occasional argument here and there (laughs) only because we want the best for this band.
Nick: I think this is defiantly one of those, ‘the old ways are the best ways’ deals. We just jam out in the basement until something sticks. The start of the song can come from any one of us. We don’t know when or where, but we know it when it hits. Then we all just build on it from there. But I also don’t think we write songs just to write songs. We’re not trying to rush every idea out the door as soon as we think of if, just because we thought it. One of us will come up with a cool little part or riff, but if it’s not going anywhere, we’ll back burner it and let it ‘cook’ until it’s ready. “Occam’s Razor” is one of those songs; we knew the main riff was killer, but it took about 6 months of working on the arrangement of the whole song until we got it right.
What are some things about the Fist Fight’s style that shows off your uniqueness and individuality?
Dustin: The vocals are hardcore with a touch of thrash. Musically we are hardcore/metal with the kiss of thrash/punk.
Adrian: I think due to our varying musical tastes, we bring a nice balance of hardcore, metal, punk and groove to the table. Dustin has such a unique voice it really give us an original sound.
Joey: I think Fist Fight’s style kind of shows off my semi-eclectic taste in music. We like to bounce around from Thrash to Punk to Hardcore to some Death and Heavy Metal and a dash of Jazz…. like, throw in all my favorite 50s big band songs with some Lamb of God, Hatebreed, and Anthrax, and you’ll get something sort of resembling a Fist Fight song
Jon: We do not sound like any other band out there. We’re not just your typical scream-o band or hardcore band. We have strong heavy vocals that you can understand with the hard punching sound of the music, to back the vocals. We are a little bit metal, a little bit hardcore, and a little bit punk and a little bit thrash. Mixed all up in one crazy band.
Nick: The hard question. Man, talking about uniqueness in music is like talking about new jellybean flavors. I’ll leave that up to others more qualified. But I’ll tell what I do know about Fist Fight. We are 5 working stiffs playing blue collar metal for other working stiffs. We got day jobs & family, we play metal to keep from going mental. We ain’t trying to reinvent the wheel here, just play some straight up metal that we want to hear. And if someone else digs what we are doing, that’s a huge bonus. It’s so hard to get anyone to pay attention to anything these days. So we don’t take our fans for granted.
The new album Notebook Full of Hate just dropped. How do the songs represent your view of the world?
Dustin: The world is in chaos and we are left to interpret and process a constant flow of news from thousands of sources online and in print every day. I watch the world around me and write a story.
Adrian: Well this world is really going in all directions, so the frustrations boil over and in turn people are flipping their lids (laughs). So we are just reporting what it is that world has become and relaying the insanity that has over took our reality.
Joey: For me personally, it’s a release of our feelings. When I’m mad or upset or angry at the world, I turn to my notebook. There’s just something about getting what your feeling out onto paper…maybe its confiding within yourself, to feel like your not alone in where you stand in the world. The fact we get to share our thoughts and opinions with the world will hopefully show other people this same self-satisfaction that I enjoy.
Jon: We all have different views of the world today. The vocals describe a different way of seeing how to handle things. Dustin explains it well in all the songs. People are crazy.
Nick: Dustin comes up with 99% of the lyrics, other than the few parts and ideas we come up with. But I think his worldview says what all of us in the band are thinking for the most part. Not every song has super heavy or life changing lyrical content, like “Meaningless” or “Babyface” or “Dirty Glass”. But I still dig the words that are in them & I love how Dustin always tries to have a story in the lyrics to a degree. Then we have songs like “In This Life” that’s about loss. “Occam’s Razor” is about getting how you can train-wreck your life. And “28 Days” is about rehab. Our view of the world is pretty messed up, but you gotta direct that anger into something better or you are just gonna make your life stupid.
Please describe what Notebook Full of Hate sounds like as a whole and any specific songs you think that stand out among the rest at this point?
Dustin: I think we did well on the song order. It seems like the songs really flow together. We want people to jam this whole record over and over! “In This Life” is standing out as the single right now. And “Whisper” was recently played on the Bubba The Love Sponge show in Tampa, FL.
Adrian: The album is one slab of intense aggression and I believe the song that sticks out to me is “28 Days”, just because of the pace and speed.
Joey: This album is a heavy head banger, but with Dustin’s rumbling Whiskey/Hardcore vocals, its sooo friggin’ catchy! I personally think there is 3 songs on this album that stick out, and for different reasons. “28 Days” is our thrash hit, super punkie but groovy on the chorus. “In This life” sounds has that mainstream radio kinda feel to it, I can totally imagine hearing a car full of young sophomores that are just getting into metal, blasting this song in their mom’s car as they pull away from 7-11. And my favorite is “Occam’s Razor”. In my opinion, that’s probably the closest we’ve come to writing a death metal song, and I can’t get enough of it.
Jon: Some great songs that stand out are “In This Life” and “Babyface”. “In this life” explains how we lost a loved one. “Babyface” is a fun song, about wrestlers. You’re a heel or a Babyface, a good guy or bad guy.
Nick: Hopefully we’ve shown some growth from the first album on this one. I love the guitar tone we got this go round. I tried to make the mix as in your face as I could, without being heavy-handed to any one element, just a solid metal record.
Picking a song is like picking a kid & I don’t have any kids (laughs). It changes with my mood & I like them all for different reasons. So today I think I’m gonna go with the title track “Notebook Full Of Hate”. The acoustic intro makes you think something eerie is coming & then the opening riff just smacks you in the face. And I really dig the solo I did on this.
Lyrically what are some of the most personal moments that are discussed in the songs?
Dustin: I pulled my personal life together on this album and in turn, we peppered a few inspirational lines throughout the intense stuff. There are times that life tries to smash you, but character is built by individuals who don’t fold under pressure. The song that really tells a story & affected me personally is “In This Life”. We had a friend of ours die in a motorcycle accident. He was a young father & it was truly a tragedy. I was looking at picture of him at the memorial & scribbled the chorus down. That song came together fast, like it was meant to happen.
Musically how did you challenge yourselves to create the best songs you could?
Adrian: We got a young-nut for a drummer and he brought out the best in us. Once we wrote these songs, we broke them down rewrote them and changed things again just to make sure we didn’t miss anything.
Joey: The best way I’ve found to challenge myself and the guys is to try to play new techniques and styles that somewhat push our comfort levels. We are constantly try to evolve and expand our musical repertoire.
Jon: By writing really intense riffs. Combining them with the minds of all of us. Writing stuff that is hard to play but fun and nice to listen to. You have to push yourself to achieve greatness.
Nick: I think the main challenge was to really focus on writing songs that felt like ‘songs’, if that makes sense. We would demo the songs live & see how they ‘lived & breathed’. We didn’t just go “the song’s done & it won’t change”. Hell, we were even changing arrangements in post-production. It’s a challenge to let things you are so personally attached to be changed at the last minute. Sometimes you gotta get out of your own head & let the song be what it needs to be.
Why do you feel that people really need to hear this album?
Dustin: I’m proud of the production of the record. We were on a time crunch and Nick was able to take this baby and get it ready to drop on time. It grabs that live/angry intensity for sure.
Adrian: Just seems like the world right now needs something real and honest. No frills just good blue collar metal!
Joey: Need is a bigger word than I’d like to use, but this album sounds amazing, gets you right in the feels, and is heavy for days!
Jon: Most people in this world are lost just like any of us. This album can show you a different way. How to be straight up honest human being. How to persevere throughout your life. Because sometimes peace is the problem, violence solves everything.
Nick: I’m not gonna say need, but yeah I would love for this get out there & have as many people listen as possible. If they dig it, all the better and if they don’t… well you can please everyone. I’m personally proud as hell for this album, it was 2 years of blood, sweat, no sleep & more blood. And yes, 2 years is to damn long to take to do an album (laughs), next one we won’t take the Tool approach.
What was Fist Fight’s biggest highlight of 2018 besides dropping the new album?
Dustin: Getting this album out was a huge accomplishment for all of us. We had to start over twice, endure a barrage of roadblocks, and finish this bad boy at the 11th hour like we meant to do it that way. We also had the song “Whisper” recently played on the Bubba The Love Sponge show in Tampa, FL.
Adrian: Getting to share the stage with Soulfly, that was a dream come true. Max is my childhood hero.
Joey: Playing with Soulfly and Nile was pretty big for me, I always geek out whenever I get to play with a big national act like those guys
Jon: Nobody died, no joke. We all had some sort of major surgery or car crash or something that happened along the way in 2018. “Mailbox Full Of Medical Bills” was almost the album name (laughs). But we did have a lot of big concerts that we were a part of throughout the year. Such as Soulfly, Head PE, Draghoria and our cd release.
Nick: Can I still say dropping the new album! No, 2018 was really a year of prep-work for us. We played some cool shows & opened up for childhood heroes. We had a lyric video done for the song “Occam’s Razor” which came out pretty cool, even though lyric videos are commonplace now. We had our ups & downs throughout the year. But we did kinda lay low to get everything planned & ready to come out swinging in 2019. Measure twice, cut once.
What are a few of the struggles when trying to balance home life, work life, and band life?
Dustin: I have taught myself to be able to sleep at any time. I’m a father, family man, work 60 hours a week, and dedicate at least 10 hours a week to the band. It’s a balance for sure and you have to keep yourself together physically and mentally to pull it off.
Adrian: Being away from the family, just the time and energy we put into this beast, is time consuming. Passion has its sacrifices.
Joey: It gets hard trying to book shows around everyone’s work schedule, and family always comes first so we don’t always get things done as fast as we’d like to. Because I’m always gone either working or practicing, I don’t get to hang out with my family as much as I’d like to, but we make up for it with Sunday Breakfasts and such
Jon: Struggles with your life. It is hard to balance work and family and music most of the time. But you have to stay strong and trust your brothers. They’ll have your back when you need it. You have to have a family there to support you and the entire way. They have to be willing to sacrifice their time with you so you can follow your dream. Work is work; nobody really wants to do that. But it pays the bills. So, we must work and we must love our family but we must strive to continue to share our art / music with the world.
Nick: Learning to go to bed before 2 AM when you gotta be at work by 6 AM. But hey no rest for the wicked.
What are your band goals for 2019?
Dustin: To get everyone I meet to listen to Notebook Full of Hate. I’m proud of it and want to share it with everyone.
Adrian: To get this album heard everywhere and try and take keep riding this Fist Fight wave as far as it goes!
Joey: I know we’d love to play some big shows, keep writing some good tunes and maybe a tour or two. Mostly, we want to see everybody’s beautiful faces when we play for them in their hometowns.
Personally, my only goal is to somehow never play “Break Something” again. Good song, but how many times can one break something, really?
Jon: We really want to push the new album and get a couple tours out there. We would love to have everybody enjoy the new album and see the new videos. We must make a lot more videos this next year. And will start writing the next album as well. We’re always spitting out some sort of riff, drumbeat, or lyric. We will be adding a marketing campaign for this year on the new album and the band. We also are looking for sponsorships and endorsements to help us carry out our dreams. We just need to make sure that everybody in this world gets to hear the sound of Fist Fight.
Nick: Trying to survive in this industry is no easy task. So, just keeping this machine together & pushing as hard as we can, to see how far we can take it. Then enjoying the ride no matter where it goes \,,/
Fist Fight is:
Dustin Hollmer – Vocals
Adrian Montoya – Bass
Joey Cushman – Drums
Jon Maggard – Guitar
Nick Rich – Guitar
Notebook Full of Hate Streaming Links:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.
Deezer: https://www.deezer.
Fist Fight Band Links:
https://twitter.com/
