The Faim is an Australian band that is already causing a stir with their first and debut single “Saints and Sinners”
Blowing up is something that is hard to do in this industry. The Faim have managed to continue to rise, working with several icons in the industry such as Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and Josh Dun from Twenty-One Pilots. We talk about their start in this very packed interview.
NRR: Why don’t you guys all introduce yourself and say your role in the band?
Josh: Well to start, there’s Stephen and he plays piano and bass guitar. Michael is our lead guitarist and backup vocalist, Sean is the drummer, and I am the vocalist.
NRR: The Faim is quite a unique name, how did that come about, and what’s the reason for the spelling?
Josh: It came from all of us discussing something that relates to all of us and our journey as a band. Every event that’s occurred over our band life has been influenced by one thing: a burning passion to inspire and express our message through music. After a long process of elimination and discussion, we stumbled across the word “faim”. It’s a French word for hunger, and to us it just clicked. It feels like the best way to describe our journey and inspiration as musicians and human beings.
NRR: “Saints and Sinners” is one incredible track. Is there a reason you chose that one to be the debut single?
Josh: We were going back and forth on what would be the first song for The Faim to release. We wanted something that connects to our journey, identity and personality. It was the perfect time to release “Saints” because it’s exactly what we were feeling our whole lives: this burning passion to succeed and being swallowed by the rebellious, frustrated part of ourselves that says “I’m going to take what’s mine”. We’ve always wanted to be diverse sonically and we felt “Saints” is a perfect way to reflect our rock influence but still leave room to experiment.
NRR: How did you guys come up with such amazing imagery to go along with the song with the music video?
Josh: The team at BMG and Jason Renaighan did an incredible job working with us in getting the best image across. We wanted something to really focus on the performance of the band. We felt getting the energy across through our live performance was the best way to put this song out to the world, especially because it reflects a big part of our journey and development.
NRR: How did you guys get your start and come together and how is the music scene where you guys are?
Josh: Stephen, Michael and I were writing and working together for roughly six months before Sean joined the band. We started by playing short 30-second covers of our favorite bands and artists to try get ourselves out there. I feel a huge part of why we found a core fanbase is because we went out and met people. We would hand out fliers, go to shows, put up stickers and make conversation with random people on top of utilizing social media in every way we could. It’s so hard in a city that’s so isolated to try to make fans from just playing shows because there isn’t a huge amount of venues or festivals for bands starting out. Not to mention, there’s not a huge amount of people willing to see a new band because of how under appreciated the scene is. The steps of developing and finding yourself in such an isolated city became this process of finding any way to get to even one person. In our minds, every little action is a 1% that will eventually add up to 100%.
NRR: Getting to co-write with Pete Wentz had to be an awesome experience, how did that come about?
Josh: It was an incredible experience. We learned such a huge amount from Pete. His wealth of knowledge on not just music but the industry itself is endless. John Feldmann is good friends with Pete Wentz so he sent him some of our demos and asked if he wanted to come down and write with us. We actually had no idea he was coming because it was never confirmed.
NRR: What is the overall message that The Faim would like to get across to the fans?
Josh: What is the overall message that The Faim would like to get across to the fans?
The overall message we want to get across to our fans is that you can achieve anything. No matter who you are or where you’re from, there’s always a way to achieve what you truly want out of life. It’s an idea we feel that’s been getting lost with our generation. People confine themselves to an overall idea of happiness instead of finding their own happiness.
The overall message we want to get across to our fans is that you can achieve anything. No matter who you are or where you’re from, there’s always a way to achieve what you truly want out of life. It’s an idea we feel that’s been getting lost with our generation. People confine themselves to an overall idea of happiness instead of finding their own happiness.
NRR: Can we expect more of the sound of “Saints and Sinners” with the new album? When will we hear it?
Josh: You can expect diversity. The sound of “Saints of the Sinners” is a reflection of a part of our journey and this album is essentially our entire lives in a nutshell so far. Rock and punk is a huge part of our influence so you can definitely expect parts of it throughout the album. Going out of our comfort zone sonically is a big part of us discovering not just ourselves but our identity as a band.
NRR: What’s in the future for you guys? Tours? US Maybe? “Wink wink”
Josh: There’s a lot in the works for The Faim at the moment. We’ve got a tour in the UK with Lower Than Atlantis, Aus/NZ shows with Sleeping with Sirens, Slam Dunk Festival, Download Fest, Reading and Leeds Festival, a tour with PVMNTS in the UK, a headline show in Glasgow and a lot more! We have some exciting events planned but there’s still a lot that needs to be confirmed. The US is definitely being kept in mind for this year.
NRR: How does the writing process go for coming together to create a fresh and unique sound that we all needed?
Josh: It starts with us talking. We have to be clear about what we’re writing about. Making sure everyone is on the same page is such a crucial part of our writing process. Using our experiences, inspirations, motivations and understanding of music is how we create our work. We never go out of our way to be unique but when we focus on ourselves as individuals and mesh all of our influences together it always happens naturally. A song for us should always feel natural, if anything feels forced or constructed then we know it doesn’t feel right.
NRR: What equipment do you guys use? The mixing sounds great!
Josh: We use AXE FX Ultra’s for both guitar and bass. Michael spends a lot of time on trying to make the guitar tone sit well with the rest of the band. A lot of time is also spent on the tracks. Levels are everything but most importantly rehearsing is key to a great sound. We also have a few tricks up our sleeve to make the mix consistent with every venue we visit (since we don’t have a consistent engineer). We use Roland for our keyboard and sample pad.
NRR: What are your major influences?
Josh: Our major influences stem from a wide variety of artists/bands. Whether it’s Frank Sinatra’s to The 1975 or Metallica to Jason Derulo. Our diversity of inspiration keeps us always wanting to find the next step conceptually and sonically as a band.
NRR: If there is anything I missed or you guys want to plug your social media or promote something, you can close with that.
Josh: We’re beyond excited for the release of our next music video. “Midland Line” has had a great response so far and we’re pumped to put a visual perspective out to the world.