Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: What type of artist are you?
FSTA: We are a progressive post-hardcore band, and we are also a concept band that writes music based on video game, fantasy, and DnD elements
PD: Tell us the brief history of yourself.
FSTA: We are based out of West Michigan and We were conceived in 2014 by Drummer Douglas Bishop. We have undergone constant evolutions including sound and member changes before finally becoming the band of goofballs we are today.
The band currently consists of 6 members: Douglas Bishop, James Falkowski, Caleb Gatling, Jonah Anderson, Lucas Story, and David Houseman
PD: Who are your musical and non-musical influences?
FSTA: Our musical influences range vastly from Dance Gavin Dance, Of Machines, Coheed and Cambria to stuff like Underground Rap, Anime openings, and Musicals. Our non musical influences would be Video games, TTRPGs, and other fantasy based media.
PD: What are your dreams and goals?
FSTA: We hope to get our music and story out to as many people as possible as well as we one day hope to release a video game based on the story of our music.
PD: Who writes your songs, what are they about?
FSTA: Our songs are mainly written by drummer and founder Douglas Bishop. He writes the skeleton and the rest of us supply the flesh, blood, and muscles. Our songs are about a fantasy world we have cultivated over the years and the trials and tribulations of our protagonists, but hidden with in every song is a bit of real world commentary and emotion for people to relate to.
PD: How do you promote your band and shows?
FSTA: Via social media, word of mouth, and in collaboration with the community we have created over 
the years.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online?
FSTA: We encourage people to do so, which is why we make all of our music available for free on our bandcamp and other platforms where we can.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
Caleb: “Probably End Of Heartache by killswitch engaged because
I have been singing it non stop for the past couple of days and the next time someone tries to hit me with the ‘Who sings that?….yeah lets keep it that way’ I can be like yeah I sing that!”
Douglas: “What song do I wish we had written? I don’t know. I’m sure that we’ve said something like about songs we’ve heard over the years. I’m drawing a blank about it now though. We’ve probably said that about songs from Follow The White Rabbit, Devil Sold His Soul, Tool, Deftones, Of Machines, Oceana, Decoder, The Contortionist, Leprous, American Football, and tons of others. We’re fans of a lot of different bands. There are a lot of really cool bands out there. Plenty we’ve never heard of yet. I’m always looking for new stuff though. I just found out that Ilya from Little Big used to play in an emo band called Tenkorr, for example. Also from Russia, there’s a band called Origami that I used to listen to a lot. There is this german band called Yage that a buddy of our’s and I found last year that I really dig. We, and I, just like too many styles of music to say any specific song I think.”
PD: What are some of your pet peeves?
Caleb: “People’s Knees and people who steal jokes from TV”
Douglas: “A personal pet peeve of mine is wasting time. Since that is something one can never retain once it’s gone. That is probably the biggest one, if that’s even considered a pet peeve. I just don’t like to waste time. If there is something to do, I’d prefer to make sure it’s done. For example, my girlfriend and I went on a little vacation to Northern Michigan for a few days for her birthday last year. All I thought about while up there was how I wanted to keep working on music and new ideas. Most things don’t really offend me though. Usually just general polite habits, if people don’t do them. Chewing with their mouth closed. Not talking with their mouth full. Not saying “thank you”. Being punctual. Things like that.”
PD: What is your proudest moment in music?
Caleb: “Playing one of our songs to my favorite rap artist and after him hitting me up on twitter to tell me how much he loved it and our band”
Douglas: “The proudest moments for me are when James and I finish a song. There are plenty of ideas we have had where it’s a few parts or so, but not an entire idea. I know artist’s block is a huge issue for people. It’s definitely become less of an issue since I’ve picked up playing guitar over the past year or so. As before, I would write out an entire skeleton on drums for most of our songs, then show it to the guys and see what they thought and would come up with. Now that I can actually kind of play guitar, it helps with not having us feel stuck without something to work on. Another really proud moment that I’m sure James would agree with, is when we finished renovating our studio. It’s an actual space now, so it feels like a real place to do work in.”
PD: So what are you working on at the moment?
FSTA: We have a couple singles, a couple EPs, and a Full length album in the works right now
PD: What music have you available online and where can we buy it from?
FSTA: We have 3 singles and a Deluxe Ep available on all platforms online. We encourage everyone to check out the lyric video for our newest single “Pumpkin Spiced G. Rover Cripes” on our youtube page
Fire, Said The Albatross links:
Band/Artist location – Michigan
Facebook – You Tube – Soundcloud – Bandcamp – Reverbnation –
Twitter – Instagram – Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer
Check out our page for Fire, Said The Albatross
