Shortly after returning from their West Coast tour and days before embarking on some dates in Australia and New Zealand, FIDLAR vocalist/guitarist Zac Carper discussed the band and their new release, an exuberant and rowdy, six-song EP entitled That’s Life, which came out mid-March, available digitally and on limited-edition vinyl.
The SoCal-based punk band have been around since 2009 and have previously released three full-lengths (the last being 2019’s Almost Free) and late last year put out a compilation of B-sides and demos, Don’t Fuck with Vol. 1.
Discussing writing the material that became That’s Life, Carper, who grew up in Hawaii, says, “I went back to Hawaii for a long time, and I wrote a bunch of songs,” divulging with a laugh, “I was going to put out a record called Zac Johnson, with just me and a ukulele, but a lot of those songs just ended up becoming FIDLAR songs.”
He goes on, “I write a lot of music. It kind of becomes FIDLAR when I bring it to the guys and we work on it in the studio or live, a lot of it’s live, and trying to figure out how to make it sound cool. With this batch of songs, we were like, ‘Let’s just go with the approach of as much energy as we can put into it.’ We kinda worked on the music, like, how would this translate live.”
The band recorded the EP last year between August and October with Dave Sardy at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La, marking their first time recording at that studio. Of their approach to recording he explains, “We do it quick,” reiterating, “especially this one, we went with the approach of let’s do this live. It’s all live, the basic tracks. We just kind of wanted to capture that.”
The frontman discloses that the band have a lot more songs they’ve been working on. “We’re just trying to figure out how to work on them and when to release them and it’s just being in a band, and trying to do it in a way that we make something, and we can tour it.”
The songs on That’s Life are as a three-piece (Carper, bassist Brandon Schwartzel, and drummer Max Kuehn). Co-founding guitarist Elvis Kuehn left the band in 2022. “It’s a bummer, but it happens,” Carper opines. “I don’t think we’re going to add another person to the band. I’m hoping eventually he’ll want to come back,” adding, “I think he just wanted a break, and he doesn’t want to tour anymore, and I totally understand, and the three of us want to tour. It wasn’t drama or anything like that.” He says, “We’ve been doing this for almost 14 years or 15 years or whatever. It’s just what happens.”
Touring with the band now is guitarist Michael Crain of Dead Cross fame. Carper sees this being a long-term collaboration, saying he’ll be with Fidlar “as long as he wants us.”
Interestingly, Carper relates from his experiences playing live, “Something is different out there, though. I will say that. At least for FIDLAR, the audience is younger, and kids are moving a lot more, and it feels different. I don’t know why.” He says he’s seeing and feeling more energy at shows, probably in part due to the aftermath of being stuck at home during the pandemic. “I think teenagers too, they want to listen to live music now.”
Photos courtesy of James Alvarez
