Philadelphia’s The Color Fred, the indie rock quartet led by vocalist and guitarist Fred Mascherino, reemerged in April with A Year And Change, their first new album in well over a decade, on his own newly announced label Heading East Records.
Macherino is the former guitarist and vocalist of Breaking Pangaea, who released a couple of albums and an EP in the early ’00s on Equal Vision Records. The band split, and Mascherino joined Taking Back Sunday, who were in the midst of writing their second full-length, and drummer Will Noon went to Straylight Run and later, fun.
Bend to Break, The Color Fred’s debut full-length, followed several years of touring with TBS and a pair of massively well received, Billboard charting records before his ultimate departure from the band. Bend To Break resulted in The Color Fred touring throughout Europe with Dashboard Confessional, Angels and Airwaves, and others.
The Color Fred followed the release with an acoustic EP, titled The Intervention, in 2009 before Mascherino put the project on hiatus to collaborate with Josh Eppard of Coheed and Cambria and Andy Jackson of Hot Rod Circuit in the trio Terrible Things. Terrible Things promptly signed to Universal Motown Records, released their popular self-titled full-length and hit the road supporting everyone from The Offspring to Bayside.
Mascherino followed the short-lived Terrible Things with a couple years as a hired gun touring guitarist, most notably for Say Anything and The Lemonheads.
Of the frequent highlights of the latest album, none is perhaps more satisfying than when Mascherino owns his hard-fought-and-won rock god status on the arena-ready ripper, for which he seems evenly matched by the current Color Fred cohort of Steve Angello (guitar, backing vocals), Monte Holt (drums), and Keith Gibbons (bass).
“The Color Fred is something that I always wanted to be ongoing, and it just kept getting sidetracked,” Mascherino admits. “In 2019, I met the guys I’m playing with now, and we clicked right away. I had a small batch of songs demoed out before I met them, like “Veronica Road,” which is one that Breaking Pangaea never finished. But “Creatures” and “Attention” were songs we wrote together. I feel like our future is bright together because I feel like those are some of the better ones.”
In addition to introducing the new The Color Fred unit, A Year And Change assures longtime fans that Mascherino has lost none of his affable, everyman charm, knack for relatable storytelling, or his enviable mastery of delivering earworm riffs and hooky, call and response vocal lines. The album does throw a few interesting curveballs. For instance, “Right I Left” possesses the swing of a country ballad while the lead guitar line rings faintly of his Pangaea days.
Additionally, “Everwrite,” is a year in the making, ’90s alternative pop masterpiece Mascherino began writing with Lemonheads’ Evan Dando years ago. His youngest daughter, Evie, joins him in duet here, confidently assuming the role of Juliana Hatfield to Mascherino’s Dando.
“I was really trying to emulate the sound and feel of It’s A Shame About Ray. Juliana Hatfield’s vocals always sounded young to me, so my 12-year-old seemed perfect for playing her role.”
Towards the end of the album, “Future Past” offers an interesting collaboration birthed of COVID boredom that was the result of a social media request to fans.
“I posted the song with just acoustic guitar and one vocal. I had over 30 people from all over the world send me recordings —singers, guitarists, programmers, EDM people … that was the result,” he says. “I decided to use everything everyone sent me, so that version is pretty lush. There was a bass player, about seven guitar players, acoustic, different synths and things, and ultimately, about 10 singers. There are alternative versions on our Spotify.
“That was a neat experience for me and became a song that saved me on some bad days,” Mascherino recalls. “Working on that gave me a lot of reasons to keep writing.”
The album also offers a cover of pre-’90s INXS new wave hit, “Change.”
“It seemed like a fitting addition given the difficult times we’ve experienced the last few years as It makes a pledge of positivity even during hard times. (Gibbons) mentioned that he’d like to do it at the same time that I was sort of thinking about it. I like the cover because everyone in the band takes a verse of the song. It was cool to show off that those guys can sing.”
Watch the lyric video for “Creatures” here:
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Photo courtesy of Vince Sadonis
