Introducing….Fire Sale
Click Roll Boom: Who are Fire Sale? How did you form? What makes you tick? What inspires you?
Chris Swinney (Fire Sale): Fire Sale is a melodic punk band from the good old US of A. Chris Swinney(formerly of The Ataris) on guitar, Matt Riddle(formerly of Face To Face, Pulley, and No Use For A Name) on bass, Pedro Aida(formerly of Annberetta and currently with Shotclock and The Iron Roses) on vocals, and Matt Morris(formerly of Darlington) on drums.
During the pandemic I was going stir crazy and started writing songs. I sent my demos to Matt Riddle, and he sent me back bass tracks. I had worked with Pedro before…so we decided to try and start a band. My buddy Timmy from Protest The Hero was also in the original lineup…but PTH got busy so duty called. Tucker Rule from Thursday and LS Dunes played drums on the initial demos…but he is a busy dude, so our first two singles a friend named Will handled the drum duties. Last year we recruited Matt Morris to be a full time member and solidified the Fire Sale lineup. Our first 7” was put out by SBAM Records. Those two songs got us on the radar of Seth over at Negative Progression Records. We signed a new deal last year with them…and it has been amazing! We cannot say enough about how great working with Seth and NPR has been.
We are all inspired by different stuff. I grew up listening to Matt Riddle’s bands…so my writing is reminiscent of 90’s Epitaph/Fat Wreck type stuff with a little Metal thrown in. Riddle loves Metal and heavy stuff…Pedro and Matt Morris are more into the poppier side of Punk. So when you mash all of that together…you get Fire Sale!
CRB: What’s the origin behind the band name?
CS: Picking a band name is the hardest part of starting a band. We had a million ideas that just didn’t seem to fit. I also host a podcast called “That One Time On Tour”…and through the podcast I have become friends with Sam from Get Dead and the Codefendants. One night I was trying to come up with a band name and was listening to Get Dead’s most recent album. The song “Fire Sale” came on…and it clicked. I google searched the name, and only one other band called that came up and they were high school kids that hadn’t done anything since like 2005. I secured all the social media pages…and that’s how we became Fire Sale. Haha.
CRB: Describe your sound in 5 words?
CS: Fast, Melodic, Tight, Modern, Punk
CRB: Who would you cite as your biggest influences?
CS: I can’t really speak for the other guys, but when I heard the first Punk-O-Rama comp from Epitaph records…I felt like I found my people. Before that I was all about metal, and I still like metal…but the attitude and vibe of the 90s punk stuff really spoke to me. Bands like NOFX, Pennywise, Face To Face, No Use, Strung Out, Propagandhi, Screw 32 we’re my favs. Metallica is also the band that kind of showed me how to write a riff/song…so that always there also.
CRB: What's been your biggest show to date? and your favourite?
CS: Well, that’s easy. We played our first show last month in Dallas, TX. It was our record release show and our very first show. It was at a cool punk rock bar called Three Links. Not very big…but it was a blast! We plan to play many more shows this year…I will get back to you, haha.
CRB: Do you have any guilty musical pleasures?
CS: I don’t really understand the whole guilty pleasures in Music thing. I love so many different artists and bands. I am in my forties now…so I don’t really care what people think. Maybe I had guilty pleasures when I was a shitty punk rock kid, haha. I do listen to a lot of stuff that you might not expect. One of my all time favs is City And Colour. How can you not like Dallas Green? I absolutely love Lucero. I also dig Post Malone, Billie Eilish, and Halsey. Bob Marley is a staple on my turntable also.
CRB: Who would be on your dream festival line-up?
CS: Fire Sale, obviously. It would be a mixture of all my favs. Thrice, Alexisonfire, Pennywise, Propagandhi, NOFX, Iron Maiden, and Metallica. I would pay to go to that fest.
CBR: What are you working on at the moment? What does the future hold for the band?
CS: We have two new singles out right now “A Fool’s Errand” and “We Dance For Sorrow”.
We just filmed a video for “A Fool’s Errand” and it should be out in June.
We are currently finishing up tracking and editing on two brand new songs that will be out later this year on Negative Progression Records. We are once again working with Jason and Bill at The Blasting Room for mixing and mastering…and Mark DeSalvo will be doing the art. We are very excited to share these two new songs with everyone.
We are planning more shows/short tours and I will be guest DJing the beginning of June over at Faction Punk on SiriusXM satellite radio. SiriusXM has been a real champion for Fire Sale and we appreciate their support immensely.
And we are always writing…you can never have too many songs!
For fun, would you rather:
CBR: Play live or record an album?
CS: Play live! I love recording…but that all we have been doing for two years. Haha. More shows!
CRB: Go on tour or play a big festival?
CS: Both! Go on a tour of huge festivals!
CRB: Fancy cocktail bar or indie club with sticky floors?
CS: Indie Club all the way…I could do without the sticky floors, but I will take that over a fancy place. I love hole in the wall punk bars. I was lucky enough to play CBGBs a couple times…and so loved that place!
CRB: Designer trainers or thrift store bargains?
CS: Probably thrift store bargains. For the last decade I have pretty much just worn Vans slip ons. Super easy when flying…no shoe laces. Pop them on, pop them off!
CRB: Lastly, shamelessly plug your latest album/single….
CS: It would be rad if you checked out our two new songs “A Fool’s Errand” and “We Dance For Sorrow”. We worked really hard on these songs and are super proud of them. They are available everywhere you can stream music. Also if you like vinyl…you can get it on wax! Order the 7” here:
https://hyperfollow.com/FSafoolserrand
We have an amazing UK distributor, Bestlife Records…so shipping won’t break the bank!
Thank you so much for the questions! We appreciate the support.
Chris Swinney
