There's a certain satisfaction to be had when, without really having to work hard to look for it, things just go right. Especially in the realm of pop music, such a charmed experience doesn't always happen easily; on any given day, any band can regale audiences with stories of the tormenting and frustrating events that accompanied or surrounded the creation of their most recent album. Things do not often just fall into place and there can be some hard, nerve-wracking and emotionally draining work involved in the process; the inspiration for 'just one more song' may be illusive, for example, or the parts aren't just aligning as everyone had hoped or, worse yet, the record label 'doesn't hear a single' after work was thought to be completed and sends the band in question back to the drawing board. Needless to say, the business of music can be a very difficult endeavor but, no matter what, all of it tends to be instantly excused upon successful completion of the work; any risks that may have been taken during the process are validated and, ideally, everyone is satisfied with the results.
For Mission, BC's Faber Drive though, there was risk and worry from the beginning to the end of the process as they set out to follow up their debut album, Seven Second Surgery. The members of the band decided they wanted more control over the music they were making, and had some ideas they wanted to try out which, for a still young and fairly untested band, was still a sizable leap of faith for them. “Even before we really started writing a lot of the songs that ended up on Can't Keep A Secret [Faber Drive's sophomore album, released on November 10, 2009 on 604 Records –ed], we knew we wanted to have more control so we got into producing a lot more on the writing side of things,” explains singer/guitarist Dave Faber of the process that ultimately yielded Can't Keep A Secret. “On the first album, one of the producers, Brian Howes, helped with writing a lot of the songs. [Nickelback singer/guitarist and 604 label owner] Chad Kroeger did a little bit too, but we wanted to be a little more involved in the writing on this one.
“The whole time, we were just really focused on making the songs as good as we could,” continues the singer. “Songwriting is the most important thing for us so to make the songs stand the test of time is the biggest thing. We look at what other bands have done before; while we're on tour and in the van, we'll be listening to the radio and we'll take a song that we hear, pull it apart and see how it works and what thing about it works best.
“We always try to make sure that every part of every song is awesome. I remember studying The Beatles when I was younger, and the one thing that they always said was that they wanted to make sure that every part of every song was amazing. I heard that again when Three Days Grace was promoting “I Hate Everything About You.” They said that, if you looked at it, it was their first big smash and every part of the song it catchy, every part is melodic, every lyric means something. That's the angle we took on this; we wanted to be honest and true to who we are of course, but we wanted every part of every song to be captivating at the same time.”
That sort of didactic approach to songwriting certainly serves Faber Drive well on Can't Keep A Secret. Artfully dodging the sophomore slump by miles, songs including “G-Get Up And Dance!,” “You And I Tonight,” “Never Coming Down” and “By Your Side” all take different stylistic points and run with them; by turns soul-baring, rocking out and recasting the stark and beat-focused push of electro-clash for a pop and rock audience, each song of the album's dozen presents the band in a slightly different light and ends up showing them from every possible angle as a result. While Seven Second Surgery may have presented the initial flash of Faber Drive as an able punk-influenced pop band, Can't Keep A Secret ups the stakes by showing just how versatile the band can be, and thus cementing their position in the pop pantheon. For the band itself though, the release of Can't Keep A Secret has proven to be all the more gratifying because, rather than taking some time to warm up, audiences have jumped right in to propel the lead single, “G-Get Up And Dance,” on a quick dash for the top of the Canadian Hot 100 chart, as well as quick returns on iTunes; a truly surprising turn given that, as Faber hesitantly admits, the song wasn't even intended to be for Faber Drive, initially. “It's funny the way “G-Get Up And Dance” came together, or even that it ended up on Can't Keep A Secret at all,” laughs the singer. “That song was originally going to be for a side project and then our manager convinced us to release it as a Faber Drive single because he thought it was great and it would be received really well.
“It's nice to know that we don't need outside help from producers and writers necessarily – I wrote that song when I was driving down the road one day, singing the chorus in my head and listening to all this Lady Gaga stuff on the radio,” continues Faber. “At the time, I got to wondering, 'How do they come up with such cool dance hooks and dance grooves?' and that's what I came up with. Often times, that's how I come up with some of the best stuff; just driving along with my guitar in my lap and getting crazy looks from people. Sometimes I'll hand off the wheel to our drummer or something, but I find that I come up with a lot of good stuff when I drive. I don't think I'm anything like Einstein but, whenever he had a problem, he'd play violin. I thought that was pretty cool and I just find that I write best when I'm in the car.”
According to Faber, the public's initial reception of the album has been incredibly positive and that fact has built the band's confidence in what the future might hold. “The songs have started moving faster than we expected, that's for sure,” beams the guitarist, looking at initial responses. “We've got a song on this album called “You And I Tonight” that's being received really well, we've got a song called “By Your Side” that's being received really well, and then “Give Him Up” – the one we did with [Mariana's Trench singer/guitarist, and producer of “Give Him Up”] Josh Ramsay – and “G-Get Up And Dance!” is doing really well too so, if we come out of this record with four great singles like we did with the first record, I think we'll be laughing.
“Either way though, the early reception for the album was really good,” continues the singer, excitedly. “It was really good to know that the risk could pay off because, particularly when we started writing this album, we had a lot of ideas, but they were still pretty open. “By Your Side” was written last November, or December, but not many others. Oh – we had “Get Up And Dance” finished of course as well, but we weren't going in with a whole lot else; it was more like, 'Okay, we've got those done, now what do we do?' [chuckling] So we were a little bit rushed to finish the last bit of the record, but we're still really proud of it. It would get a little hectic toward the end, but it was worth it. I think we'll definitely touch on the modern side of music on the next record as well, and throughout our career, but we want to remain true to our roots too. In the first song on the record, “The Payoff,” I talk about Billy Joe from Green Day and they've always been a huge influence on me – a lot of the pop-punk stuff has been. We want to stay true to that, but we also like newer stuff like Lady Gaga, Sean Kingston, Owl City and Cobra Starship. If you listen to Owl City in particular, that record was all recorded in the box on the computer. It's very inspiring music – very emotional, even though it was created on the computer – and the idea that ideas can be pushed like that and the field is a lot more open to us than we thought is really interesting to us.
“I'd really like to try and see what else we're capable of and what other chances we can take on the next album,” continues Faber, “and it's really reassuring to know that we have the confidence of our label and management to do that. As long as we've got it, I think we're going to take as many risks as we feel like; it worked out pretty good this time, I'd like to see if it can again.”
Artist:
www.faberdrive.com
www.myspace.com/faberdrive
Download:
Faber Drive – “G-Get Up And Dance!” – Can't Keep A Secret
Album:
Can't Keep A Secret is out now and available as a Canadian import on Amazon. Buy it here .
