TRENTON MAKES, THE WORLD TAKES...
And My Favorite Downside hopes the world takes notice
by Jim Testa
My Favorite Downside is a young band from the Trenton area,
influenced by Blindside, the early years of My Chemical
Romance, and the former Dead Poetic. "While our lyrics
are uncompromising we maintain a family friendly element,"
says frontman Tyler Huckleberry (and yes, that's really
his name.) "Our primary goal is to expose the tough
issues of life in a positive poetic light." The band
recently recruited Bill Buckley on guitar, who passed on
a chance to do the Warped Tour this past summer with another
band so he could focus on MFD. Drummer Jack Ferrie and bassist
Sarah Sutor completes the lineup. Tyler answered our questions
and provided the photos.
Q: Please introduce the band and give us the Cliff
Notes version of how you all met and started playing together.
Tim Titus (our original lead guitarist) and I were the original
members and started at the end of 2009 covering girly music
like Miley Cyrus, Jordan Sparks, and Lady Gaga, but in hard-rock
versions. It was hilarious so we did it for a bit. We wrote
our first song a few months later “Terrified”
and couldn’t get tired of it so we felt the urge to
write more.
Jack Ferrie is the brother of our big brother band Episode
Earth’s guitarist who learned to play drums by playing
the game RockBand. We needed a drummer and he was eager
to take on the role. You wouldn’t think he’s
been playing for less than 2 years!
Sarah Sutor (a close friend of Tim) came in as a backup
vocalist. Our bassist before her missed practice all the
time and even our work to accommodate his schedule wasn’t
good enough so he had to be dropped. Sarah, growing up with
parents who’ve been in the Folk/Bluegrass band Borderline
for the past 25 years, had a bit of a guitar background
and decided to pickup the bass for us. She still sings but
now she’s slappin the bass too!
Our name came about through a combination of things. Mixing
the names of bands we look up to like Blindside and My Chemical
Romance. Then we wanted to incorporate a paradox. Words
that didn’t seem to go together but still do. So,
My Favorite Downside was born. I personally love it because
for me it’s about myself. I am My Favorite Downside.
No one can mess up my life but me and this message has spilt
over into our lyrical style.
In recent months, due to family commitments, Tim decided
that he needed to step down. So in the past few weeks Bill
Buckley has joined our team. He’s a shredding metal
guitarist (one of the best in the NJ area) who’s already
adding a whole new dimension to our sound.
Guitarist Bill Buckley, the new guy
Q: I know very little about the Trenton area music
scene. Do you consider yourself to be part of the Philadelphia
music scene's orbit, or are there enough fans and places to
perform in that part of New Jersey to sustain local bands?
Can you name some other bands from your area that you like
to do shows with and we should check out?
Yes, Philly is just over the bridge and we fully intend to
take advantage of those opportunities. But we do feel that
there are more than enough fans in New Jersey to support any
band that they choose. For instance, we haven’t produced
a polished recording yet and we are #51 on the ReverbNation
Alternative charts for our area (and #83 in Philly)! This
is all from a few shows we’ve played here in NJ! We
are fully confident in our Jersey fans that have supported
our dreams thus far and are excited to venture over the bridge
to rock them into loving us too.
As far as bands, I’ve already mentioned Episode Earth.
We play with them regularly and complement each other well.
They’ve got a melodic hard-rock sound with a hint of
Coheed and Cambria in the vocals… they’re sick.
And if you haven’t heard of Thank You Scientist you’ve
got to look them up! They’ve got a progressive rock
that incorporates the Saxophone, Violin, Trumpet, and more.
They’re right out of Jersey we would love to have a
chance to play with them.
Q: You describe your sound as "post-grunge”
so let me ask the obvious question, what separates post-grunge
from grunge?
In my mind, grunge has a bit more of a “punk”
feel than post-grunge. PG seems to be a bit more poetic lyrically
as well as more widely appreciated. Plus, bands like Foo Fighters
and Shinedown have labeled their material post-grunge and
we consider them to be some of the many influences on our
music.
Q: The music industry has just celebrated the 20th
anniversary of NIrvana's Nevermind album, and a lot of people
think the pendulum in indie rock may be swinging back in a
heavier rock direction from the twee indie pop and synthesizer-electro
pop that's been so popular in recent years. Do you find your
audiences appreciate a heavy rock guitar sound?
They definitely dig it! We feel that music has made a slight
turn for the worse in recent years with background tracks
during live performances and auto tuned vocals. While I won’t
discredit the creativity of other artists, I do feel that
talent is less a “must have” than a “plus”
in the current music industry. It seems that anyone with a
pretty face and enough auto tune can make it today with the
proper marketing. We want to bring raw dirty rock back! What
you see is what you get - that’s how we believe it should
be and our fans seem to appreciate it.
 Q:
Female bassists used to almost be a cliche in indie bands
(and they were all named Kim - Kim Gordon, Kim Deal, Kim Coletta).
They seem less common now. Do you think having a female member
influences your sound in any way, or affects the way you deal
with the misogyny and sexism that's often found in heavier
rock music?
Funny! Well, our lovely bassist is named Sarah so I guess
we’ve got an edge there. I don’t feel that her
presence has changed our delivery in the least. Our music
still deals with topics involving relationships, spirituality,
politics, and introspection, many times all at once. Our lyrics
have an in-your-face quality; but, as far as misogyny and
sexism, our parents must’ve raised us right in that
we still value respect.
Q: I noticed that all of the recordings you have online
are live. Are you planning to go into a studio anytime soon?
What are your goals as far as recording and releasing your
music? With today's technologies, bands don't really need
expensive studios or even record labels to release their own
album anymore, what's your approach been to this?
Right now we are showcasing what we have. Many of these recordings
were originally for practice purposes and were recorded almost
a year ago. Our fans demanded something … so we gave
them what we had. Within the next year we are planning to
record. We’ve found a great studio (SRG) that does quality
work and we eagerly anticipate working with them as soon as
we can. We have an idea to use USB’s and emails to distribute
our material in the future. CD’s are out. ITunes and
other means of data distribution are in.
Q: What are some of the band's other goals? Where
would you like to be in a year? Are there any venues you're
looking to play? Do you feel suburban bands need to try and
find gigs in nearby cities like NYC and Philly?
This year our goal is to play no less than 2 gigs a month.
It doesn’t sound like much but we realize that we are
still underground. Working around work schedules is something
that we must cope with moving forward. Killarney’s Publick
House in Mercer County was host to our first paid gig so we
definitely wish to continue that relationship. The Next Big
Thing Tour contacted us last week and requested that we play
when they come to Philly so we’re excited to be a part
of that as well. We understand it is a fact that if we stay
in the suburbs we won’t get “out there”.
But for now we are more than pleased with our fan response
and plan to nurture and grow the base that we have. Another
goal we have is to play at the Electric Factory one day.
For more information, visit www.myfavoritedownside.com
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