Off The Chain with Farewell, My Love

London Mckuffey and Chad Kowal of Farewell, My Love at Chain Reaction

Off The Chain with Farewell, My Love

2016 has turned out to be an off the chain year for Farewell, My Love.  After spending time on another label, Farewell, My Love created their very own CRCL Records imprint, and unveiled Above It All for the world at large.  An absolute triumph showing Farewell, My Love at their most rocking and raging, the band recently completed The New Era Tour in support of their dynamic comeback release.  Highwire Daze Online caught up with lead vocalist Chad Kowal and guitarist London Mckuffey at the commencement of The New Era Tour at Chain Reaction to find out more about the mighty Above It All and the brilliant future of the hard working collective.  Read on…

Introduce yourself and tell me what you do in Farewell, My Love…
London: I’m London Mckuffey, I play guitar.
Chad: My name is Chad Kowal and I sing.

What are you guys looking forward to the most about The New Era tour, and why is it called that?
Chad: It’s our first tour that we’ve done since the release of our new record. We’ve had a pretty major image change and a little bit of a style change as well. We’re just ready to head out in some of the best cities in the USA and play our new songs.

How do you think Above It All compares to the previous Farewell, My Love releases?
Chad: It takes all the elements about the band that people would find memorable or catchy, or cool and it amplifies all of them. If anybody has ever been considering getting into the band, now is the perfect time to do so.

How did Dan Parker of A Change Of Pace become involved in the production of the album?
Chad: We had started recording our acoustic EP called Wrapped Up In Pin Stripes with a different producer and he became unavailable to finish the project and we had heard Dan Parker’s name thrown around in the local scene for a while so we decided to give him a shot in doing some editing and some other instruments on Wrapped Up In Pin Stripes and he did such an incredible job that we decided to have him do the entire Above It All record.

Chad Kowal of Farewell, My Love

In the previous interview we recently did, we talked about Maybe I and Burn Out The Night — select two other songs from the new album. What inspired the lyrics?
Chad: Who Are You is one of my favorites and I think in terms of lyrical content, it basically is just kind of me questioning the people that doubt what I do. “Who are you to say I’m afraid, who are you to say that I’m not brave?” It’s questioning people who put you down and keep you from doing what you want to do in life. That’s kind of the inspiration behind that. In terms of Crazy, it’s a song about how I feel like everybody has that crazy side. Sometimes it can seem like it’s a split personality. I think that’s something that’s very relatable to a wide amount of people, so I decided to write a song and it was the anthem for that.

What was the transition like for you going from behind the drums to a frontman, describe the first show.
Chad: The first show I sang, I didn’t know it was going to be the first show I sang but I knew –
London: That was my first show.
Chad: I knew day of that it felt right and that it was something I wanted to pursue more. I dabbled with singing a little bit in the past. In my old band I played drums and sang. I did drums in Farewell for a little bit and came back full circle with it. So yeah, it feels very much at home with me to be doing this.

What did the other members think of Chad going up there?
London: Very supportive. He filled a role that he knew he filled with the band. I think it’s the most stable lineup possible. I couldn’t be happier.

How difficult was it to lose members of the band, people that you’ve been friends with for a long time?
Chad: I think the lineup now is the best it’s ever been. I like to think that everything happens for a reason and the people who were in the band were there for a reason at the time. The people that are here now are here now. I don’t know we’d be necessarily exactly where we are now had we not gone through those changes because we learned so much through those changes. Yeah, we’re just very focused on the future and we’re ready to show the world what we’re made of.

London Mckuffey of Farewell, My Love

London, being the newest member, how did you become involved in the band and what were you doing prior?
London: I was living in Virginia. I was in a local band there and that didn’t work out for whatever reason so I did a YouTube channel and made 5 covers a week. I put those up and Chris Biersack, Andy Biersack’s father was a friend of Farewell, My Love and he was also a supporter of my channel. So through that mutual connection, when he found out that FML needed a guitar player, he put in a very good word for me and everything worked out. I did about a 6 month long audition process and then when everything was approved, I proved myself I became an official member. The rest is history.

What advice would you give a band seeking a record deal?
Chad: We’ve had the experience of being unsigned and then being signed to a label and now we’re actually on our own record label that we created. CRCL Records. Advice I would give to a band is to make sure the contract is read through by a lawyer and by all members involved in the contract and to make sure the contract is not one-sided and can be beneficial to both sides.

How easy or difficult has it been to release Above it All?
Chad: In a lot of ways the band has felt very independent from the very beginning. Even though being signed there are so many things we still did on our own. We have that mindset, we’re go-getters. We want to go out and do anything we can to make this band more successful. I think it was a very smart move for the band. I’m very happy to say that we created this ourselves.

What can one expect from your live show on the New Era Tour and beyond?
Chad: I think you can expect a good amount of new songs to be played, as well as some old favorites. Just our chance to get out there and reconnect with all of our fans, just show them what we have going on currently.

Do you have any messages for your fans who are reading this now?
Chad: Thank you guys for all your support through the release of our new album Above It All. We have a new music video that just came out for our song called Inside a Nightmare, it’s like a little cartoon music video. Halloween based. Just look forward to some more tour dates coming in the near future and tons more content as well.
London: Thank you guys so much, we couldn’t do this without you. It means more than you can ever know. So, thank you.

Farewell, My Love is Chad Kowal, Röbby Creasey, Charlee Conley, and London Mckuffey,. Watch for this band to heat up 2017 in an epic way!

(Interview and Photos by Ken Morton)

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