Fastball on The Last Summer on Earth Tour

Fastball on The Last Summer on Earth Tour

Fastball is now trekking across the country on The Last Summer on Earth Tour, opening for the likes of Guster and Barenaked Ladies.  Best known for their massive hits The Way and Out Of My Head, Fastball continues to experience a brilliant career in music.  And with their latest album Sonic Ranch, Fastball pitches another grand and glorious rock and roll classic for the world at large.  Prior to the tour, Highwire Daze caught up with vocalist / bassist Tony Scalzo to discuss the legacy of Fastball and their ongoing summer tour.  Read on…

We’re here with Tony Scalzo from Fastball. First of all, how has the Last Summer on Earth tour with Barenaked Ladies been going so far and what have been some of the highlights?
I can’t say enough good things about this tour, actually. Today’s our fifth show in Baltimore. We started in Atlanta on Tuesday, last Tuesday, and it’s just great. I mean, number 1, we’re playing first, so we’re playing short sets and as much as we’d love to be able to play a lot more and do a full set, there’s not a lot of room. So, it’s us right now and Guster and then Barenaked Ladies play last. 1 of the coolest things is we’ve been getting up on stage with them. All the bands, all the band members have been getting up on stage and singing a song for the last song of the show.  We’re going to keep doing that. It’s really fun. Everybody’s super friendly. We’re friends, you know what I mean? Not just polite or cordial. We’re all friends now. It’s pretty great. And we’re loving it. We can’t wait to get out to California. I can invite some of my friends and family to the shows and it’s going to be cool.

One of your stops is going to be at the legendary Greek Theater here in Los Angeles. What are you looking forward to the most about playing that particular show at that particular venue?
I grew up in Southern California, but I’ve lived in Texas for over 34 years. So, it’s always nice to go back and I never get to see my old friends and hopefully I’ll be able to get together with a few people. But the show itself, it’ll be our third time at The Greek over the last 30 years as a band and we’re excited. It’s a great venue with chances to bump into people that you wouldn’t really expect. I remember we played a show there with the Goo Goo Dolls and Gene Simmons was there. It’s a different vibe than the rest of the … maybe New York City but it’s really cool to be able to play 3 shows in Southern California, actually, because we’re playing out in the desert 1 of the nights and we’re also playing in San Diego 1 of the nights.

I heard your new album Sonic Ranch for the first time yesterday. First of all, is there any overall story or concept behind the title Sonic Ranch?
Well, just right on the surface, it’s not very mysterious or anything. It’s that we recorded it at a studio in West Texas called Sonic Ranch.  But under the surface, under the title, I think the music that was produced there with us and David Garza ended up being really evocative of the place we were doing the work. It’s a very empty space. I mean, it’s like nothing but sky and it’s on a Pecan Ranch, so it’s kind of surreal. And there’s no amenities locally. When you get off the plane, you maybe got to go to the supermarket and get some stuff because it’s 55 miles to the studio and there’s nothing around. It’s right on the border, right on the Rio Grande and right by a tiny town called Tornillo, Texas.

So, the music ends up sort of capturing the vibe just because of the room you’re in, also because David Garza works there a lot. So, it’s in his blood really – that place. He knows every square inch of this giant studio complex that has over 4 rooms. We had worked there for the first few songs of this album, maybe about 9 months before we went in and finished it. And little by little, the stuff started feeling similar to it. Each song started feeling like it fit on that record.

What was the inspiration behind the song America?
It started way back when we first started recording and this record’s taken about 2 years because we didn’t really just do it all at once. But we had this concept. I think Miles came up with this concept for just a statement on what the country’s like culturally. As we know, there’s a bit of division and people are in little camps and they can’t quite get together anymore. The tagline of the chorus is “America is hard to see if you only see it on TV.” And that’s sort of old school but I mean, when we talk about TV, we’re talking about everything. We’re talking about the media. We’re talking about websites and social media and all the things in podcasts – and people get in their own little zones, and it becomes difficult afterwards to hear other people’s point of view.  So, it just reinforces one’s own feelings, and it becomes harder and harder to unite again.

Let’s talk about Rather Be Me Than You and the inspiration behind it.
That’s interesting that this is the only song on the record that wasn’t recorded at Sonic Ranch. We were just happening to have a show in the Minneapolis, St. Paul area and our then A&R guy said, “Hey, I know a great producer up there in Minneapolis. You should go meet him. His name is John Fields.” And we did just that. We got in like a day early – and me and Miles went in and started hanging out. We had some dinner and then he showed us the studio, and we just started battening around ideas. We didn’t have the intention of coming up with a song or recording anything, but something started blowing and I had some parts to a song and Miles had some parts to another song. And little by little that night in a few hours time, we were able to cobble together like an actual cohesive song with parts.

We started tweaking lyrics and changing things, and then Miles had this idea for a chorus of Rather Be Me Than You. I think it was a very quickly put together song. And it doesn’t really have the Sonic Ranch vibe but that doesn’t really matter. I think it’s great to start on the first track of the album with an upbeat, poppy, catchy, hooky thing.

We’re going to talk about a few anniversaries of some of your records. Keep Your Wig On celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. When you look back on that record and the fact that it’s been 20 years, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
Tony: Well, it happens to be one of our favorite records.  It’s kind of thrown together in a way. We spent a lot of work on it, but it’s more reckless to me. It has a really kind of punk sensibility. We did it with Mike McCarthy, who’s done all kinds of great stuff. Most notably, did a couple Spoon records back in the early 2000s. And there was a lot of energy doing that record. A lot of different kinds of songs too. I think it’s musically diverse.

Let’s go back nearly 30 years. Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of Make Your Mama Proud. When you look back on that one and the fact it’s been 30 years, what do you think of it now in retrospect?
I know it’s not a bad record. I just don’t really – I don’t think about it. I should have give it a listen frankly. It’s been a while. I think what we were just trying to do is come up with a complete album so we could put it out on our first major label. That was the first thing we did with Hollywood Records, and we had the resources. But I don’t think it was very well thought out and I don’t think our direction was really accurate. I mean, let’s face it, if you’ve ever heard it, it’s a pretty straightforward, punk-edged alternative rock. And I think some of the songs are a little too fast and I think some of the vocals are a little too like samey, just screaming and loud – and there’s not a lot of dynamics in it. I think when you put dynamics into music, it makes the stronger bits stronger, if you get what I’m saying.

You need a little darkness to show off light. It didn’t really have that for me, and our next album was much more musically involved. We had started learning how to use the studio in more creative ways. I would say that the next record after the third record that we did, which is Harsh Light of Day, did even more of that. We really, really went for it with things like mariachi players and full-on orchestra stuff from the local symphony and guest artists. We threw a lot into it and I think it’s a good album and I think I can understand why it didn’t do as good as the first one because it doesn’t have the grab the listener by the ears vibe to it. It’s more of an introspective kind of dark record.

Do you have any messages for Fastball fans who’ve been following you all this time?
We usually see them once we’re out on the road and there is an open line of communication between us. A lot of you fans out there know about our Patreon. It’s on pause right now because we don’t want to just have it up for no reason because we’re busy right now and we usually put some music, maybe unreleased material up there but we’ve run out, sort of. There is stuff but we kind of want to wait until we’re off the road and maybe get in the studio and figure out new ways. But there’s always an open line of communication between those Patreon subscribers and us.

And then we play our shows and there’s usually a few people that have been fans from way back. We do know them by name, some of them. And if we don’t recognize their faces, they say their name and we’re like, oh, yeah. So, we’re going to keep doing it. We’d obviously like to try and get as many fans as possible. So, we’d love our friends to not be so secretive and spread the word.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

Fastball on Facebook