Artist Name: Fathom
Nationality: Australia
Release title: Traces
Release Genre: Alternative, Indie Rock
Band Members: Braedon Booc (drums), Cate Guirguis (lead vocal and rhythm guitar), Chris Georgiou (lead guitar and backing vocals), Christopher Sockel (bass), Jaxon Italiano (keyboards)
If you enjoyed these thoughts by Fathom and would like to find out more about their work, visit their official channels below.
Fathom music on Spotify. Enjoy while reading the interview.
Fathom memebers in the studio.
About the Artist
When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?
Braedon Booc: Fathom started off as Foreign Flavours playing in 2014. The band consisted of 4 friends who used to meet at the music rooms at school. One of our first written songs was Inertia, which is off our first album. As our music evolved we began to incorporate synthesisers. One of the bands we all shared a similar interest to was Pink Floyd.
What would you say are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?
Braedon Booc: Our music usually starts off with an idea for a rhythm section, a melody, lyrics, or a song we heard. For example, Soar was inspired by Tool after Chris and I watched them live.
Could you describe what part of the creative process is particularly dear to you?
Chris Sockel: I like the part where we first stumble across something and then unanimously, everyone agrees that it’s a good thing.
Jaxon Italiano: Sharing your ideas around with each other
Cate Giurguis: Playing the song together for the first time.
Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Do you have a preference?
Braedon Booc: In my opinion, I think music should be collaborative, especially in a band setting. The best part is when we bring it all together. We do have music where we write it all by ourselves, but when we get the band to play it and see how it sounds, the juices start flowing, parts are being written and everything starts to sound cohesive.
Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way has music – either your own or that of others – contributed to your understanding of these questions?
Braedon Booc: When it comes to our music it seems that there’s a bit of a thematic similarity, especially with our first album, we sort of focused on the idea of dreams and nightmares, how dreams can be a good thing and a bad thing, and how they influence our interactions with people.
Cate Giurguis: If we are writing lyrics, it helps you understand your thoughts. Writing them onto a page makes them more clear.
Braedon Booc: In a way, Fathom writes our music backwards. We write the music itself, and then based on how that music makes us feel we base our lyrics off of that. Or if we have a really strong theme, we often adapt the music to fit that theme.
About the Single
Tell us about your new single May Have Strained. Is there a story behind it? What were the influences or inspirations to write it?
Chris Sockel: For the single, ‘May Have Strained,’ I watched the movie ‘American History X,’and at the end, there is a beautiful quote by Abraham Lincoln with the words ‘May Have Strained.’I thought it was really cool, hence the title name. We played the song together, and we chose it as our single out of the 4 songs off the EP because it was most likely the first one fully written and our favourite to play.
Could you describe your creative process behind the album? Where did the ideas come from, how were they transformed in your mind, what did you start with and how do you refine these beginnings into a finished song?
Braedon Booc: The creation of the EP was during a very transitional time for the band with members coming and going but also leaving their influences which we still maintained throughout the band. Chris Carvel joined us during the process of writing ‘Traces.’ When Chris Sockel rejoined us, it was a matter of getting these songs which we felt very passionate about and committing them to being recorded and getting them to sound as good as we had hoped. And I believe we have achieved that.
Chris Sockel: Shout out Ben at Everland Studios
Jaxon Italiano: One song I remember writing was ‘Vanish.’ I had this simple riff I stumbled across and immediately sent it to Chris who noodled around with it.
Chris Sockel: I remember I woke up that morning after a dream and had an idea for the song. We all met at Braedon’s house and wrote the song.
Braedon Booc: I still have the original recordings of when we first wrote the song, and it’s interesting to see how it went from an indie song to more of a progressive rock song, with much heavier synths and much more intricate vocal performances.
Braedon Booc: The EP was more of a collection of tracks or ‘Traces’ of some of our past ideas and bringing it all together.
What’s your view of lyrics with “messages”? Is there a main message you want to be delivered within the single/EP?
Cate Giurguis: The lyrics for Vanish are basically about finding something inside of you that you don’t like and trying to get rid of it and being ashamed of it and finally at the end of the song, the protagonist has been able to overcome this ‘thing’ that is not specified so that it is able to be relatable to all our audience. The song always means more when you are able to relate to it.
Chris Sockel: The whole message behind ‘May Have Strained’ is that although passion may have strained, don’t let it get in between the people that you truly care about.
Chris Sockel: Shout out Ben at Everland Studios
Jaxon Italiano: One song I remember writing was ‘Vanish.’ I had this simple riff I stumbled across and immediately sent it to Chris who noodled around with it.
Chris Sockel: I remember I woke up that morning after a dream and had an idea for the song. We all met at Braedon’s house and wrote the song.
Braedon Booc: I still have the original recordings of when we first wrote the song, and it’s interesting to see how it went from an indie song to more of a progressive rock song, with much heavier synths and much more intricate vocal performances.
Releasing music is such a mammoth effort. What are the biggest challenges? What things did you learn in the process?
Jaxon Italiano: The hardest part is going into the studio and finishing it within a month rather than a year.
Braedon Booc: Having changes to our roster really impacted us getting the music out in a timely manner.
How did you go about choosing your recording/mixing/mastering engineer? Any advice for anyone else currently going through the process?
Braedon Booc: It was a bit of research to be honest. We wanted something that sounded good, but also something that was within our budget. It was something we were entirely funding with our money and something that we actually wanted to get out there. So it was a matter of finding a balance between quality and monetary value. We went to Ben again from Everland Studios again because he has a good personality in the studio, we just really enjoyed being there when he was there. He just knows what he’s doing.
What's next?
What’s next for Fathom?
At the moment just releasing the EP and then preparing to write and record material for our second album next year.
Where can we check for upcoming gigs? Links?
Our social media, either on FaceBook or Instagram posts about upcoming gigs. Be sure to check our Linktree for tickets to any upcoming gigs.