FIDiots Unite: A Conversation with FIDLAR

When receiving the opportunity to interview legends of the punk scene FIDLAR, one must do their due diligence. Veterans of garage rock and punk Zac Carper, Brandon Schwartzel and Max Kuehn have been doing the damn thing for the last 15 years. Fresh off a 10-date tour in Australia along with an upcoming album Surviving The Dream out on September 20 and a corresponding North American tour, it only felt right to give the band an opportunity to talk musical inspirations, the land down under and their top choices for the Mount Rushmore of punk. In an interview with Brandon Schwartzel, bassist of the band, we get to break it all down.

SLUG: Your newest album Surviving The Dream comes out on September 20 following the release of five singles. The singles span a wide variety of genres like punk, emo, grunge and even surf rock. What bands can you say definitively helped inspire the tone of this new project?

Schwartzel: Ween, My Bloody Valentine, Slipknot, Blink-182, Daft Punk, Pennywise, The Flaming Lips… We all listen to tons of different music and it kinda just absorbs into us and then it filters through our FID brains, and there you have it!

SLUG: You’ve also released covers of songs by Tom Petty and Limp Bizkit. With these artists being from two completely different genres, what special sauce did you sense in these songs that made you know FIDLAR could do them justice?

Schwartzel: Well, both of those artists rule and they are both from Florida. We were playing a bunch of shows in Florida at the time, so that’s kinda how that happened. 

SLUG: Is punk dead? Why or why not? What does “punk” mean to you?

Schwartzel: I think “punk” evolves and is more an ethos and how you approach life. Doctors can be punks. Teachers. Trash collectors. It’s about pushing against the status quo and doing things the way you want. 

 SLUG: In your opinion, what musicians would deserve the honor of appearing on the Mount Rushmore of punk?

Schwartzel: The Clash, Beastie Boys, The Flaming Lips, Daft Punk. I feel like all four of those approached their art in the way I defined punk above. The “punk police” are definitely coming for me for that though, haha. 

SLUG: What makes Surviving The Dream feel different from FIDLAR’s previous work? What have you learned or changed since your other albums?

Schwartzel: We just keep making the music we want and just like doing anything, the more you do it hopefully the better you get. I feel like each album is just an honest picture of what the band was feeling at the moment we made it. It can get overwhelming when you think about it too much—just make the shit you want, however you want to make it at that time.

SLUG: You linked up with Australia’s Dune Rats for this dual tour (a full 10 shows in the land down under). How has this experience differed from your past tours back in the states?

Schwartzel: It’s been rad! Australia is one of our favorite places to play and the Dunies are some of are favorite people to play with. We’re like multiverse versions of each other’s bands. I will say, as opposed to past tours, the accommodations are a little more comfy (not all sleeping on the floor of a party house). Now we all sleep in the same bed in a decent hotel.

SLUG: Is there anything you miss about being a small, unsigned garage band?

Schwartzel: It’s nice to have more FIDiots in the pit at our shows instead of just three of our friends pushing random people around, though there is something I miss about that, too. Also, we’re still unsigned and we never had a garage. Eternally stoked and broke.

SLUG: Your songs have been featured in a lot of movies, TV shows and video games. What was your favorite piece of media that your music was featured in? Is there any type of movie or show you dream of being in?

Schwartzel: We had our cover of “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in that show Peaky Blinders which was sick, because I love that show. I was kinda freaking out. It’d be rad to score a movie or something, like do the whole soundtrack instead of them just using a song we already had. So, you know—Spielberg, Tarantino, Chris Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson, Coen bros, what’s good?

From sleeping on the floor of a party house to aspiring to work with some of the finest in entertainment, FIDLAR has managed to capture the hearts of thousands of FIDiots along the way. If you think that you or a loved one may be suffering from FIDiot syndrome (or, if you just wanna catch them live) FIDLAR will be stopping by The Complex in Salt Lake City on September 30.

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