Three Music Thingz with Fataday Korngor
Oh my gosh, it's another rendition of Three Music Thingz, the blogseries where I ask musicians for three thingz that are essential to their music-making.
Today we have Fataday Korngor! Fataday Korngor infuses his Philadelphia-based pop rock four-piece (rounded out with Gavin Fernandez on bass, Tim Jones on guitar, and AJ Tinari on drums) with equal parts heartache and pizzazz, and the singles dropping in advance of the band's album Growing Pains (out May 31st) have been irresistible '90s-radio-rock-infused bops that are perfect for summertime.
Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 20, 2023
"Pinky Ring" is a deceptively sweet breakup song in which the singer has been ghosted "like a Casper"; in addition to the standard rock instruments we all know and love—yr guitars, yr basses, yr drums—the song also features bongos and cowbell (why choose??). And "Sane" coats stress in a pleasing layer of sugar, complete with Jimmy Eat World-style chugging power chords and a round of WHOA-OHS to boot.
Fataday sent over his three music things and they are great...continue to read on and you will see them...
- A guitar.
Melody is super important in a song, and it's key to one being memorable, but it always needs some kind of instrumental backing (unless you're in an a capella group). I write all of my music using my acoustic, and I record demos only using it. In my mind, I think the true test of a good song is if it can stand on its own without full band backing.
When I wrote my latest single, "Pinky Ring", the demo was just me, my acoustic guitar, and some oohs, aahs, and "woahs" that I added on to see which one I'd go with for the final track (the oohs ended up winning by a wide margin). Then, when it came time to record the song, I sent the demo over to my bandmates, and they came up with their own parts based on what I sent, and we came together at our practice space to adjust and season the parts as necessary. The demo, in my eyes, was already a cool idea, and the full band backing simply elevated it to where it is now as a single. - A show with a live crowd.
Playing my songs live in front of people gives me so much serotonin and so much joy. Whether it's 30 people or 3, getting to express myself through songs and feel the feelings I had while writing them to a crowd never stands to get old to me. It's also fun to meet new people while playing. Some of my now-closest friends I've managed to meet while playing shows; either in the bands that we gig with or through the fine folks that come out to support live music!
The other reason why I love live crowds is because, while I love writing songs, often times, I become unsure of whether what I've written would be good enough for a record. So, either with the band or by myself, I like to go to a venue with an open mic and road test the new song(s) that I like before recording them. More often than not, if I get good feedback, I keep the songs and work on them for the studio. If they don't get good feedback, then they get relegated to what I call "The Vault". It's basically a Dropbox folder full of songs that don't make it past the demo stage. Since I wrote close to 30 songs for my new album Growing Pains (out everywhere May 31st!), you can imagine how stacked the vault tends to get. - My bandmates.
When I write a song, I always have a full band in mind, and when it comes to collaboration, it's always better to do it with friends that you've known for a while and/or are close with.
I met two of my current bandmates, AJ and Gavin, in college (and I've been friends with my third one, Tim, since I was 15), but we came together around two years ago when I decided to start playing live with a full band. It's super important to me because I love playing music live, and playing together just comes so easy for the four of us. Plus, since we were friends before the band, we always lean on each other whenever we need support and we hang out outside of gigs. It's great, and I couldn't be happier to play with them!
Thank you Fataday!! Pre-save Growing Pains and check out Fataday Korngor's link aggregation.
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