Call It Fiction is a five piece group out of Akron, Ohio. Stating that their influences are “everything but country,” CIF plans to follow up their 2009 EP, The Introduction, with a new release on March 5th called Something I’ve Never Felt. Described by Elliot Blair as “poppy pop-punk,” the band hopes to achieve the next level of success with the 6 new tracks. With 2011 just beginning, the band has a few short term goals: successfully releasing their new EP, getting on a tour with an experienced touring band, and getting management and booking. Since their creation in 2005, Call It Fiction has played shows with such acts as Four Year Strong, Mayday Parade, Bayside, and many more.
For Fans Of: Four Year Strong, Farewell, Motion City Soundtrack, New Found Glory

*Responses from Elliot Blair

How did the band come together? How have you grown since you guys started?
Elliott Blair (singer), Brandon Young (drummer), and Nick Rinaldo (guitar) met each other in high school in 2005 and started jamming together. After going through several bassists Alex Hylton joined the band in October of 2010 along with Alex Tucker (synth).
 
Nick, Brandon, and I (Elliott) have grown together so much as musicians in the past 5 years and it’s great seeing my other band members progress from hobbyist musicians to professional musicians. When Alex Hylton and Alex Tucker joined in October our sound had changed so much and it was incredible. We started taking things much more seriously because we realized that this is what we want with our lives and all of our time and dedication goes into this band.

What do you have to offer that other bands don’t? What sets you apart from a lot of the other newer bands out there today?
The thing that you’re hearing when you play our new EP is the product of a shit ton of hard work from the many of different people involved in the creation of it. The recording experience of Bryan Patrick from The Jungle Studio, The mixing of all of the songs by Tom Degrazia from the bands The Best Week Ever and That’s Outrageous!, the artwork by Daniel Bressetee, and so many other things from so many other people. One thing that bands do is say how serious they are but they don’t have the dedication to show it. The whole idea of the name Call it Fiction is to have a story to tell when you get older. We’re all young musicians and we have plenty of time to try what we love doing first before anything else and what we love doing is music. Bands have to not be afraid of taking that step and saying, “you know what? I‘m going to go do this and I don‘t care how much people don‘t like it.”

How is the live show compared to the general sound of material that’s been released?
You never really “feel” the album until you hear the songs live. I’d like to think of our live shows as very energetic and fun. We want to give people that adrenaline rush that they get when they’re getting really into the songs. The songs on the new EP can be very dynamic. Obviously you can’t be in your car listening to Call it Fiction’s new EP while crowd surfing or moshing (I guess you could but it would be pretty dangerous) but the EP has it’s pretty intense parts in it and it’s pretty happy laid back parts. 

More times than not, influences tend to bleed through. What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
If New Found Glory and Motion City Soundtrack had a baby and then it grew into an adult and had a baby with The Get Up Kids then that would be Call it Fiction

What would you say the band has already accomplished and what do you have your eyes set on next?
Since October we’ve been writing and recording this EP and after duplication taking place this month we’re officially done with that. During that recording time we’ve been booking shows all over Ohio, and Pennsylvania and got to open up for Four Year Strong, The Wonder Years, and Bayside. After the release of our EP in March we’ve got high hopes to tour, follow Warped Tour to promote and possibly do some weekend tours. Our main goal in the next few months is to create a huge buzz for our EP and for Call it Fiction

Thus far, what’s a favorite memory or something quirky that’s taken place with the band (in-studio, onstage, or elsewhere)?
Well we recorded our EP at Jungle Studio with Bryan Patrick (who we had never seen actually leave the control room) and basically this studio is super nice with a control room upstairs and everything else downstairs. On our second day of recording Nick decided it would be funny to fart on my bottle of Dew before I drank out of it again and I only came find that out by watching a video of him doing that then me drinking out of it. Anyway, on our third day of recording we were in the control room and Brandon was tracking drums and I decided it was a good time to get Nick back so I just went up to his head and blew an innocent little toot in his face, no sound or anything. To avoid blame I walked out of the control room and downstairs to the lounge area. Before I knew it Nick walked down and so did the rest of the band and we were all just kind of laughing and then Bryan walked down (keep in mind this guy in our eyes had been cool and super professional the whole time and we had never seen him leave the control room) and he looked at me and was like “Elliott was that you?” at which point we all died laughing. We eventually continued but then a few hours later our friends Second Time Around stopped by to help do some gang vocals and they noticed something lingering in the control room.  Sorry Bryan for forever ruining the smell of your studio.

Is there anything in particular that you’d like people to take away from listening to your music?
Call it Fiction is all about being able to take the chance to do what you love whether it’s music or anything else. The only way to truly succeed is to be happy with what your career is and no one can tell you what you’re going to do with your life but yourself.

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