The Format Announce New Album

Snagged a signed vinyl. I can't believe it!

 

Official pre-orders from the band are now up. And the band have shared the new single “Holy Roller.”

 

Yessssssss

 

hot damn. everybody's back

 

Pink variant from Zia Records (Arizona indie exclusive)

 

Immediate pre order. Holy Roller is such a jam.

 

Holy shit.

 

Just came in here to say what everyone else is thinking: Woooooooo!!!!

 

As someone who didn't really get into The Format when they were first around, is that on par with what they've put out? It sounds just like a fun. song to me.

 

Really digging this new song!

 

Their sound is kind of like a folksy indie rock band but less pop sounding than fun. Vocally I'm sure it will sound similar to fun. for obvious reasons but I'd say this new song would be a logical progression for the band and isn't too different from music they released decades ago.

 

The song is great but the fade-out ending is very abrupt on first listen.

 

By most accounts, that first fun. record (Aim & Ignite) was mostly going to be Format songs first; I’ve always been under the impression that when they disbanded, Sam told Nate to keep the name The Format and Nate told him that there was no Format without both of them.

 

IIRC: that was how Nate announced fun. "the same producer as Dog Problems" - like it was pitched to fans that way too.

That first Bio is prettttty funny to go back and read in hindsight:

Iggy Pop was wrong. There is, in fact, fun.

Fun is what happens when three extraordinarily talented musicians come together to create something altogether new and wonderful. Nate Ruess, late of The Format, has teamed up with ex-Anathallo multi-instrumentalist Andrew Dost and Steel Train’s Jack Antonoff, resulting in their ingenious debut, “AIM AND IGNITE.” The trio melds a stunning array of diverse inspirations – spanning Broadway to The Beach Boys, “NILSSON SCHMILSSON” to “PINKERTON” – into an irresistible collection of freewheeling pop songcraft. Songs like “Benson Hedges” and “All The Pretty Girls” are fit to burst with richly prolix lyricism and intricate melodic twists and turns, which provide plenty of room for Ruess’ distinctive vocals to soar. With “AIM AND IGNITE,” Fun have crafted something special indeed, a contemporary rethinking of classic 70s pop, where ornate arrangements and inspired orchestrations meet present-day rock ‘n’ roll.

As 2008 began, Ruess was living the dream, with The Format having ascended from its origins in suburban Arizona to modern rock stardom and critical acclamation. But after almost a decade as friends and bandmates, the personal relationships among the group had begun eroding and in February, The Format decided to split. Shocked, though not entirely surprised, Ruess opted to turn the crisis into an opportunity, taking his newfound freedom as the chance to explore previously untapped musical options.

“People called and said, ‘I don’t know what you’re gonna do now,’” Ruess says. “To me, it was like, are you kidding? I know exactly what I’m gonna do!

“In the back of my mind, I’d always wanted to work with other people,” he continues. “Especially after working with the same people for eight years. It’s a lot like getting married at a young age – you begin to wonder about what you haven’t experienced.”

Just one day after being told The Format was no more, Ruess reached out to multi-instrumentalist Andrew Dost, late of the elastic experimental ensemble Anathallo. The two had initially bonded when Anathallo supported The Format on tour, with Ruess floored by Dost’s astonishing versatility, ranging from piano to glockenspiel to flugelhorn – often in the space of just one song. Moreover, the Michigan-based Dost’s musical interests ran parallel to Ruess’ own, especially his affinity for showtunes, as evinced on his 2008 musical, “COLUMBUS!”

“We developed a mutual respect for each other,” Dost recalls. “We never directly talked about it, but there was such an admiration there that we kind of knew that we’d want to work together in the future.”

“I always thought Andrew was unbelievable,” Ruess says. “He can play anything. I thought, this is a guy I want to work with.”

To indulge “my rock nature” Ruess dialed his longtime friend, guitarist Jack Antonoff of Steel Train. Though the two artists had butted heads while touring together with their respective bands, Ruess and Antonoff ultimately formed a lasting friendship.

“Me and Nate used to hate each other,” Antonoff says. “But some of the people I end up liking the most in life I start out hating. We kind of had a weird vibe on each other. We toured together in 2004 and the first couple of days it was like, ‘Grrrr. This guy.’ But after like three days we became best friends and we’ve been incredibly close ever since.

“Playing together was inevitable,” he continues. “It was just a question of when that time would be. When he called me and said, ‘Let’s do it,’ it was kind of a no-brainer. I said, ‘Great. Let’s do it.’”

A week later, Ruess and Dost were in New Jersey, where they set to work in Antonoff’s parents’ living room. Ruess – who composes his elaborate melodies and adventurous song structures without actually playing an instrument – found in Dost and Antonoff the ideal foils for his artistic ambitions.

“It was just crazy,” Ruess says. “I was able to convey a basic message, we all talked about it, and then they got it from there. They were as open to trying new things as I was. They are fearless artists and that’s just an amazing thing, to work with people like that. It felt great.”

“It’s so fun to crack the code,” Dost says, “to hear one of Nate’s melodies and try to understand where it fits into the song as a whole. To hear him sing a melody and try to match that up to a musical idea of mine.”

Having already formed strong individual identities, the three musicians adapted to fit the constraints of their new collaboration. Each member changed their approach with every song, discovering how to fit to together as a band.

“It just fell into a good balance of each other’s abilities,” Dost says. “It’s just this triad of different skills, different ideas that happen to blend together in a really great way.”

“Without sounding like an asshole, I think we each bring something really interesting, that’s very separate,” Antonoff says. “The biggest element that destroys a band is people not knowing what they’re good at. With this project, there’s this incredibly healthy balance, with everyone really excited about what each other is bringing to the music.”

With an album’s worth of demos in hand, Fun headed west to properly record their debut with Redd Kross’ Steven McDonald behind the board. McDonald had previously produced The Format’s “DOG PROBLEMS,” a collaboration that resulted in a now-classic album and somewhat of a prickly relationship with Ruess.

“It was weird,” Ruess says. “There was animosity between us at first, but we hashed it out. It was awesome. He didn’t know Andrew or Jack but within the first two days, he was like, ‘I can’t believe what we’re working on here. This crushes anything I’ve ever done.’”

Fun and McDonald spent August 2008 working at Kingsize Soundlabs, in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles, followed by further recording in Redd Kross’ longtime practice space. The move proved ideal for the ambitious project, effectively taking the meter off the creative process.

“It was great,” Dost says. “We were able to try out any idea we wanted and not worry about how much it was costing us.”

McDonald became the de facto fourth member of Fun, playing bass throughout the sessions while simultaneously helping to define the band’s grand, fantastical sound. Songs like the album-opening “Be Calm” meld finely wrought chamber-pop orchestrations – all brass and strings and multi-tracked harmonies – with guitar-fueled rock ‘n’ roll, resulting in a distinctive sound which simultaneously recalls the past while remaining very current indeed.

“Sometimes I battled this fine line,” Ruess says. “Do I want to make a record that sounds like a 70s record? Or do I go completely to the other end of the spectrum and make a Gwen Stefani type of record? Steven, with his chops, was able to make it sound like both of those things.”

“Steve had a big hand in bringing that modern hi-fi aspect to the sound,” Dost says. “He just knew what sounds needed to be where to bring it into the 21st Century.”

“The last thing any of us wanted was to make a retro record,” Antonoff adds. “When you start out, it’s all about the old bands, but I think over the past couple of years we’ve all become proud of playing music in the time that we’re playing it in.”

“AIM AND IGNITE” is up-to-the-minute pop, vibrant and alive, with no boundaries to restrain its passion and resourcefulness. Take, for example, “At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used To Be),” which suggests the heretofore unimagined sound of Caribbean Queen, with Ruess belting extravagantly over a backdrop of festive horns and steel drums. “Barlights” – arranged by longtime Ruess fave Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish, Imperial Drag, Moog Cookbook) – is brash and brassy blue-eyed soul, while Dost’s “Light A Roman Candle With Me” is rollicking and Randy Newman-esque, spiked by Antonoff’s unexpectedly edgy guitars. From song to song, “AIM AND IGNITE” abounds with creative vigor, fusing complex gospel-inspired harmonies and sophisticated theatrical melodies onto the pop rock framework.

“It’s the record that we had all hoped we were capable of making,” Dost says. “We had all wanted to make a pop record that had all these other elements. It’s fun for us to indulge our poppier fantasies while still hopefully keeping the complexity and innovation that we’re all striving for as artists.”

The buoyant tunes only serve to amplify the intensity and depth of Ruess’ expansive, introspective lyrics. “AIM AND IGNITE” sees Ruess celebrating all the things that give life meaning and what it takes to achieve them, with the album-closing “Take Your Time (Coming Home)” finding the songwriter struggling to comprehend the breakup of The Format.

“It’s all about what I had to give up to get here,” Ruess says of the album’s overall subject matter. “I didn’t understand what had happened. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what is it that I’m doing wrong as a person. That kind of ended up being the theme of the record – wondering what there is to hold onto as you get older.”

Fun is first and foremost about the bond, both professional and personal, that unites these three amazing musicians. For his part, Ruess – who recently moved from his lifelong home in Arizona to the wilds of downtown Brooklyn – can’t help but to be thrilled by the surprising path his life has taken. Simply put, he’s having fun.

“I enjoy seeing how far I’ve come along,” Ruess says. “I’ve come along as far in the last year as I did in the six years that I was in the band. Musically and as a human being.

“There’s nowhere I’d rather be than making music with these guys,” he adds. “Even on a personal level, as friends, it feels right.”

 

I have the first Fun. pr actually:

 

well well well, I also have the AP.net users interview Fun. interview as well. I'll add this back to the website later:

For Nate: What's it like getting back into a band after taking a break from the Format?

Nate: It's fantastic...fun has existed for over half a year now and it still feels new and exciting everyday, and at the same time it feels like we all know each other so well and feel like we can relate and work together on a musical level as if we've been close friends and confidants our entire life.

For Nate: Why break up The Format after getting ready to record a new album, only to go and start another band using those new Format songs? And why did Sam Means help out with some fun songs?
Nate: Did I break up The Format? Good to know. When Sam and I decided we weren't going to make a Format record, I really wanted to see some of these songs that I had been writing through...I wasn't going to throw away something that was dear to my heart just because a band that I worked out the songs with was no longer. A great song should see the light of day no matter who is "writing" it. Sam helped out because we started a few of the songs together and I think even he wanted to see these songs move forward badly. And I'm pretty sure it's three songs on the record. A few other songs were written for the new Format record but i had never showed them to anyone until fun started.

For Jack: When can we expect some new music?

Jack: The record will come out in 2009, probably around April. You will all be the first to know. Progress has been amazing and weshould be right on schedule.

For Andrew: How far along are you guys in the process of making your debut album?

Andrew : We're getting close! We're actually kind of in the final stages at this point - getting the lead and backing vocals done,string arrangements, and little flourishes and adornments here and there. It's fun to go back and listen, and make little tweaks and add subtle things. We'll be done by the time we leave for tour in November.

For Nate: Will the general direction of fun differ much to that of The Format?

Nate: Yeah, I think so. Sam was amazing to work with but Jack and Andrew bring something totally different, I don't exactly prefer one or the other....I'm just very grateful that I've had the opportunity to work, learn, and grow from such amazing minds and I think Jack and Andrew are so perfect to write with at this point in my life.

For Andrew: Is Fun on a label or are you working independently?

Andrew: We're going to be putting the album through Nettwerk, our management company. Both Anathallo and The Format have done it this way and everyone has been happy with how it worked out. It still feels very much like an independent project. There are no A&R guys sitting on our shoulders, asking us for less strings and more distortion.

For Jack: Seeing as your name is fun, do you feel there's a high expectation to make a really different and...well, fun CD and liveshow?
Jack: I don't think that's something we have to worry about. The three of us can't really help but have a great time pretty much all the time. I've known Nate for a very long time, and Andrew for a semi-long time, and its always an amazing. I think we are all the kind of people that don't like to have millions of friends, but rather spend more time and get closer to a smaller group of people. The three of us have created something much bigger than anything we had separately with each other, and they are some of the people I always want to be around. I think that comes out more than anything. No weird pressure to act like we are having fun and loving each other. We actually do, and that cant help but find its way
into everything.

For Nate: You moved to New York, has this affected your writing for the album fun is currently recording?

Nate: Yeah, this record in many ways feels like a breakup letter to Arizona...and the weird thing is that I had been writing a lot ofthese "leaving" songs prior to my move to New York. I think I always subconsciously knew I wanted to go back to New York on apermanent basis and when it became a reality I went right for it and I couldn't be any happier because of it. No offense to Arizona, I love it, I loved the support I/we received there, and it will always mean as much to me as New York. It was just time to move.

For Nate: Though fun has a distinctly different sound from The Format, what are some aspects of this band that you want to have different than The Format? I love both bands, and Anathallo is my favorite band, but being that all of you are very creative, what's the plan to make people think outside of "The New Format"?

Nate: I think we all just act naturally, once the first demo was done we looked at each other and kinda laughed because it sounded so much like the three of our old/other bands combined...and since then its really developed and we've thrown so much influence onto each other and I think that has caused an even greater evolution in our sound. Those two dudes have so much to offer in my life that I can't help but be a different person (a better one, I'd like to think) and a different (better?) songwriter. Fortunately we aren't the only ones who think this, the only other person to really hear the songs (our producer Steve) couldn't be more ecstatic about what we are accomplishing...I believe his words were "the best album I've ever worked on"...that's very flattering because I've worked on other albums with him and I only want to progress and get better.

For Andrew: Will you guys play any songs from your other/previous projects live?

Andrew: We've talked about that quite a bit. I think the general consensus has been that we're all really excited about the fun songs. That doesn't mean we won't sneak an older song or two into the mix, but we're definitely proud of the songs we're writing and recording together as three songwriters. It's a nice combination - writing with Jack and Nate is an incredible experience - and the songs are really a joy for us to play together. However, we're also proud of our past work, and want to put on the best show possible, so I suppose anything is fair game.

For Jack: Is the tour with Jack's Mannequin going to be an acoustic performance of fun without Jack?

Jack: It will be. I'm going to be on a headlining tour with Steel Train in October/November at the same time as the Jack's Mannequin tour. It's a little easier in this case cause its an acoustic tour. I know Andrew and Nate are going to kill it, and there are going to be two other musicians with them as well filling in a lot of great parts. We all have a lot going on, and this is just the kind of thing Ill have to deal with being in two bands that are both so active.

For Nate: Will you still keep in touch with fans of fun like you did with the Format? Like Ask Nate, carious contests, etc.?

Nate: Totally...just biding my time...I've been missing something "Dear Nate"-esque. In hindsight I took a lot for granted too...its easy to lose touch when you're touring constantly and feeling like you're in dire need of a break...this is the longest break I've ever taken and I'm just so excited to jump on stage and perform for people again...and as far as keeping in touch is concerned I can't wait to personally thank and talk to every person that has stuck around with an open and understanding mind and wants to see thisthing through.

For Jack: Why "fun?"

Jack: It just is. We thought of SO many names. It got crazy. I remember my mom in the car with Nate, Andrew and I a while ago listing of name after name,... we were going nuts. Everyone we knew was giving us a million suggestions and we lost touch. fun was something we thought of a long time ago when we first started. It seemed natural for us to go back to it. Just feels nice. I've never thought a name should hold too much weight. The band and music should give the name meaning, not the other way around. Its a basic word that we all use all the time, and now its the name of our band.

For Andrew: Will there be significantly more hand claps and whistle blowing in the new project?

Andrew: Absolutely! I've always been a big fan of collages/walls of sound, and basically anything that makes noise is fair game. Balloons popping, Velcro, bike tires, etc. have always been part of the arsenal... This record is filled with textures and interestingsounds - there are yardsticks thwacking, glass bottles, kazoos, and lots more. We've had a great time experimenting with differentthings in the studio.

For Jack: Do you feel any pressure coming out of pretty big bands to form this new band? Do you feel like these songs are semi-related to your past efforts (especially Nate, seeing as these were all apparent soon-to-be-Format songs), or do you see this as a definite shift from all your works?

Jack: I think if anyone appreciates our other projects, they will feel the same about fun. Its the three of us doing what we all do best with the added element of what we bring out of each other. For me, its amazing, cause I've never been in a situation like this. We always joke with each other about how we always loved writing alone until we started this project. Its been incredibly expanding that way. The project is so special because all three of us have put everything we have to offer into every song on the record. Any pressure I felt was gone the first time the three of us spoke about doing this ten months ago.

 

Now I’m wondering if there are Sam & Nate demos of the early fun. stuff.

 

When I first saw fun they opened for Manchester Orchestra at a tiny club in San Francisco, and they played Snails and First Single which was pretty sweet. Can confirm that I remember there being a lot of crossover between The Format and fun in the early years

 

Jamming to Interventions and Lullabies and Dog Problems today and loving it.

Whenever a band reunites or releases new music for the first time in many years, I always find an increased enjoyment in listening to their old stuff from a new perspective because haven’t listened to most of these songs in over a decade.

 

Thanks for digging up that history Jason. A lot of this is totally lost to time, so it’s very interesting to read these accounts on what happened two decades later.

@irthesteve also linked to this in another thread: The Format’s breakup

 

Holy roller is fantastic and I could not be more excited for this