Faber Drive Interview with David Faber
Saturday, June 7, 2008, 3:00 p.m. CST
David Faber and I discussed via telephone their debut album Seven Second Surgery, “Sleepless Nights,” Chad Kroeger, the bands inspirations, their eventual U.S. tour and their music videos.
AARON KEKER: Hey everyone! This is Aaron Keker from Always Acoustic™ on the line with David Faber from Faber Drive. How you doing David?
DAVID FABER: Doing really good man! Really good! Just hanging out and eating here at some McPukes. Don’t worry though I’m just getting the grilled chicken wrap.
AARON KEKER: All right. Yeah. You want to eat healthy now.
DAVID FABER: Yeah. [laughs]
AARON KEKER: [laughs] David you had a memorable May between jamming your finger into Colin’s hand to the incident with the paramedics. How are you doing health wise?
DAVID FABER: Right now, I’m doing really good. I started jogging and everything. I used to jog quite a bit then. And then after the broken finger and around that paramedic thing there, I was kind of just flack and I was just drinking too much booze… Just overdoing some stuff and so I got a little bit of a spook there. But now things are quite a bit better. Yesterday I did a 5-kilometer jog and that went really good and then two days before that I did a 5-kilometer jog. I’ve been just trying to build up and get my stamina back here. So, I’m feeling really good. My broken finger is pretty much 100% now and a little bit sore sometimes but I’m playing a lot of guitar again. So, it’s feeling pretty good.
AARON KEKER: Well I’m glad to hear that. I don’t think I could run like as far as you could, so – –
DAVID FABER: [laughs]
AARON KEKER: [laughs] I’m out of shape man, but… So, what is the proper pronunciation of Faber Drive? Is it pronounced F-A-Y-B-E-R Drive?
DAVID FABER: Yeah. Just F-A-Y-B-E-R Drive. Yeah.
AARON KEKER: Okay. Cool. How did Faber Drive get discovered?
DAVID FABER: Basically, we were in Vancouver and started to build up ourselves and doing local shows and doing some songwriting and stuff. I ended up getting a hold of Nickelback’s producer who is Joey Moi and basically I bugged him for about six months. Sending him acoustic songs online and finally after six months, he called me back and he’s like dude I’m loving the acoustic stuff you’re sending. Let’s hookup. Come to the studio, which was Chad Kroeger’s studio and let’s work on a couple of songs. So that is pretty much how that happened with getting with a good producer and everything kind of snowballed from there. We ended up winning a big competition in Vancouver called… Fox Seeds which is an annual competition which Nickelback has won in the past as well as Theory of a Deadman and Default. So, it was pretty exciting for us. We got first place and from winning first place we got the chance to open for Nickelback in Victoria in front of 5,000 fans. So, that was our first taste of a semi-stadium show, which was pretty cool. Then everything just kind of snowballed from there. Like in Canada we’re going on tour on our fourth single right now. A song called “Sleepless Nights” and we’re doing our fourth video for that song as well. Coming up here in the near future. In a couple of weeks.
AARON KEKER: All right that sounds good. So, I really enjoy Faber Drive’s debut album Seven Second Surgery. Who came up with the name of the album?
DAVID FABER: [laughs] That is actually a bit of a story there too. We were thinking of band names because we were originally just called Faber. And our lawyer strongly suggested that we change our name from Faber to something else because there was a bunch of other bands that had been called Faber in the U.K., I believe, and then in the U.S. as well. And they were just smaller bands but he was saying that, you know, “if we ever went on to sell a couple of million records or started making some money they’d try to sue us because they had the name before us.” And so we were thinking of band names and one of the band names we had was Seven Second Surgery. And we decided that it would be a better album name then a band name. So, then we just changed our name to Faber Drive and named the album Seven Second Surgery. And that’s how we got the name.
AARON KEKER: Okay. Sounds cool. So, there’s no hidden meaning about Seven Second Surgery then?
DAVID FABER: There is a bit. It’s more of a… kind of like a slap in the face to anybody who says oh you know you guys aren’t anything or you guys aren’t gonna stick around. It’s basically saying we are whatever you say we are. Sort of like the Eminem tune “I am Whatever You Say I am,” in the sense of we’re calling ourselves a quick fix but in saying that it is saying it out of irony sort of thing. So, basically it’s just a slap in the face to anybody that says oh you guys are just a flash in the pan.
AARON KEKER: So do you plan on releasing any of those acoustic demos like on iTunes or anything?
DAVID FABER: Ah, yeah! We totally… have a couple… A song called “Again” which… was the original “Sleepless Nights.” And another song called “It Ends” which is the original “Tongue Tied” before we got into the studio and rewrote with Chad Kroeger. And then we got another one that we are working on. It actually is a demo on our MySpace page, MySpace.com/faberdrive. A new one that I’ve just been writing over the last couple of months it’s called “By Your Side” and that one will hopefully be on the next album as well.
AARON KEKER: Do you have a title for the next album?
DAVID FABER: No, we do not yet.
AARON KEKER: So, you just have that one song and you’re still writing others then?
DAVID FABER: Yeah! Yeah! We got lots of other songs that we’re working on. But we’re also kind of working on a side project band and it’s called Bad Ass Moustache.
AARON KEKER: [laughs]
DAVID FABER: So, we’re pretty excited about that too.
AARON KEKER: Right. Sounds cool. So you handle a majority of the songwriting then?
DAVID FABER: What’s that?
AARON KEKER: So you handle a majority of the songwriting for Faber Drive?
DAVID FABER: Yeah! Yeah! I usually write the verses and the choruses. I’ll come up with the first chorus type of idea and then I will bring it to the band and we’ll kind of tweak it out from there. However, it looks like our bass player Krikit, he’s got a really cool faster song that he’s been working on. We’ll probably put that on the next album and then our guitar player Dave Hinsley he also did some of the writing on the first album. He wrote most of the lyrics and chorus for “Sleepless Nights” and he wrote the song “Time Bomb” and I just tweaked it out, helped him get the melodies and some of the lyrics in that song.
AARON KEKER: I noticed that Faber Drive has released additional music videos on iTunes Canada like “When I’m With You” and “Tongue Tied.” When will the band release them on iTunes U.S.?
DAVID FABER: Ooh! That is… something that we’re not too sure when that will happen. We’re hoping in the near future but we’re not too sure when that will happen.
AARON KEKER: Yeah. I know I saw them on there and I started to watch a couple of clips you know from “When I’m With You” and I think “Tongue Tied.” I’m like man I really want to get those videos.
DAVID FABER: [laughs] Oh, really?
AARON KEKER: Yeah! I’m a big iTunes video guy.
DAVID FABER: Cool man! Yeah! We’re pretty excited about those videos. “Tongue Tied” went to #1 actually in Canada, which is pretty exciting, and “When I’m With You” is still on the charts. So, they both did really well for us and our director actually his name is Colin Minihan is a great guy. He does a really good job… He just had his 23rd birthday. So, he’s doing really, really good up here in Canada making some killer videos.
AARON KEKER: Well congratulations on you know “Tongue Tied” and “When I’m With You.”
DAVID FABER: Thanks bro. Really appreciate it.
AARON KEKER: I read online that “Tongue Tied” was co-written by Chad Kroeger and produced by Brian Howes. What was it like working with Chad and Brian?
DAVID FABER: Aw! That was a great experience. Really, really cool. Lots of good memories set in the brain from working with Chad and Brian as well. I remember one specific night we were at Chad’s house for New Year’s Eve and Chad and our drummer Red Bull got in a little bit of a shot for shot. Chad’s like “let’s do shot for shot, no it’s not drinking shots but actually punching shots.”
AARON KEKER: [laughs]
DAVID FABER: And Red’s like “no man I don’t want to punch you.” Chad’s like “come on, come on.” So, they’re both in Chad’s duel. Chad convinces Red to punch Chad in the face. So, Red is like “okay.” So he winds up and cracks Chad and Chad’s like “aw dude you almost knocked my teeth out.” He didn’t think Red was going to hit him that hard.
AARON KEKER: Wow!
DAVID FABER: So, Chad winds up boom smokes Red back but he had all his rings on and Red ended up getting stitches. I think he got four or five stitches. His lips we’re all cut up. It was pretty funny.
AARON KEKER: I guess that will be a happy New Years to remember then, huh? You guys will remember that forever then?
DAVID FABER: [laughs] Yeah. Yeah. That’s not going to be forgotten.
AARON KEKER: [laughs] I don’t think so. Originally, “Sleepless (Never Let Her Go),” started as a confession to a loved one but changed into a song about domestic abuse. Do you feel this is the most powerful song Faber Drive has written to date?
DAVID FABER: Yes. I would say that is the most powerful song definitely… What happened was we were on the road and were in this beat up old piece of shit 70’s bus and it had like fumes and mold in there. It was disgusting. We tried to clean it but it just wouldn’t work and we wrote the chorus for “Sleepless Nights” on that bus with the engines flaring and the fumes are on the bus, it was just disgusting. I was sitting there just singing a melody and Hinsley comes up and said “what is that is that yours?” And I’m like “yeah man, I’m just…” He said “we got to write lyrics for that.” So me and him basically sat down in the bus there and wrote the lyrics for “Sleepless Nights” on like a trek across Canada. And then we came back… Basically, just kind of about a love song. And then I was in the studio and I started singing the chorus, recording the chorus with Joey Moi upstairs. Krikit, Hinsley and Red Bull and Brian Howes all went downstairs and started writing the lyrics for “Sleepless Nights” for the verses. They came up in like fifteen minutes later and they had written all of the verses and I was just blown away. It gave me chills because you know you think it is a love song but it’s totally not a love song. It’s about making the best of life. Basically, about a kid talking to his dad and trying to talk some sense to his dad and saying if I was big enough you know I would put you in your position. And let you know this is the best thing you’ve ever had and you shouldn’t be screwing this up.
AARON KEKER: Right. I thought it was a love song too.
DAVID FABER: Ah, hum.
AARON KEKER: Faber Drive has toured in Canada with bands like MxPx and of course Nickelback. Also, starting in August, Faber Drive will be touring with Simple Plan and All American Rejects. What other bands or musicians would Faber Drive be interested in touring with?
DAVID FABER: Aw! There’s so many. U2 is like my all time favorite band. I would just love to tour with those guys. Love the guys at Def Leppard, like the music. Those are some bigger bands that it would be great to tour with. We love all the punk stuff too. MxPx, Green Day, even Noah Fecks. Who else is there The Cars. Those guys are just awesome. I don’t even know if they are touring anymore. Stryper would be a wicked band to tour with [laughs]. So, there’s a few.
AARON KEKER: What about Hinder?
DAVID FABER: Hinder! Awe! Yeah, dude! We would love to tour with Hinder. They are really good friends of ours. We’re under the same management, which is called V Land Management. And our manager his name is Chief. He’s just an awesome, awesome dude. Really, really hard worker. Like super positive, whenever I call him stressing out about something, he’s always just happy and puts a positive spin on stuff.
AARON KEKER: Yeah, when I talk to him he sounds pretty cool too.
DAVID FABER: Yeah! He’s really cool.
AARON KEKER: So, what other bands or musicians inspire Faber Drive?
DAVID FABER: Inspirations, definitely Chad Kroeger is a huge inspiration. Nickelback, Chad Kroeger. Basically between Chad, Joey Moi and Brian Howes we learned how write songs. We kind of knew how to write them before but it only solidified our songwriting working with them. Just look up to them so much in the sense of songwriting and you know he’s just a great dude and also Bono because Bono from U2, he does more than music you know. He’s out trying to make a difference in the world just using his celebrity status to actually try to do something good. Instead, of just writing songs now, he’s realizing he can use his power to make a difference in the world. You know AIDS in Africa and all the world crisis’s. It’s pretty crazy.
AARON KEKER: Right. Faber Drive opened for Nickelback in Victoria before an audience of did you say 5,000 or is it 10,000?
DAVID FABER: Somewhere in there. I think there’s different papers say different things. I think there’s some papers that say 50,000. Some say 10,000. Some say 500. [laughs]
AARON KEKER: [laughs] So what was the band’s reaction in Victoria when you guys played for an audience that size?
DAVID FABER: What was our reaction?
AARON KEKER: Yeah.
DAVID FABER: It was crazy actually because I remember specifically going out for sound check and in the sound check there was all these industry people in the crowd. There was like Ralph James who is the biggest booking agent in Canada as well as Jeff Craib who is our booking agent and these guys were in the crowd. There were record companies in the crowd. There was like Chad. There was no crowd. There was just a bunch of people standing in the audience in this empty stadium watching us do sound check. It was the shitiest sound check ever, like I think my voice was cracking, like we’re playing wrong notes. Sounded like shit and we were so stressed out and then I was like oh man this is not going to go good. We came back like when it was our turn to go on stage and open the show. We went on the stage and we sang an old song that I don’t think we ever recorded. It’s a song called “Everything.” There’s a part in there where I get the crowd to sing back. So, I’m sitting there singing the song, we breakdown and I start getting the crowd “Whoa.” I sing my line and then I wait for the crowd to sing it back. It was fricking so loud when they sang it back that we were just like sent chills down our spines. It was really, really encouraging to play in a stadium like that and have the crowd singing along and just loving us. It was really, really weird because we did not expect that especially after having such a shitty sound check.
AARON KEKER: Right. Well, I guess it worked out for the best then, huh?
DAVID FABER: Yeah man! It was really, really cool.
AARON KEKER: What was the bands reaction when you guys won for Best New Hot AC Band of the Year at the 2008 Canadian Radio Music Awards?
DAVID FABER: Awe! That was another [laughs]… That was totally unexpected. We were actually hanging out backstage and… drinking some wine and having a couple of brews. We’re just there to hang out and shmooze and all of a sudden there like “Faber Drive wins.” And we were like “What!” So, we totally were not ready for it. So, we went up there and started quoting lines from Anchor Man and Talladega Nights.We were like what do we do with our hands and we’re putting our hands in the air, we’re just kind of cracking jokes and we said, “thank you” to everyone who has ever helped us and our recording company and stuff. But that was really unexpected. We’re really excited to get that.
AARON KEKER: Well congratulations!
DAVID FABER: Thank you!
AARON KEKER: After Faber Drive’s last tour date on September 9, 2008 in Winnipeg, what’s next for Faber Drive?
DAVID FABER: So we got the big tour across Canada, is that what you just said?
AARON KEKER: Yeah! Like after that and obviously – –
DAVID FABER: After that?
AARON KEKER: And you said that you’re starting to work on a little bit of the album. But what are you going to do like right after you guys tour?
DAVID FABER: Yeah! Right after we tour we’re just into album mode. We’re going to start working on the next album recording, getting into pre-production. We are going to be doing some co-writing with Arnold Lanni who did a lot of the co-writing for Simple Plan’s albums. He’s a great dude. We’re doing that. We’re going to be doing some stuff with Joey Moi and we are trying to get with Howard Benson. So, there’s a lot of stuff… a lot of ideas we have down. We probably have fifteen song ideas for the next album already and we just want to start getting recorded and really excited about that.
AARON KEKER: Cool. Is Faber Drive very personal with their fans by reading or responding to MySpace emails or comments?
DAVID FABER: Yes, we are. I kind of stay away from it because I am just so busy with writing songs. I do a lot of the other business stuff like I am in contact with management and the booking and all that stuff. So, I am really handling all of that where the other guys, David Hinsley does a lot of the MySpace.
AARON KEKER: Right. All Right. Well final question. Is Faber Drive planning on touring the U.S. anytime soon?
DAVID FABER: Yes. We are hoping to start doing some touring in the U.S. We don’t have anything in stone yet but we’re hoping to get down there and crack the states wide open. We’re really excited about the States…. We did a big radio promo thing in the States last summer and fall and that was like a lot of fun. Like we love America. Everybody down there was a lot nicer then I think the rest of the world seems to portray. Everybody was super-friendly, super-outgoing and super-accepting of us. So, that was really cool.
AARON KEKER: Well I mean I think they’ll look forward to you know hearing your music too because you know that album Seven Second Surgery is a good album.
DAVID FABER: Thank you! Yeah! I think that’s probably part of it too.
AARON KEKER: Well, all right. Thanks a lot David and I hope to see you guys soon.
DAVID FABER: All right bro! Thank you very much!
AARON KEKER: All right man thanks! Talk to you later! Bye!
DAVID FABER: Okay! Bye!
