Review Fix Exclusive: Q & A With Falling Still Bassist Brett Hamilton

Review Fix chats with Falling Still Bassist Brett Hamilton, who discusses the band’s new EP, as well as their creative process and goals for the future.

Review Fix: How was the band formed?

Brett Hamilton: The band was formed by the unifying of three kindred spirits desperate to get out of Akron, Ohio. So we all moved to Los Angeles and decided we really wanted to try and find some success with our music.

Review Fix: You guys sound a lot like older Foo Fighters records. What are your influences?

Hamilton: Well, we have some pretty prevalent grunge influences. But if that has resulted in a band that sounds like the Foo Fighters, we may have made a mistake somewhere along the line. Perhaps we’ll start leaning on our other influences a little harder, which can span anywhere from pop music to black metal. It’s pretty easy to find inspiration in just about anything if you look at it with the right attitude.

Review Fix: What’s the band’s creative process like?

Hamilton: Our creative process is a real team effort. We know what our strengths and weaknesses are, and we’ve come up with a pretty efficient songwriting strategy. Since we’ve been together for so long, everyone knows his role. We can all work on our parts separately and come together to create something that resembles a finished song. From there, things move along pretty fast when we can trust each other to find all the right pieces to the puzzle.

Review Fix: What did you learn from this EP that you think will affect the band moving forward?

Hamilton: We learned that the best thing a creative person can do to find some sort of success is to continue to follow instincts. It’s always good to listen to advice and try things out, but the second you stop using your own voice, your creation will become uninteresting.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for “If You Stay”? How was it written?

Hamilton:“If U Stay” is a song about being stuck somewhere. It was written on a cold night when I was sleeping in a garage, thinking about staying in Los Angeles for the rest of my life. But it’s not really about Los Angeles specifically. It’s about staying anywhere your whole life, and how easy it is to feel trapped and uninspired.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2013?

Hamilton: We’ll be playing a lot around Southern California and hopefully saving up for a tour. We have a video coming out soon for our song “Stupid Girl” and we’ve been writing a lot, so it shouldn’t be terribly long until we’re back in the studio again.

Review Fix: How do you want this EP to be remembered?

Hamilton: We want this EP to be remembered as a group of songs that can be listened to by just about anyone without them thinking, “Well, that didn’t suck.”

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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