The career of the band Fastball has been peppered with moments of good fortune in the face of disaster.
From their breakout album, “All The Pain Money Can Buy” — which almost didn’t get made — to their most recent effort, the critically lauded “Step Into Light,” the band has managed to navigate the murky waters of alternative rock.
amNewYork caught up with lead vocalist Miles Zuniga before their show at Irving Plaza this week to talk about nearly being fired from their label, the new album and the fake origin of their band name.
“All The Pain Money Can Buy” ushered in a pop sound counter to the grunge that dominated the ’90s. Was that intentional on your part, or was it organic?
That’s funny you ask that. It was organic in the sense that we didn’t even think we were even going to do another record because the first record did so poorly. But as luck would have it, the president of the label got fired. So it was basically the accountant that signed off on the project. In our mind it was the last hurrah. We’ll get to do this one last record and that’s that. We’ll play it for our friends and family. But there was a certain freedom in that, in not having too much to worry about it.
So the freedom of being fired lead to the breakthrough album’s sound?
Sure, we didn’t think anyone was actually going to hear it.
The new album “Step Into Light” is getting rave reviews from the press. Talk about the recording process.
This is another interesting album. It’s kind of like bookends. With “All The Pain” we thought it was never going to get heard. This one we did rapidly because we were supposed to go on tour, but the tour fell through. We just banged it out and mixed it and mastered it. It wasn’t planned, but having a circumstance if you will, something informing the record was good. The fact that we couldn’t tinker with it, gave it a sense of urgency.
How did you guys come up with the name for your band?
It wasn’t taken. We just got into a room and went around and around. Pick a name. Taken. Pick a name. Taken. It was such a lame story, that I came up with a fake story that it was the name of our favorite porno movie. Like we’d all get together and watch a porno together, how ridiculous. But I just got asked so many times I gotta try to jazz it up a bit. That’s the true story.
If you go: Fastball is performing alongside Everclear, Vertical Horizon and Ruth Ruth on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Irving Plaza, 17 Irving Pl., 212-777-6800, sold out
