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| The New Fidelity |
The New Fidelity takes the stage in sharp suits to play well-tailored songs that capture moments of everyday life. The New Fi’s unique brand of 60's-influenced Mod Power Pop shines through the smog of Southern California’s indie rock sprawl.
The New Fi just made its first movie appearance in a dance club scene in the independent film We Are The Mods
that debuted at the Director’s Guild of America Theater in Hollywood this summer ‘09. More performances on the silver screen are planned for 2009 and beyond, including music to a Vespa scooter chase scene in an independent film featuring Henry Winkler to be released on The Independent Film Channel.The Los Angeles area band performs regularly at clubs, festivals, and scooter rallies up and down the west coast from Vancouver to Vegas to San Diego, where they seamlessly mix their original songs with covers of mod and soul classics.
The New Fidelity's
Daniel Perkins agreed to do a little interview for us.How do you describe your music to people, Dan?
The New Fidelity is a 60's power pop band, maybe a 21st century version of that since we have listened to and like music since then, but anyone who has seen us live would surely agree.
Tell me about how you originally got into your craft.
I've been playing in bands since I was 14, I would consider my craft to be pop songwriting in the realm of The Beatles or Buddy Holly, both of whom I got into much later in life as a musician. They helped me realize how much a love a well-written lyric and song in a classic sense so I guess their music and similar music got me into my craft.
What is your favorite thing to do in the whole wide world?
My favorite thing to do in the whole wide world is work on a brand new song. The feeling of walking around all day with it in your head as you fine tune the beat or the melody or the words- as the song comes from idea to completion is the best and it's what I live for.
What is your biggest challenge when it comes to running your business?
The biggest challenge is dealing with the lag between creating a song, arranging and performing it as a band, and eventually recording it. Whatever you release tends to reflect where you were at 6 months 1 year or even 2 years back. I guess that's not really business though, from a business perspective, the biggest challenge is the dealing with the randomness of "big news," like we might get 3 tv placements in a 3 weeks, and then nothing for 8 months where you're just gigging around waiting for something to happen. It always does, you just never know when, so tempering your excitement can be rough.
When you were a kid, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up?
Since I was 14 I always wanted to be in a band. I've grown up, now I suppose and all I do is write record and perform music and work my day job as a designer and manufacturer of guitar straps, so I suppose I'm lucky in that regard.
In what way has your community impacted your development as a musician?
We live in Long Beach, which is part of greater Los Angeles. Our song Native Son
and video (Directed by Vince Duque of The Alpha Company, who is also currently an assistant producer on the television show House MD
) is about Los Angeles and the need to accept the massively different people and cultures who come together to live and work here. The video takes place on an old English double decker bus as it cruises through the good and bad parts of LA where we visit some of the areas I frequent daily for my day job at Couch Guitar Straps. I was going into these areas: South Central, East LA, Vernon, Downtown etc, the not-so-good parts of town, and I was realizing that here, this is where everything is made, this is where all our city's "dirty work" is done that keeps this place going--by people we rely on to get it done, and yet we draft policies to kick them out. When you're there everyday, you really realize that if all these people were ever forced to leave, the part of the city where things get done wouldn't have any people in it! Anyway, Native Son
is about that, or just general acceptance of diversity which is required here, and the video is fun and cool. Plus if you watch carefully the guy who cameos in the yellow jacket is Eddie Munoz from the great 80's power pop band The Plimsouls
who had the huge hit A Million Miles Away
. It was cool that he came out to shoot the video with us.What other artists out there do you love?
Today I was listening to the first Albert Hammond Jr.
record, Aztec Camera
who are a great 80's new wave pop band, and Donovan
. I love the early Beatles
, early Who
, Television
, Jonathan Richman
and The Modern Lovers
, Elvis Costello
, Otis Redding
, The Kinks
, Raphael Saddiq
, T Rex
, The Zombies
, The Sonics
, Belle and Sebastian
, The Jam
..... I also love industrial design, functional beautiful stuff like a Knoll chair
or my Rickenbacker 330.What does your future hold?
I would like to be a master of classic pop songwriting and record and perform the songs on stage around the world. I feel I've gotten a start at all of this, so I hope for the good fortune to continue. Move on up!
