By Rich Horton

I’ve said it a few times before that I admire bands who are very active in getting the word out there. Since Rift started out, a band called Throw The Fight has consistently sent me press releases about upcoming shows, tours and their new releases. When I heard they were releasing a new CD, I had to find out what the band was all about.

There are different terms for the style of music Throw The Fight play, and they are conveniently labeled as Rock/Metal/Alternative on their Myspace page. My take on their style, which does emulate some of the popular hard rock metal-influenced-with-melodic-vocals bands out there, is a band who has figured out how to have cool, complicated metal riffs and leads in their songs and have a wide appeal. Which, incidentally, means the ratio of females to males is way better then at a true metal show.

The band consists of James Clark(vocals), Ryan Baustert (guitar), Joey Ulrich (guitar), Aaron Huppert (bass) and Cory Huppert (drums). Many bands have a principle songwriter, but Throw The Fight writes its songs as a band.

“Songwriting is definitely a group effort. We usually write all the music first and then do the vocals once we have a solid foundation for a song,” said Baustert.

After the band has written songs, they go through a process which eventually leads them to recording.

“When it gets time to record, we usually do rough demos of everything that we have. Then we bring them to our producer and decide which tracks are right to record. From there we do preproduction on everything and then move on to the actual tracking,” said Baustert.

From this process, the band has recorded its newest album, In Pursuit Of Tomorrow, which will be officially released in a couple of months, but will be available at the CD release show this Saturday.

“Our new album, In Pursuit of Tomorrow, will be out digitally on April 22nd and in stores in June. We are pressing 300 limited edition copies for our CD release show this Saturday at The Fineline. So coming to that show will be the only way to pick one up until the spring,” said Baustert.

Throw The Fight seems to keep pretty busy with recording, playing and doing it independently, so I figured at least one or two of them were maybe working the band angle full time. To my surprise they are all pulling double duty, full time day jobs plus all the band stuff.

“We all have day jobs and the band is another full time job on top of those. James owns a painting company, I am a graphic designer, Aaron is in telecommunications, Joey is an estimator, and Cory runs a trucking company. We’re all working towards being able to support ourselves just playing in the band. But it’s a long way to the top, you know?” said Baustert.

The band has played over 275 shows in the last four or five years, with highlights ranging from being on the Vans Warped Tour to lows like playing to a less-than-crowded club now and then. The band’s next big show will be playing the Taste of Chaos at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium on March 4th. The band books all of its own shows, which can be a full time job within itself. I asked the band if things have gotten easier in the booking department.

“We’ve been doing it for so long that it’s a lot easier now, especially around the Midwest. The part that gets tough is when we try to head to new territory. So it gets a little trickier to fill those dates sometimes. We do show trades with bands all the time,” said Baustert.

Once this CD release has come and gone, the band will keep on its rock and roll adventure. There are no signs of letting up for Throw The Fight, who seem to be on a collision course with a breakthrough. Having the right attitude seems to help their cause, because they seem to know it won’t be easy.We plan on touring as much as we possibly can and do everything possible to get the album heard by as many people as we can,” said Baustert.

Throw the Fight CD Release - Saturday February, 16th
Fine Line Music Cafe
Throw The Fight, Far From Falling, A Verse Unsung and 3 Pill Morning.
8pm/$8/18+

throwthefight.com
myspace.com/throwthefight

Filed under: Features, Music Events