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Five For Fighting
Five
for FIGHTING
It's
not EASY
by Jay
S.
JACOBS
Remember when popular music could actually say something?
A tune
was a mirror that we held up to our world.
The lyrics were humorous or tragic or
whimsical or heartbreakingly sincere. Songs
spoke of love and war and relationships and politics and lust and death.
They would climb the heights or plunge the depths.
John Ondrasik, the lead singer and songwriter of Five for
Fighting, remembers. In his own small way, he’s trying to continue the
tradition.
Ondrasik grew up in the San Fernando Valley outside
of Los Angeles.
Ondrasik
recalls,
“Music
has always been in my family. My mother was a piano teacher and would put
on musicals at the local elementary school.”
She started teaching him the piano when he was only two. At thirteen, he
stole his sister's birthday gift, a guitar that
he taught himself to play. He also took
vocal lessons -- in opera.
However, opera wasn’t
his passion.
As years went on, he grew fascinated with popular music.
“As
a piano player both Billy [Joel] and Elton [John] were a force for me,"
he says. "The
Beatles were number one. Also the Who, Tom Waits, Stevie Wonder, Prince,
and later Jeff Buckley and Nirvana got me going.”
Ondrasik decided he wanted to become a professional singer/songwriter.
Maybe,
hopefully, someday he would inspire some young musicians in the same way he had been
by the music he loved. Of course, the catch to that
idea was to get himself
heard.
“I was always writing and recording demos through college and
playing little gigs in LA,” Ondrasik recalls. “One day a woman came to this
piano bar and ended up signing me to a publishing deal... so I married her.”
Ondrasik named his band
Five for Fighting because of
a great love for hockey:
the term refers to the penalty minutes players
receive for scuffling on the ice. Many people consider Five for Fighting to be a one-man
band, but Ondrasik thinks that is selling
short the others in the group.
“Though I
write and sing the songs, the band and a couple of producers are a big part of
Five for Fighting,” Ondrasik insists. “In the end it's about the music, and
who would want a John Ondrasik t-shirt anyways?”
And, no, he says, he will not change the band’s name if the
National Hockey League owners make good on their threat to lock out the
players. This labor stoppage would indefinitely delay the start of the next
hockey season because of money issues.
“We
will just not be able to tour or record until common sense prevails,”
Ondrasik states.
The first Five For Fighting album Message for Albert
was released
in 1997 on Capitol Records, but it barely caused a ripple. Three years
later his follow-up was released on Columbia Records. America Town
received some nice reviews, but the sales were sluggish and the
album looked like
it was headed for the same type of anonymity as the first record.
Finally, a year after the release of America Town, the single
“Superman (It’s Not Easy)” entered the lower reaches of the pop charts and
started a slow but sure ascension towards the top of the charts. The song was a melancholy
ode told from the point of view of the Caped Crusader, but this wasn’t your
father's Man of Steel. Instead,
Clark Kent quietly, mournfully regretted his powers
and
acknowledged that he was overwhelmed by the great responsibility of having
to fight evil and keep the world safe for democracy.
“[I’m]
still in shock,” Ondrasik
admits. “Songs like that rarely find their way onto the radio. I always
felt it was the song on the record that if heard could find an audience, but
getting heard is always a long shot for any songwriter.”
“Superman (It’s Not Easy)” was already starting
build an audience when tragedy
struck. After September 11, 2001,
the song really seemed to resonate with a
distraught world in the aftermath of disaster. Ondrasik is still honored that so many people
embraced his song in a time of national mourning.
“[I
have] mixed emotions,”
Ondrasik says. “It was humbling that the song seemed to matter on a level no
one could have imagined. Though like everyone, I was horrified and angered
by the event that caused a circumstance where songs like ‘Superman’ were
needed. Still, in playing the Concert for New York
City, I saw how music can
transcend and make a difference in people's lives. It was an honor to be a
small part of that.”
As a result, “Superman” became one of the biggest
hits of 2001 and the album’s other
single, “Easy Tonight,” got a reasonable
amount of airplay. Ondrasik started
work on the follow-up album, but he
was determined not to rush himself. He was going to take as long as it took to
come up with songs that spoke to him, and hopefully would
speak to others, too.
He was not going to treat it like it was homework.
“If
that was my attitude I'd have a real job,” Ondrasik admits. “Work ethic is
a huge part of songwriting
but the inspiration is always the key. It's the ten seconds that gives you
the idea, and the three months of work that fill in the details.
Songwriting is driven by fear, anger, frustration, joy… among other things.
Who knows where the inspiration comes from, but without it, you might as well go
back to bed.”
Ondrasik
spent much of the studio time
exploring and trying to
work out all the complicated emotions that had come into his life in the
years since America Town had been recorded.
“I
wanted to make sure I took the time to make the best album I could,” he
says. “I was not so much worried about singles or commercial success. I
figured ‘Superman’ gave me a shot to record in the tradition of my favorite
artists. This entailed going far away from L.A. and locking
myself in a
studio for a year or so. It caused a bit of drama but the experience was a
powerful one in my life.
“I
realized from day one that nothing could recreate the reality surrounding
‘Superman.’ I did hope to make a record that could stand on it's own
merit.”
The Battle For Everything
most certainly does that. In fact, it is a better album overall
than its celebrated predecessor. The time and opportunities that
America Town have afforded Ondrasik to explore his muse have led to an
album full of diverse, catchy and heartfelt tunes.
While Ondrasik was not
worried about singles success, he achieved a hit single
with the new album as well.
The lovely piano ballad “100 Years” has made
significant inroads on the pop charts. It’s kind of interesting that
in the youth-obsessed culture of pop music, he could
strike a chord
with a song that explored aging, lost
opportunities and the fleet passing of time.
“Well
frankly, it did not catch on with the kids at Top 40 radio,” Ondrasik
allows. “‘100 Years’ is popular at the more adult formats. When I grew
up, The Police, U2 and REM were heard on Top 40 radio. Whether it's the
segmented nature of radio, or the pop culture, it would be nice to hear more
songs to balance out pop music.” This is
true, the song was mostly embraced by the VH1 set.
However, quite a few local Top 40 stations
do play the song regularly between the latest Hilary Duff, Usher
and Britney Spears tunes.
Ondrasik is also proud of the second single from the album,
“The Devil in the Wishing Well,” a musically charming story song.
If you take it literally, it is about a man and a woman meeting Satan in a big
black hotel. “Think 70's piano rock meets Dante,” Ondrasik cracks. A
little less literal explanation, but another one that may
hold some merit, is that it is about a couple grappling with their feelings over a
one-night stand.
Ondrasik enjoys this style of songwriting, telling stories that mean one
thing at first glance, but in
reality have very different meanings. In the
song “Disneyland,” Ondrasik takes on another American icon, the world famous
theme park often called “the happiest place on Earth.” However, much like
“Superman” before it, “Disneyland” is not used so much as a subject as it is
as a symbol of an idealized and probably unattainable ideal.
“I'm
glad you get that,” Ondrasik says. “Some actually take those lyrics
literally. A song like ‘Disneyland,’ that discusses the dangers of
appeasement in a post 9/11 world, allows you to take on the subject. Nobody
would want to listen to a song titled ‘You can't live in the world you want
to live in, you must deal with the world that exists,’ but you can make that
point in a song about a place everybody knows. It's an easy trick for a
songwriter and I keep going back to that well.”
Ondrasik’s musical adventurousness can be fully seen on the wonderful song
“Angels & Girlfriends.” The song is a mini-distillation of sixties pop
culture. It opens with a quiet Dylanesque acoustic guitar and harmonica,
then it explodes into a kaleidoscope of sound.
The song combines easily swaying vocals,
with electric guitar and piano taking over at different points, eventually
leading into heavenly British Invasion ba-ba-ba’s and calliope keyboards.
None of it feels at all forced, it all feels natural, like a
classic tune you’ve been listening to for years.
“The
Taste” has an interesting form of soft acoustic pop verses leading into hard
driving rock choruses. The breakup tune “Dying” is
far more gently hopeful
and uplifting than its title implies. There are unabashed declarations of
love like “If God Made You” and “Maybe I.” Ondrasik also chronicles his
love/hate affair with a city in the folkish “NYC Weather Report.” “One More
For Love” is a timeless piano ballad that could
have as easily been a hit in 1964 as it could in 2004.
“[The
musical diversity]
came out naturally from all my influences,” Ondrasik explains. “‘Infidel’
came from listening to musicals like Godspell
and Jesus Christ Superstar. Some of the others when you get down to
it are dressed up folk songs. Most of what I do is Americana in my book. I
do like to have different colors and textures on my records. I always
admired the Beatles for doing that. You never knew what was coming next.”
In the end, Ondrasik says the best he can hope for
is for people the feel that his music is “honest
and on the table.” He admits there may be some
misconceptions out there, “Plenty...
but [clearing them up is] a job for time and people other than me.”
Maybe it’s just enough
that Five for Fighting is an exciting part of the renaissance of singer/
songwriters who not only have something to say, but also can write a good
tune to tell it with. In recent years, when songs
like “In Da Club” and “Nookie” have dominated the music landscape and
charts, it is nice to have intelligent people recording who are interested
in touching the listener and aren’t afraid of a melody. In this way, Five
for Fighting is a reason for hope.
“I
think that having a popular song that has some meaning is a honorable
pursuit,” Ondrasik says. “It is what I grew up on. Pop music should
present a point of view and songs should present a unique picture of
history. Some of the best songwriters of the past thirty years have been
the most popular. I hope the comeback is in its infancy, there's a long way
to go.”
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