Fiance

Fargo-Moorhead will experience the culmination of a wide range of musical influences when Denver indie band Fiance hits town on Feb. 23 and 24. Guitarist Michael James grew up listening to the Smiths, drummer Chris Sturniolo says he’s really into 1960’s pop rock like the Zombies, bassist Tyler Reschke was in a barbershop quartet and lead vocalist Patrick McGuire is classically trained and listens to Benjamin Britten. Chris Sturniolo hopes they “can draw all of the good stuff from all those different kinds of genres and make something good.”

It looks like that Fiance has done just that. Their music has been called indie-rock, British pop, harmonized rock and classically composed. Songwriter Patrick McGuire weaves a story into every song, creating a common theme throughout each album. Chris Sturniolo describes the themes as the suburban struggles that teenagers face everyday.

Fiance is currently recording their first full-length album, which will bring us more of Patrick McGuire’s tales about the pain of living what is supposed to be a comfortable life, including society’s dependency on pharmaceutical drugs. Fiance’s music seems to carry a burden for the middle class, but at the same time, their music shines with an underlying belief in something better.

Fiance calls their music “really honest and really emotional.” They love playing music, love it more than anything else. Chris Sturniolo says: “There’s nothing better than when you get in a room with people that feel the same way about music and feel the same way about that kind of experience and hopefully, the music will be something that we all share, not something that we project to them…not a performance, it’s an energy that we can feed off from them and they can feed off from us.”

Fiance’s first EP, Girl From the Ivory Coast, was released March 27, 2007. My favorite song on the album, “Alaska,” immediately drew me in with piano, bass and vocals reminiscent of Dan Wilson and an ending straight from “If I Left the Zoo” by Jars of Clay.

Fiance’s second release, Please, Ambitious, Please, was released March 18, 2008. The songs were recorded in three different houses that Chris Sturniolo lived in between June and December, 2007. The picture on the album’s cover refers not only to the band’s namesake, but is also the man that Patrick McGuire’s mother almost married in the 1970’s. “I Don’t Want You Anymore,” the fourth song on the album, brought to mind My Chemical Romance (if they ever got a good night’s sleep).

After listening to both EP’s, I found them to be original and unexpected. And, after I listened a second, third and fourth time, I realized that the vocals and piano blend perfectly, those drums carry everything else along, that catchy melody is actually the guitar and wait, were those do-wop vocals I just heard in the background?

Fiance’s songs surround you and suck you in like a king-sized bed with a double feather mattress and a down comforter. Do not let those snappy arrangements fool you, however. After a few listens to this band’s lyrics, you get a feel for where they are really coming from, and it is not always pretty. But true they are, to their music and to themselves.

Fiance is one band that is in it for the love of the music, and all they want to do is share that love with anyone who will listen. Like Chris Sturniolo said, they do not want to “perform” for an audience, they want to “share” with the people who care enough to come see them play. How often do you find bands like that?