BareBones Ent got the chance to catch up with some old friends in I Fight Dragons. I Fight Dragons was one of the first bands we ever worked with when we started back in 2012. We reached out to lead singer, Brian Mazzaferri, to see if they had some time to reconnect in honor of our anniversary and them celebrating their album, Kaboom! Check out what all we had to talk about below.
BBE: It has been a little bit since we talked to you guys last. How have you been?
BM: Things have been good! It’s been a fun year focusing on the KABOOM! reissue and also writing a bunch of new songs.
BBE: I plan to bounce you around a little bit this interview. Like Kaboom, we are actually celebrating our 10-year anniversary of BareBones Ent. I Fight Dragons was one of the first bands we worked with when we started. How would you compare where you were then as a band to where you are now? (Or is it Kaboom’s 11-year anniversary? I have seen both listed)
BM: Hahah so it’s technically the 11th anniversary – the initial plan was to do a vinyl reissue and a tour around the 10th anniversary, but then our 2020 touring plans got delayed a year and the whole world kind of lost a year or so there… so we did it for the 11th anniversary instead. We are in a much different place as a band now – 10 years ago we were signed to a label and doing our best to break the band at radio. It was always a bit of a quixotic dream, and ultimately we couldn’t get the backing to make a run there. Most of our activity since about 2014 has been pretty part-time as band members have moved on to other pursuits, but we all still make time to get back together for IFD stuff on a semi-regular basis
BBE: What does Kaboom mean to you guys as a band?
BM: It’s a really special album for us. Not only was it our only major label release, it was a process that was about 2 years in the making. When it finally came time to record, the whole band flew down to Nashville and literally lived in Matt Mahaffey’s house (he produced the album) for a month as we worked on it. It was a surreal experience, and we really put every ounce of our hearts and soul into perfecting that album.
BBE: When you released Kaboom where did you see I Fight Dragons being in 10 years?
BM: Hah! Honestly we had dreams of the band having a niche hit on radio and breaking the band at a wider level, and if you asked me back then I was dead set on it. Obviously that’s not how life worked out, but in the end we’re all pretty darn happy with our lives and feel lucky that we still get to play for people and make music together.
BBE: We are very excited for our anniversary vinyl copy of the album to come in. What made you decide you wanted to re-release the album?
BM: Glad to hear it! Our earlier material never got vinyl releases, so we’ve been trying to do some vinyl releases as the 10-year anniversaries have come up (11-year in the case of Kaboom), and it’s been fun to do some live sets featuring each release as well.
BBE: You have an anniversary and release show on December 17. Do you have anything special planned for that show that you are able to share?
BM: The set is featuring a lot of our favorite KABOOM! songs, some of which we haven’t historically played live (some of which we’d NEVER played live until we did the little lead-up tour last month). There’s also some new arrangements of old favorites where we tried to reimagine songs in a new way.
BBE: What do you hope for fans coming out to that show to leave feeling?
BM: I hope they come out with a bit of a nostalgic glow
BBE: For people that were not able to order ahead of time. Will you have copies of the record available for sale at your table at the show? Will the various variant vinyls be available?
BM: Absolutely! We’ve got 5 different vinyls now and we’ll have them all for sale (plus you can pick them up online at ifightdragons.com/store)
BBE: What is next for you guys?
BM: We’ve got a whole bunch of new songs written this year, so next year we’ll likely focus on working them up as a new album via our Patreon!
BBE: What is the best way for fans to stay up to date with you guys?
BM: Our email list is the best bet to make sure you don’t miss anything, but any of the ways of signing up at ifightdragons.com works (Discord, social media, email list, etc)
BBE: Anything else you would like to add?
BM: Thanks for still listening to IFD after all these years!!
