We recently connected with Fonty and have shared our conversation below.

Fonty, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

In the words of a good friend and musical contemporary: “They don’t learn anything, they come in to each practice dumb as shit, relearn everything, then somehow have like 5 new songs by the end of practice. They have a music switch that they inexplicably just turn on and off. They’ve all been playing their instruments long enough to just kinda know what they’re doing. Dave drums good, Reese guitars good, John bass good, Jesse sing good. Always have, always will. Fonty numbah 1!”

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

David was inspired to play drums so he could get out of his comfort zone and find confidence, and he wanted to be able to do that for other up and coming musicians. John has been playing bass since he was 10 years old because his dad said it would be cool. Reese started playing when his sixth grade teacher (an avid guitarist) began forcing the entire class to learn guitar, School of Rock style, shout out Jack Black. And last of all, Jesse: he got into guitar because Reese needed someone to play guitar with, and also the harmonica teacher happened to have appendicitis when he went in to sign up. We still consider ourselves new to this industry to be honest, but we are extra proud of a few shows we have participated in. From playing a Paradise Fire benefit at Ace of Spades with Destroy Boys to selling out presales for a Holy Diver show and being asked for autographs. Most recently, we were fortunate enough to co-headine at Sacramento Porchfest. Any show where we can connect with the largest amount of people possible is something we are proud of.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Once, we played a show at Low Brau for one of their first live music showcases. We had unfortunately not been practicing for the two weeks leading up to the show, and Jesse was sick. Even still, we ultimately decided to play the show badly and try to preserve our relationship with the booker rather than cancel and save face. That proved to be a very bad decision, and we absolutely bombed to an unimaginable degree. It was bad enough that people made faces while we played. Afterward, we decided that would never happen again, because it was so fucking embarrassing, so we made a set of rules to follow when booking shows. They were pretty simple, really, just don’t be stupid and book shows when people are out of town, don’t NOT practice before shows, etc.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Buy tickets directly from your friends so that they can get rid of pre-sales, go to local shows, buy merch, and most importantly, if you connect with the music, share it. Streams are very important, but in terms of revenue, buying a physical album (or one from bandcamp) is the way to go.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/Fonty916
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fontyband/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-iPEfrjVafq4gEg1tTqiWg
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3svdw2kJlh5YGf2LNFQo1i

Image Credits
Picture taken by Zack Obert