Fair Of Freaks was originally conceived as a covers band by guitarist Lars Boquist in 2008.
At that moment still active with Neondaze (his previous bands being Reptilian and Pole Position), the covers band was something for Lars to do, as activities with Neondaze started to falter somewhat when the singer went to live some 400 miles away from the rest of the band. So through his brother-in-law Anders Johansson, Lars got in contact with singer Sean Sanders, whom in his turn brought in drummer Hampus Landin (also from Miss Behaviour, Taiga, and...Neondaze), and with a first bassist several rehearsals led to the Van Halen fixation (something Lars had actually been wanting to do for a long time), and several gigs. About a year later, Neondaze was no more, as the singer had decided to throw in the towel, and the dudes in FOF (then already enhanced with new bassist Oscar Jonas) were coming up with ideas for songs of their own. The first song they put together, is their debut album's opening “Changes”...and within a year the gigs had written and demoed (at Lars' home studio) a total of 10 songs, enough to fill a full-length album.
Without a label to back 'em, the guys had to pay for everything themselves, so the decision was made for the drums to be recorded at a regular studio, bass and guitar at Lars' home studio, and the vocals (all guys also do backings) in the band's rehearsing room. Then, all of that was confided over to Magnus Johnsson for mixing at their hometown based Milk Studios (situated in Norrköping, an old industrial town by the sea, commonly known as “Sweden's Manchester”, and some 135 km SW from Stockholm). Wanting to take out the material onto the stages as soon as possible, the band decided nót to wait around for a label to pick up on 'em, but self-released the album through CDBaby in May of 2012. the move would prove to be a good one : gigs came long, positive reviews were being turned in, and songs were actually being played on some of the online radio stations.
Now don't let the above Van Halen reference get to you. Although the guitar work doés have some finer lead and solo moments, it gets that warm complexity. Also, the lead vocals are sharper. Nicky Baldrian of Fireworks Magazine (and TSM) actually put the finger on the proverbial lid, when he compared the track “Beautiful Ice” to something that might've come from the likes of Lynch Mob or even Dokken...but altogether Sean Sanders has a far sharper voice. In fact, I was listening to the album for a third time, when I started noticing that fact as being the óne element in this band's music that kept giving me that creepy feeling of something wrong. Probably, I wouldn't have that feeling when listening to just the one separate song, but when listening to the full-length, that lead vocal doés get to me...the wrong way, I'm sorry to emphasize again!
The band has its own website (www.) fairoffreaks.com, and pages at MySpace and fcebook, as well as material at YouTube. Check out how you personally feel about this band! The relatively high rating comes from the fact that musically, things are more than okay here!