Fork Tung
Ahead Of The Game
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With the looming release of their first official album and talks of a second music video to be filmed sometime in January local director Jourdan McClure, Fork Tung is positioning themselves for some greatness within the underground scene.
The power of Ross (vocals), Colby (bass), James (drums), and KC (guitar), combine to form a raw fury and diverse musical experience. So I made my way to Bassist Colby’s home for an interview with Fork Tung.
As I entered the house, the band was in the living room flying remote controlled helicopters and full of laughter. I half expected to find a dark atmosphere with skulls and bottled pickled body parts on the shelves. The stereotype was quickly wiped away as we exchanged greetings.
On a crisp California evening, we made our way out back to what Colby referred to as his “Grotto!”
FRINGE: So what’s the deal with Fork Tung, I mean what are you guys trying to do?
KC: We continue to grow, as musicians. The thing I love about our band is you can’t put a finger on us. We can be anything. We appeal to a lot of people. In that we’re hoping to get away by a lot of things. We don’t bulls*&^t.
FRINGE: You have some crossover appeal you’re working, then? Maybe a collaboration with Britney Spears?
ROSS: Yeah, the fat, bald Britney!
FRINGE: So how does the writing process go for you guys?
JAMES: We come in as a group 25% each. It’s very collaborative. We don’t do the whole follow the leader thing.
KC: It’s a collaboration of ideas.
FRINGE: So someone does a riff and then you go from there?
JAMES: We find a foundation and build off of that. There’s a lot within the songs.
FRINGE: Is there anything you want people to walk way with after seeing you, ideas, messages?
COLBY: That not every song sounds the same, we touch upon everything, atmospheric, intense, brutal, heavy, all of it.
Ross. The message is always basic. Real life. World things people would disagree or agree with.
JAMES: We don’t go political or religious, it’s more psychological.
ROSS: I’d like people to take something genuine. We are who we are. We don’t have to dress up, we don’t have characters, we’re just ourselves when we perform.
JAMES: A lot of energy and we want to convey that.
COLBY: A good live band.
FRINGE: What elements do you think it takes to be a successful band?
KC: You have to have passion for it.
FRINGE: There’s band that suck that have passion!
ROSS: True.
KC: You have to be thinking ahead. As for what you said about passion, yeah other bands have passion but it’s what you do with it. I can have all the passion in the world, but if you don’t do anything with it just sit there and say I have passion then what are you doing with it. You’re not doing nothing. We have it. We see a lot of guys just wanting to be the hometown guys. But for us it’s a lot bigger.
FRINGE: Ross? So you left the band for awhile, was it time for reflection?
ROSS: Yeah, for a short while. But, yeah, I guess for that (reflection). I was bending the bar before it broke. The bar of what we as a group had decided to do. KC and I were both playing guitar. And I guess would bring stuff, maybe predetermined too many times, that’s kind of a fault of mine. I’d like something and I’d want to use it, and then if somebody else didn’t like it, which is going to happen, you can’t have one idea ahead of someone else’s. It’s a band, it’s a group. And I didn’t bend as much as I should have and it just caused problems.
FRINGE: So how did that affect you guys as a band.
COLBY: It sucked, Ross is irreplaceable. KC: It made myself, Colby and James work a little harder. It was a big wake-up call.
JAMES: We gave some people an attempt. We all felt something missing. We thought if we were going to continue as this band we had to get Ross back or we were going to change and it just wouldn’t be the same. So we took a step back and reanalyzed everything.
FRINGE: Were they crying when they called you back?
ROSS: (laughing) No!
KC: I sent him a hug-o-gram.
FRINGE: What do you think of the mainstream music industry?
KC: I think in a nice way it’s switching back to the way it was in the 70’s. It allows people to say I’m going to write what I want to and now I have access to put it out. Ipod and the internet
FRINGE: You’re making my heart warm right now.
KC: It’s the honest truth, man. You reinvent yourself you can be anything. We strive for it.
As with each of their instruments coming through on its own, technically and musically intrepid, I found myself in awe with Fork Tung as individuals; thinking ahead of the curve at a revolution in music that is long over due. Keep your eye on these boys!
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