It Was Only Supposed to Be Three Songs: Hold On Fire Drops Debut EP "Half Alive"
By Chris Vaglio, Radio Garden State
Some bands spend years plotting their arrival. Hold On Fire started with a text message sent in the middle of a video game.
"I just, mid play, heard a name that I thought sounded cool for a band," guitarist Jon told me when he and fellow guitarist Joe sat down with me for an interview on Radio Garden State. "And I immediately texted Joe and was like, let's start a band."
"I think you even said, let's start a metal band," Joe added.
It did not stay a metal band. And it definitely did not stay the three-song side project it was supposed to be. This week the Montclair-based five piece released their debut EP, "Half Alive," a collection of soaring, heart-on-your-sleeve emo and post-hardcore that sounds like it could have been beamed in straight from 2004 while still feeling completely current. The record was produced by Fred Mascherino of Taking Back Sunday and The Color Fred alongside Stephen Angello at Diver Down Studios, and it features a guest vocal from Dan Marsala of Story of the Year.
Not bad for a band that, by their own admission, booked their first show before they had a singer or any songs.
Built From the Jersey Scene Up
Hold On Fire is a band of scene veterans: Jon and Joe on guitars, Jeremy on bass, Andrew on vocals, and Andrey on drums. Jon had been playing in a synth rock band for years, with Joe filling in live. Jon's cousin Jeremy was, in Jon's words, "a shoo-in" on bass. "I didn't really have a choice for him," Jon laughed. "You're just in the band."
The rest came together through the kind of connections you only build after decades in the New Jersey music community. When Jon ran into Fred Mascherino at a show and asked him to book the new band, Fred asked who was singing. "I said, I don't know yet, and we don't even have any songs," Jon recalled. Fred booked them anyway, giving them eight weeks to become a real band, and that same night suggested Andrew, who had filled in on vocals at a previous gig. Andrew said yes on the spot.
That collaborative spirit runs through everything. "It no longer became like, hey guys, I have an idea and I want to put a team together to do it," Jon said. "It became such a collaborative thing. That's the fun of it."
In the Studio With Fred and Steve
Recording at Diver Down with Mascherino and Angello meant more than just a famous name on the credits. The duo were hands-on producers who pushed the songs in directions the band could not have found alone.
"It's really difficult to listen to your own stuff objectively," Joe explained. "It's nice to have someone else in the room who gets your vibe and gives you actual good ideas that push you in a way you may not have gotten there by yourself."
"They care so much about the song and the big picture, but also the details of every little thing," Jon said. "They don't want their name on anything that's mediocre."
The sessions also came with a serious dose of history. Much of the guitar work on "Half Alive" was tracked through the same cabinet Fred used on every Taking Back Sunday record, and one very special guitar makes an appearance: the red SG featured on the track with Dan Marsala. For a band raised on that era, recording with the actual gear that made those records was surreal.
The Dan Marsala Story
The Story of the Year connection goes back years. Jon describes himself as a superfan who slowly became a friend, opening for the band and even getting pulled on stage to play songs with them. One night he worked up the courage to ask Dan Marsala about collaborating.
The song they eventually wrote together at Dan's house was originally intended for Jon's previous project. When that band ran its course, the track came with him. "When we started this band, we said, let's use that song for this band," Jon said. The result is "Dead and Spent," which sat 90 percent finished for two years while the band kept it a total secret, even from close friends who begged to hear it.
The wait paid off. Right before the final mix, Marsala asked to recut his vocals to match the energy of the finished track, adding screams and taking the song to another level at the last minute.
Songs With Some Miles on Them
"Half Alive" closes with "Brand New Eyes," a song Joe had been carrying around for years, with something like nine demos behind it. The opener, "Find My Way Out of the Dark," was the last song written for the record. Joe played the demo over the studio speakers in the final days of tracking and Fred insisted they come back to record it, which they did in a two-day sprint a few months later.
Then there's "Even Legends Fall," the first song the band ever wrote together, which stayed unreleased until the EP dropped. "I keep listening to it and I'm like, should we have pushed this earlier?" Jon admitted. "I have a new love for the song."
That perspective, songs written with a few more lessons and scars behind them, is central to what Hold On Fire is. These are guys in their late 30s and early 40s who grew up going to show at the Wayne Firehouse & the Manville Elks Lodge, and who are now chasing the dream with the maturity those years bring. "We have no drama," Jon said. "We're all respectful to each other and we're friends first. We're adults now."
What's Next
The band celebrated the release with an EP release party at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City on July 11, alongside Tempest City, Annika, and Tom Vincent, complete with a brand new merch line and NFC keychains that send your phone straight to their Spotify when you tap it.
And they are not done. "We didn't just want to drop the EP and then be like, okay," Joe teased. "We got something else in store."
"Half Alive" is streaming now on Spotify and all major platforms. Follow the band on Instagram at @holdonfiremusic, and keep it locked to Radio Garden State to hear Hold On Fire in the mix.
listen to and watch the whole interview on Radio Garden State’s Patreon site.