American Fiction
Memphis, Tennessee, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | SELF
Music
Press
It isn’t often that an unsolicited email with a single demo garners the attention of a producer, let alone the Eddie Kramer (The Beatles, Bowie, Zeppelin…the list goes on). But that’s exactly what happened with Memphis-based American Fiction. With a stroke of dumb luck—coincidentally, the name of that single—the band snagged Kramer’s attention and has been working hard ever since. I got the opportunity to talk with members Landon Moore, Chris Johnson and Pat Fusco about working with Kramer, and what’s in store for American Fiction next. - Stereo Subversion
Cameron Harper takes you Behind Closed Doors into a recording studio to see how a little known Memphis band may be on a fast track to to stardom. It's the story of how five guys in a new band somehow hooked up with legendary music producer Eddie Kramer to make their first album. - ABC-24
Congrats to Memphis own American Fiction who were selected to play this year's Summer NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Show in Nashville. The band will hit the NAMM Acoustic Nation Stage inside Music City Center on Thursday, July 17 at 5:30p. AF's most recent album release was recorded right here in Memphis at legendary Ardent Studios with producer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles). Find out more about the band at amercanfictionband.com.
Read more: http://www.rock103.com/onair/catrina-52531/memphis-own-american-fiction-to-play-summer-nammnashville-memphismade-12546368/#ixzz39ihD06gW - Rock 103
If you don’t know who Eddie Kramer is, you have clearly never bothered to actually read the liner notes of any of the albums you own. A South Africa native, Eddie got his start working as a sound engineer in London in early 60s just as that whole rock and roll thing was getting going. Fifty years later, his engineering and production credits basically read like a list of every single person in the rock ‘n roll hall of fame – Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Stones, the Kinks, David Bowie...hell, even KISS!—et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. - No Depression
What really should have amounted to nothing ended up changing everything for American Fiction.
The fledgling Memphis, Tenn.-based band needed a producer, so singer-guitarist Chris Johnson did what most anyone else in his situation would not do: reach out to a living legend. Johnson sent an e-mail to Eddie Kramer, whose studio credits include albums by The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Led Zeppelin, among others. - Medleyville
“Tailor-made for long drives and a serious contender for heavy rotation on classic rock radio stations looking for new bands to spice up their playlist.” - Here Comes the Flood
Memphis rockers American Fiction have been covering this Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams Come True” cover at their recent shows to much fanfare, obviously. Their slowed down, bluesy take on the original would make Daryl Hall’s mustache very proud. It’s a big risk covering one of the best fucking songs of all time but the organs, vocals and pocket groove of this cover do the original justice and then some. - Mostly Junkfood
Memphis supergroup American Fiction has a new single out. They recently finished a record with Eddie Kramer, the legendary producer for Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Stones and the Beatles. It doesn't get any better. We will revisit this story at length soon. - The Memphis Flyer
Discography
Dumb Luck - June 2014
Photos
Bio
American Fiction. It’s the perfect name for a band whose story, you might guess, was just that: fiction.
It starts in Memphis, early in 2013. Landon Moore (Fast Planet, Patrick Dodd Trio, Chase Pagan) and Chris Johnson (Ingram Hill) had started writing some songs together. It wasn’t the first time the two had collaborated, but this was different. They put together a band – easy to do, as Landon tells it, because they just called up all their friends – adding Pat Fusco on keys (Kirk Smithhart, Detective Bureau, Jeremy Stanfill), and bass from Blake Rhea (CYC, Charlie Mars, The Gamble Brothers Band, Lord T & Eloise).
This sort of thing happens all the time. What happened next doesn’t.
Chris decided to take a chance, a shot in the dark, and reach out to legendary rock producer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles). He sent Kramer a demo, the ever-so-aptly named “Dumb Luck.”
Why not? The chances are that the producer who helped to launch Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios will never open that message. That he’ll never read it, never hear the song. But he did. And he did. And he liked what he heard.
“It was my better half who said, you better listen to this,” Kramer recalls. “I called Chris, and I think he was a bit apoplectic that I’d actually called him.”
Fittingly, it was the vocal that compelled Kramer to respond – he loved the sound of Chris’s voice and felt there was something about this band that he wanted to explore. And so, they put together a plan and set to work on making a record.
The guys rehearsed in Memphis before heading to Nashville, where they spent 12-hour days practicing in a warehouse with Kramer, perfecting the songs that would become their debut EP. These five long-time musicians had never worked so hard on music before in their lives.
“It was a wonderful experience actually working with them,” Kramer says. “They’re very unique individuals and very unique musicians. They come from such diverse backgrounds, you couldn’t ask for musicians that were more polar opposites – but it just sort of glues together.”
American Fiction recorded with Kramer at Nashville’s 16 Ton Studios, and traveled to California to mix and put down vocals at LAFX in Los Angeles.
The result is the purest stuff on earth: rock’n’roll. It’s at once incredibly complex and perfectly simple. The layers are evident – Chris brings musical roots in country, rock and blues. Pat brings a background in jazz, Blake is heavily influenced by funk, Landon is versed in classic pop and rock. It’s rock with a smart pop sensibility that earns comparisons to everyone from The Black Crowes to The Wallflowers to Kramer’s own work with Led Zeppelin.
The first single from the EP will be “Dumb Luck,” the song that started it all.
“Dumb Luck was one of those songs that attracted my ear,” Kramer says. “It haunted me as a potential single. There’s something about it that sort of combines the best of rock, southern rock, some blues, some country, it’s got all of these influences in it. It has some ethereal qualities to it as well. I think it really demonstrates the range of the band.”
Dumb Luck is out June 3.
Band Members
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