Fallow Land

In the spring of 2015 Whit Fineberg asked me to play in a new band he was putting together that eventually became Fallow Land. In early May of that year we rehearsed extensively and played a couple shows in town, before recording a single in June and going on a tour of the midwest in July. Over the course of the next year we worked on learning and perfecting Whit’s new songs and established ourselves in the Ann Arbor area. This era of the band culminated with the recording of our debut EP Pinscher. We tracked this record over a week in the middle of May 2016 at High Bias in Detroit with Audio Engineer and Studio Owner Chris Koltay and Producer Chris Bathgate. The summer of 2016 consisted of more shows and eventually a major shift in the band. Armand Terrell and Caelin Amin who played Drums and Bass in the band decided to move on to other things and for a while it looked like we might be done. Luckily Whit and I were able to find Evan Laybourn and Scott Kendall a few months after the breakup of the original band and started to go in a new direction. We continued to play lots of shows locally and across the midwest, and also began writing a full length album. Unlike the first EP which was entirely made up of Whit’s songs, I began writing for the band as well, giving another perspective to the band's sound. This all culminated with our most ambitious endeavor yet, a cross country pilgrimage to Seattle to record with internationally renowned producer Matt Bayles at Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam’s studio, Studio Litho in 2018. It took us 3 days to drive all the way out to Seattle and we spent 10 days in Seattle recording the 8 songs that made up our first full length Slow Down, Rockstar. This hard work eventually led to us being picked up by Seattle record label Spartan Records who released our album in the summer of 2019. In the time after recording with Matt we started getting opening slots for larger tour acts such as Delta Sleep, Emma Ruth Rundle, the Sea and Cake, Cursive, and Longwave. Things took a big pause in 2020 as we (and the rest of the world) were rattled by the COVID Pandemic. While the band is still on hold because of safety concerns we plan to start working on our 2nd full length LP soon.

In my time playing in Fallow Land I had a lot of formative experiences as a person and a musician. Playing in this band led to my first touring experiences. Sleeping on couches and cramming a bunch of people and gear into an SUV (and later an early 2000’s GMC Safari without working AC haha) have been some of my favorite memories playing music. As a member of Fallow Land, I really feel like I became comfortable on stage for the first time. I have probably performed live with Fallow Land more than any other project I’ve been a part of. This experience taught me how to not only play well in performance, but take up space and connect with an audience while on stage. I also learned a lot about the recording process from playing in the band. Although I had recorded before playing in Fallow Land, the sessions I played on with Fallow Land were by far the most professional recording atmospheres I had ever been involved with. I learned how to dial in sounds and make guitar parts sit in the right frequency range to blend seamlessly into the mix. I also developed the kind of razor sharp focus needed to perform in these settings. More than anything, I feel like playing in this band has led to amazing friendships and connections. I consider the other members of the band some of my closest friends, it's been a lot of fun making music with them over the past few years. Even though things are in limbo at the moment, I am excited to see what we all end up doing individually and collectively going forward!