The Famine Don’t Want Studio Fire To Be a ‘Preamble’ to New Album

The Famine are gearing up to release 'Architects of Guilt' on Feb. 15, and while the band is in an excited mood over the release, things didn't come without a little drama. The band lost a lot of irreplaceable items in a studio fire that had an electrical root cause, but they aren't dwelling on that event.

"The whole fire situation was definitely an intense experience, but to be completely honest, talking about it still makes me a little uncomfortable," vocalist Nick Nowell told Noisecreep. "The nature of social media and things like that being what it is, we were able to put the rough details of what happened out pretty quickly. None of us ever expected the response to our little situation to be so overwhelming."

He continued, "The fact that anyone other than our family even cared about what happened meant and means so much to us. The outpouring of support and offers of assistance and kind words completely blew us away."

While losing valuables in a blaze can send a band spiraling into depression that is difficult to recover from, the Famine were able to gain a new perspective through their loss. "It created one of those situations where we took a step back and had the opportunity to realize that maybe -- but only maybe -- what we do for fun matters to people other than us," Nowell said. "That having been said, I think I physically lost the least out of all of us, so I don't consider myself to be a qualified expert on what everyone's internal dialogue was on the situation.

"I know [drummer Mark Garza] was hit especially hard in terms of physical and fiscal loss, but I also know that he has a loving and supportive family network that helped him to pick up and move forward. I guess the whole thing makes me uncomfortable because I don't want that stupid fire to become the preamble to this album."

Nowell, who is now singing for the band despite having played bass previously, continued, "We are all flattered beyond belief that people think our problems are worth mentioning, but this album encapsulates that experience, it isn't defined by it. The fire was certainly a setback, but this band has had setbacks before. On top of that, it bears mentioning that we managed to escape, limbs and lives intact.

"Countless bands can't say the same. We can buy a new guitar head, Bayside can't buy a new drummer. Giving credit where credit is due, the fire gave us a good story, a renewed resolve and re-lit the fire of my vitriol -- which was necessary for this album to take the shape that it did."