INTERVIEW: Firefall’s ‘Comet’ is first new album in 25 years
Photo: Firefall features, from left, Jock Bartley, David Muse, Mark Andes, Gary Jones and Sandy Ficca. Photo courtesy of band / Provided by Leighton Media with permission.
It has been a quarter century since the rock band Firefall released an album of original songs. Thankfully fans of the band don’t have to wait any longer. The group recently released Comet, a much-anticipated follow-up to 1996’s Messenger, which has a sound that harkens back to the group’s 1970s success, according to press notes.
Original members are still with the band, including co-founder Jock Bartley on guitar and vocals, Mark Andes on bass and vocals, and David Muse on several instruments. Joining them are Gary Jones on guitar and vocals, and Sandy Ficca on drums. Each of them had a part to play when penning songs for Comet.
On the album, fans can expect such tunes as “Way Bach When,” “There She Is” and “Never Be the Same.” They now enter the Firefall canon, which includes such hits as “You Are the Woman,” “Mexico” and “Cinderella.”
The band has been going strong since their early days in Boulder, Colorado, where the group was founded in 1974. In between then and now, there have been some lineup changes and other musical projects. Now they are back, much to the delight of their fans and those who want to marvel at the Comet.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with the band’s leader, Bartley. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can your fans expect from the new album, Comet?
When we were conceptualizing and recording the new Firefall album Comet in the past few years, as producer and lead guitarist, I knew that (1) at least half (or more) of the album really needed to ’sound like Firefall,’ and that (2) the standard we had to live up to now was our first three platinum and gold records recorded in 1976, ’77 and ’78. A tall order because those were great sounding albums the band made.
What Firefall was in the early days was a synergy of a few fairly simple elements — great songwriting, great singing on those songs, tasteful and energetic musicianship in the studio, the musical interplay between myself on lead guitar and David Muse’s flute and sax playing (which I’ve often been told was a key to the unique FF ’sound’) and, frankly, straightforward fairly simple production on the record. Nothin’ too fancy.
I wanted to keep things open and airy, and allow listeners to hear the FF musical treatment of those songs without trying to ‘fill things up’ (like so many bands do too often) with unnecessary guitar parts, percussion or musical passages that might interfere with the listener being able to focus on the vocals and lyrics!
That was pretty much why our first three 1970s FF albums were so successful: wonderful songs, played and recorded simply without a lot of frills or studio ‘tricks.’ We let the songs and all the backing musical parts speak for themselves. On every one of the ten songs on Comet, I was very aware of these things.
The three original Firefall members that are still in the band — Mark Andes, Dave Muse and myself, Jock Bartley — know how to make great Firefall records. And with drummer Sandy Ficca and our newest member, lead vocalist Gary Jones from Nashville, I think we succeeded with Comet. I think the songs and entire Comet album as a whole feel familiar and harken back and in a good way; it’s reminiscent of our gold and platinum 1970s recordings in the band’s heyday.
And yet I think, it sounds ‘modern’ and musically compelling and legitimate in 2020.
What inspired your take on ‘Way Back When’?
This new album Comet started conceptually with FF playing the classic Spirit song of 1970, ‘Nature’s Way.’ (Of course, FF bassist Mark Andes was a member of that great band and sings our FF version of this Randy California classic song). We got such great response from playing ’Nature’s Way’ live in 2016-17, we decided to record that song, and that led us to begin thinking about a full album. (And Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles and John McFee of the Doobies [the Doobie Brothers] gladly agreed to sing or play on the song when Mark asked them!)
With ’Nature’s Way’ as one of the first ‘cornerstones’ of a new Firefall album, with a loving acknowledgment of our past and the roots / genealogy of the band which include the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the ‘folk rock’ and ‘country rock’ SoCal genre that those bands (later with Poco, Gram Parsons, The Eagles, etc.) invented, the stage was set for me writing ‘Way Back When.’
My friend Terry Peacock and I had been jamming on the music of the song that would become ‘Way Back When’ — it sounded like a Byrds song! (And of course, Firefall’s roots tie directly back to the Byrds: Byrds’ drummer Michael Clarke was FF’s drummer, and Byrds’ bassist Chris Hillman was instrumental in Firefall’s early direction and guidance, producing our ‘demo tape’ that led to us signing with Atlantic Records in late 1975.
So with music that sounded reminiscent of the Byrds, lyrically I wanted to honor and acknowledge how fantastic and meaningful the music and artists/bands of the mid and late-1960s were to me, and frankly to everybody who lived through those turbulent times politically, and how the magical rock ‘n’ roll music of those times helped people get through it.
I wrote the first verse knowing it should include the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Byrds, and as I finished the verse, included Bob Dylan, too. At that point, I knew I was talking about 1965 (after the Byrds had really gotten going), and I wrote the first chorus using the line ‘Way Back When’ from the first verse as the title and including the specific year, 1965. It gets a little funny really at that point.
Wanting to be accurate historically, I Googled ‘Hit songs of 1967’ and immediately saw the top 100 songs of 1967, including Aretha’s ‘Respect,’ ‘Brown-Eyed Girl’ by Van Morrison, ‘Whiter Shade of Pale,’ The Young Rascals’ ‘Groovin’,’ Spencer Davis’ ‘Gimme Some Lovin’’ (one of my fav rock songs ever) and Marvin Gaye — and of course I then tried to craft the images of those songs and artists into my 1967 ‘storyline’ for the second verse.
I did the same Googling for the third verse set in 1969: ‘Big Pink’ by the Band, ‘Green River’ by [Creedence Clearwater Revival], ’Something’ by the Beatles, [Crosby, Stills & Nash], and Led Zeppelin. Wow! What great songs! I did my best to tell the story of the 1960s guy and his girlfriend, and include all that great great music as reference.
I was visualizing a video for ‘Way Back When’ as I was writing the second and third verses. When the song was finished, I was blown away by how the fantastic music of the late 1960s was encapsulated in my song! I’m very proud of those lyrics. So many people who weren’t alive then (or were too young to remember the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964) don’t really realize how important and life-changing the music of those years was. That music was new and exciting and raw and necessary to [the] times; 1960s music and songwriting set the stage for the amazing music that would come in the 1970s — that Firefall had the honor of playing a very small role in after 1976.
I approached my adult son, Jamey Bartley, about making the ‘Way Back When’ video, having a clear picture of what my verses might look like. I told him, ‘Use whatever live footage you want of the band playing on the choruses, but on the three verses, it should be a visual history lesson of the 1960s and those amazing times.’ He and I found dozens and dozens of photos to use — being very careful not to use any photos that might cause legal issues for us. And when we had a stack load of 1960s photographs, Jamey went to work. His video turned out amazingly, I think. He captured everything I’d hoped for (and more), and the response after it was released only confirms how great a job he did as a video-maker!
I’m really really proud of the song ‘Way Back When’! And it fit in perfectly with the 2020 Firefall band wanting to honor our musical roots and history, and also (hopefully) be ‘current’ and modern and pertinent today.
Are you bummed that COVID-19 has disrupted plans to meet your fans and play these new songs at concert venues?
Of course. Bands always tour to promote their new album. Not in 2020 I’m afraid. But I’m really glad we put it now, for a couple of reasons. (1) New music is hard to come by in 2020. Most bands and artists are waiting to put out ‘new music’ until ’things get more back to ‘normal’ in this terrible pandemic. I’m glad Firefall has put out Comet in the middle of these uncertain and dangerous times, even though we cannot tour (possibly until summer of 2021!).
(2) Firefall, as a band who hasn’t put out a new album for 20+ years, wants to get as much attention for our new album as possible … and frankly, I think we’re getting a lot more attention, airplay and excitement now (with most groups waiting until 2021 to release new music). We finished this Comet album in December 2019 and had intended to release it in January or February of 2020. Nope, not with the pandemic threatening the world. But as the pandemic grew, I’m very happy our manager and record label, Sunset Blvd. Records, agreed to release it now. Many of these songs are being warmly welcomed by our fans and radio listeners worldwide.
When the fans ask for the classics, like ‘You Are the Woman,’ do you like playing them, or would you prefer to play new songs?
Firefall loves playing ‘You Are The Woman’ or ‘Just Remember I Love You,’ ‘Strange Way’ and all of our hits from the 1970s. Seriously! Those songs, mostly written by our ex-lead singer Rick Roberts, are the reason Firefall can still tour the nation and the world! We are so fortunate and blessed to have as many hit songs from the 1970s as we do, that still get frequently played on classic rock radio and are beloved by millions of people.
Those FF hit songs are the reason that fans buy tickets to our concerts! I love watching fans in the audience sing along with our songs. … That’s why people buy tickets, to hear their favorite FF songs sound like them remember. It’s all about memories and letting people fondly remember where they were at when they were younger, listing to those songs. Of course, we love playing those 1970s hits, all of them.
Now I know too many bands get tired of playing their big hits from 30-40 years ago — they’ve gotten so sick of playing those songs that too often they’ll change the arrangement or ’try to modernize’ an old song because of ‘their own’ excitement level. Not Firefall. People pay good money for tickets to hear ‘U R The Woman’ or ‘Just Remember I Love You’ like they remember it, and we will give that to them. It’s our responsibility, frankly. (I say that also knowing that on certain classic FF songs like ‘Mexico,’ ’Strange Way’ or ‘Livin’ Ain’t Livin’’ that we as a band and me as a soloist on those songs can go ’new places’ in our improvisations! We can explore ’new territory’ musically on [some] of our songs — and fans love it when we do that (and not just re-produce our records).
But not on ‘You Are The Woman’ or ‘Just Remember I Love You’ or others; those songs need to sound like and satisfy what our fans expect. …
We love doing ‘meet and greets’ after the show and hearing stories from our fans about [how songs] of ours were so important to them, or that they got married to ‘You Are The Woman’ or that ‘Just Remember’ helped them through a difficult time in their lives. Music is a huge part of listeners’ lives, and Firefall is blessed and honored to have songs that people still love to hear.
When merging rock and country in the early days, do you think it took some time for fans and the music business to appreciate your unique sound?
Actually, no, I don’t think so. Our first FF album (with the comet on the cover) went gold, selling 500,000 copies, faster than any other record to date in the history of Atlantic Records! That fact still blows my mind because the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Young Rascals, Aretha, etc. were all on Atlantic, and to think that the first Firefall record went gold quicker than those bands! Amazing. So that answers you question, I think.
A few months after the unknown new group, Firefall’s first album was released. Our album was certified gold, and the band was on tour with most all the top bands of the day, including the Doobie Brothers, the Band, Fleetwood Mac (their White album), Lynyrd Skynyrd, Loggins & Messina, Chicago, etc, etc. And that continued when we were one of the main opening acts of choice for Fleetwood Mac during the Rumors tour in 1977. Wow!! Our early success was like a rocket, and I think that was absolutely because of how great our first album’s songs and ’sound’ were.
So, no, I don’t think it took long for our new fans or the recording industry to accept Firefall’s blending of rock and ‘country rock.’ That I think was lived-out by our musical predecessors (like Poco or Flying Burrito Brothers or even the Eagles) who broke that ‘blending’ of musical styles, who went through a period of sometimes slow commercial acceptance. By the time Firefall’s first album hit in 1976, with those songs and that sound, we just took off. Lucky us. Right place and the right time with the right music!
What’s the future for the band in 2021?
Well, that’ll be dictated by the pandemic. We had 40-50 gigs cancel or be postponed in 2020, and the first of those shows were rescheduled to June of 2021. Yikes! That would mean that FF won’t have had a paying gig for almost a year and a half! We’re not alone in that devastating situation — all national touring groups, big or small, are in the same place. Some of our band members are hurting for money and are scrambling. I hope the pandemic starts to lessen and get ‘more under control’ soon and we can actually go on the road in June and July again.
But I’ve heard that many promoters and venues are thinking that touring won’t possibly be going until autumn 2021. Man! That would suck, but we’ll do what we can, what is safe for us and our fans and the venues we’d play at. And we’ll see. One day at a time. And I’m glad we put Comet out when we did in December last year. Fingers crossed for everybody. Stay safe and stay healthy — and we will as a country start returning to ‘normalcy’ when it’s safe to do so.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Firefall’s new album is called Comet. Click here for more information.
