Artist Profile: Fai Laci
Photo Credit: Jamison Wrinn
Fai Laci, the Boston-based alternative rock band, has come a long way from its foundations in the collaborative spirit and self-taught musings of vocalist and founder Luke Faillaci. What once started as a solo affair, strung together through recordings created in his college dorm room and at his friends’ apartments across campus, has now become a fully-blossomed project— and the release of their debut album, Elephant in the Room, will serve as the next foothold in their energetic and diverse sound.
From the time Faillaci was a child, he was exposed to (and passionate about) rock music. Neither of his parents were particularly musically inclined, but they were fervid about their individual tastes. Much of Faillaci’s childhood was soundtracked by bands like The Grateful Dead, and as he grew older, he found his own satisfaction in acts like Led Zeppelin and Cage The Elephant.
Even as his tastes expanded into hip-hop and other genres, he continually found himself coming back to rock, enraptured by the energy and sonic tangibility that each of his favorite bands provided.
“[I love] the energy, and the feeling of it being played by humans. That feels the most real to me., I like bands; that's what I'm into. I want to hear people play the music. And I think the world's coming back to that.”
Although he had played various instruments throughout his childhood, he never truly considered himself a musician or genuinely thought he could take music in a more serious direction. When he got to college, however, he discovered GarageBand for the first time, and in a transitional phase in his life, he found solace and expression in the process of writing and recording. For the first time, he was putting songs into existence, and, as he continued to branch out on campus, he slowly discovered a group of people who held the same relentless interests.
All of the Fai Laci output, apart from their current album release and some of their 2024 EP “Knock at my Door”, was done as part of Faillaci’s solo project. Across the numerous singles and EPs Faillaci released on his own, one central aspect is abundantly clear. There’s a confounding variety, and yet a unifying energy and feel, across every single track and entry into his discography.
When he ultimately decided to turn Fai Laci into a full-band project, he knew he needed to seek out collaborators with a similarly open mindset: those who could contribute to the intangible sonic textures he was aiming for through their own unique means. He ultimately found those musicians primarily among his group of collaborators from college, and he individually recruited each of them to join onto his project. Faillaci, along with Michael Goldblatt, Zack Putnam, Cal Hamandi, and Anthony Cervone, ultimately formed the final lineup.
“I wasn't putting together the best band that could go play live like the next day. It was like, ‘I know these people have the same mindset that I do’… Everybody in the band writes their own music, has their own sound, but is able to collaborate in a way that we make a sound all together that's cohesive. Everybody has the same mindset in the band, and everybody joined the band for that reason.”
As a result of that shared mindset, their song-writing process takes a plethora of forms. At times, it’s Faillaci bringing forward a chord progression and lyrics while the band works out an arrangement in the space of a single rehearsal. At others, one or multiple of the band’s members will lay down a quick jam in a Logic session before sending it on to the other members to contribute their pieces.
The result is a sound that is almost more varied than it was under the lone guidance of Faillaci, and the pure range and emotional variety of Elephant in the Room serves as distinct evidence of this fact.
“I think the simplest way to put the change in our sound, from those EPs to this album, is just like— the older stuff just sounds more elementary. It's not that it's bad. It's just it's a lot simpler. There's less dynamics to it. Obviously playing in a band, everybody is usually on an instrument that they think on all the time… This album has so much more dynamics than anything else that was done in the past.”
From the first tentative notes and vocal lines of “Cure Upon the Hill”, the dynamics Faillaci mentions are present in abundance. The project oscillates continually between a mellower, more subdued tone and an intentionally strained energy that leans into some of the gritter roots of the band’s sound.
The project was produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, and his touches of expertise are all over the project. It is deeply focused, yet it also contains a massive variety, something for each listener to grasp onto, within its 10-track run.
From top to bottom, the band was conscious of what effect they wanted to produce with each song. Elephant in the Room exists as a cohesive and enticing body of work, and it's an exciting first step for a band with unlimited room to grow.
“This album is intended to be listened to all the way through. There is an order that we put this album in. It takes you on a journey…. I wish I could go experience it for the first time again. I envy people that get to… listen to it for the first time, not having a clue what's coming next.”
