Five for Fighting's John Ondrasik

Five for Fighting: Battling Their Way to the Top
By David Chiu

The name Five For Fighting would certainly suggest anger and deviant, perhaps befitting the moniker of a heavy metal band. But that is the name of a band under the leadership of singer/songwriter John Ondrasik whose style is more rooted in Elton John than in Marliyn Manson. But perhaps like a hard rock band, there's a sort of undefeatable, fighting spirit evoked in the music and the lyrics. Considering Ondrasik's previous experiences in music (which will be explained later) guts and perseverance comes in handy.
This outfit had released late last year a record called America Town on the Aware/Columbia label, which has garnered some critical attention and praise. Ondrasik and crew are currently on tour to support the album and to bring the name of Five For Fighting to an uninitiated audience.

If one need's a reference to point to what this band sounds like, think of perhaps Dave Matthews Band (Ondrasik's voice is a distant cousin to Matthews') or the Wallflowers-a roots rock and pop sensibility. The songs on America Town explores the complex human condition and experiences in a thoughtful, meditative tone. It also examines our place in America, sometimes critiquing society while holding on to our sanity. There is a journalistic, picaresque viewpoint to the material. For example, "The Last Great American" features a character who closes the lid of his coffin because he is so disgusted with society; "Michael Jordan" explores hero worship and the power of iconography; "America Town" is a satirical look at what is wrong with politics. Not every song is a social comment as Ondrasik wrote a couple of personal tunes: the upbeat "Something About You," the balladry of Jainy, "Out of Love Again," and "Superman." Co-producer Gregg Wattenberg and a crew of studio musicians help shape the music with crisp playing. But the sound and focus is all Ondrasik's through his piano dominated playing and his intimate voice.

Ondrasik is Five For Fighting (which actually mean five minutes in the penalty box for fighting in hockey terms). Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, Ondrasik became interested in music from an early age when he took piano lessons under his mother's tutelage. He late picked up guitar in his early teens and started to write songs. Ondrasik was also formally trained in opera and would have been close to perhaps becoming the Fourth Tenor had he not decided to choose rock and roll (Ironically, he graduated from UCLA with a degree in mathematics, hence the analytical aspect of his songwriting).

Five For Fighting may seem new to most people with this new album but they actually been around before that. Ondrasik was signed to EMI Records America before that label folded. With that harsh reality of the biz, Ondrasik almost called it quite before giving it another Fighting chance. What started out as recording music for to be independently distributed now has a chance of being widely heard.

On break, Ondrasik spoke via the telephone from his home in Los Angeles where he lives with his wife and child. It was an insightful and candid discussion about the music, the industry, and how he got to where he is now.

Your songwriting is almost journalistic or reportorial, covering personal and unique subject manner: politics, hero worship, relationships, I think personally it describes the human condition so accurately yet in a literary quality too

It's funny-I was thinking about calling the record Culture War. People will think we were like Marilyn Manson. There is definitely some cynicism and I think the record was probably never more appropriate today than what we're seeing in Florida. The Last Great American is about lack of faith in our leaders. There are other songs that have nothing to do with [politics]. Superman, which is my favorite song, is very introspective that speaks to someone very personally. There is a culture component to some of the songs but it's not the whole record. You have to balance issues with melody and happy songs that people just enjoy listening to and singing along.

There is a down to earth, grounded quality about the music.

Personally, I don't like hearing the same song ten times on a record. We try to put the songs down in the best color. Certain songs call for rocking out and other songs call for listening to a piano song.

I've always been about the songs and we really focused on arrangements and not getting in the way of the songs and voice. For young producers, your tendency is to wanna throw all of your influences on your record. We were very conscious ofmaking the arrangements simple and let the voice carry the song. It's better to be simple than to go crazy. I think it paid off.

You said Five for Fighting is a metaphor for battling the music business and getting your songs heard while remaining honest and non-trivial. What have you learned about the music industry so far? What have been the obstacles?

Everybody has his or her industry stories. I was on EMI Records. We were a priority of the label and then they closed the door. Then I was going to Island and then the whole Polygram merger took place so I decided that was not the place for me. Because of the marketplace and the commerciality of the music, it's hard to write new music when all the people are buying N Sync, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. At record companies it is very hard to break a new act. It's almost to the point the better songwriter you are, the harder it is to get a record deal. It seems that they're not signing bands with much depth because that won't affect their next quarterly sales.

So what keeps you going?

Besides anger? I was pretty much done with the music business. The story is I keep getting email from kids who heard my first record and said Please a little more. And I had these demos that I had done one being easy tonight. I had a friend who has a record company called Deep South Records and I'm like "I'll put these demos out-let him sell it. This could be my one last little shot and I'll walk away quietly into the sunset. As I was doing that Aware Records found the demos and they were like If you would like we will give you carte blanche and go make a record. To be able to do that is an artist's dream. I had no expectation and went into the studio. I did not expect to even be where we are today.

And you made a pretty natural sounding record that is polished yet rootsy too.

The reality is these songs are gonna come on the radio between Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam so sonically we had to compete. In out limited budget we imported all of the money into a good sound guy and we had some great mixers mix the record, which kind of give [the record] its natural feeling.

At the end of the day you have to have great melody or no one is going to listen. These guys wrote great melodies and their lyrics are not trivial.

I know you must get this a lot, but considering you are the lone member of FFF, why go under that moniker and not your own name?

To be honest with you I don't care what you call it, just let me make records. It feels appropriate now. You see it in women but you don't see it in male singer songwriters, especially piano players.

Growing up, who would you say were your musical influences?

Anyone who plays a piano and a songwriter you cannot ignore Elton John, who is probably in the top 5 songwriters ever. I think his body of work speaks for itself. The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, I got into the songwriters Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. And I was a huge Nirvana fan-I thought Cobain was an amazing writer.

You were considering a career as an opera singer early on?

I don't brag about it. I definitely studied voice. When you're an 18-year-old and taking voice lessons, you sing arias. And that teaches you control and breath. It was fun. I had an opportunity to go to Scotland and take that path, but I didn't see myself writing too many operas. So I chose rock and roll. But it was fun.

What's next for you. What do you hope to accomplish?

The first goal is to have enough success to make another record and I'm lucky enough to make two. With my experience I would hope to write songs that touch people and do that as long as people enjoy it and I enjoy it. Either way it's cool and I am excited I was able to make this record and we'll see what the future brings. It's all kind of a bonus at this point.

Since you are somewhat relatively new on the scene, what do you want new listeners to come away with upon hearing Five For Fighting?

What I do hope is that there is something on the record for everybody. It is not targeted for anyone specific. There are certain songs that everyone can relate to. Hopefully we'll come back to [the record] in time and put a smile on their face.