Mike Krompass Of The Fell Speaks Of The Band, AI, And More

The band The Fell is playing The Token Lounge this coming Saturday night, but first guitarist Mike Krompass talked with me about the band, their music, and more. The band features him, bass legend, Billy Sheehan, vocalist Toby Rand, and drummer Nick Chiarore.

Mike has quit the history of playing some cool gigs. "So I used to be the music director for David Archuleta, who is, you know, runner-up in one of the American Idol things on the year that David Cook was on. And we, you know, we were doing arena tours with Demi Lovato and playing the Philippines for half a million people. So I think, you know, tour-wise, those were pretty big. I used to play with Nelly Furtado, too. And we went out with acts like U2, which were, you know, they're an incredible band."

This isn't the first time this band has toured, but it is with this lineup. "So this is the first time going out with the band the way it's supposed to be. And we're super excited about that. Now we have, you know, full albums worth plus of songs. We're going to go out there. And our set's going to be 90 minutes of like, melt your face off rock. So it'll be fun." Even though the band has been around for a while, Mike feels like they're really clicking now. "So when it started out, it was more like a project, even though all of us were, were contributing. It was more like a project, and Toby and I were doing the bulk of the writing and that kind of thing. And now it's like, now it's really feeling like a band. Everyone's getting involved, and, you know, cut that they're flying into, to record. Sometimes Billy will send his bass tracks, but now, you know, Toby's here every couple months, and we're getting knocking vocals out, and it's really great."

He went on, "Because, you know, sometimes because Billy's in the band and some of the bands that, you know, Toby and I have played with, you get lumped into this classic rock thing, right? It's like, but this band is more modern and it is more new. And it's sometimes, sometimes people can't see past, oh, Billy's Mr. Big. So it must sound like Mr. Big.
While it has those elements, it's still modern. So we would love to go out with a modern rock band, and it would be great if someone would be like, Hey, I like those guys. Let's, let's go out and play together. So we're hoping that that happens."

Watch the entire interview above, then get to The Token Lounge Saturday night for the show!