Grab your s’mores, your bug spray and pack your bags as Riot Squad Media is about to take over Northeast Pennsylvania with Camp Punksylvania! The 3-day festival with multiple stages and amazing local acts like The Suicide Machines, War On Women and A Wilhelm Scream, will take place from 1 September until 3 September, tickets are available here. Vernon, New Jersey’s ska-punk outfit Fat Chance joined TGEFM to discuss their upcoming appearance at Camp Punksylvania for the latest installment of our Camp-centric Roll Of The Dice interview series. Check it out below and I’ll see you at the campfire!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! What should our readers know about Fat Chance, your sound and what you stand for?
Fat Chance is a culmination of many years of joy, pain, struggle, and resilience. This band started as a solo project of our frontman, Ferris. It slowly snowballed into what it is now over the years after he met me (Weftin), Lacey, Joey, Kyle, and all our past and jump-in members that have been in and out of the band.
Our sound at its core is Ska-Punk, sure, we’ve got little bits of other influences in our music, such as metal, folk, and emo… but it always feels super pretenious to be like “We’re a ska-core-post-pussy-punk-prog-rock-easycore-dancehall-chipotle-mayo-djent-grind band”… fuck that. We’re a Ska-Punk band… but I will say it’s changing as we continue to write. I know we haven’t released an album in years, but with the addition of the accordion, a new drummer, and Joey stepping up to sing and potentially Kyle too – this band is headed in an interesting, experimental, and exciting direction. Someone said a long time ago that we’re “a ska band for ska fans” and to this day I still think that’s a very incorrect statement, especially with how these new tunes are going nowadays. Hopefully we can wrangle ourselves for enough time to do this second album… I guess time will tell.
If there’s something I know this band stands for, it’s vulnerability, growth, and not being afraid to show your emotions or your true self to the world. Everyone in this band has had a rough go of life, we’ve all been dealt a bad hand since birth, we’ve all made mistakes, but we’re learning and trying our best to be better and do the best with what we were given, and in the process, trying to spread the word that “its okay if you’re flawed, that’s what being human is, be yourself and dont be afraid to unleash your feelings as long as its in a healthy way”
You are gearing up for Camp Punksylvania in the coming months. Any summer camp worth its salt knows there needs to be a lot of different activities to participate in. What activities would you be in charge of
if Camp Punksylvania was an actual sleepaway camp?
Oh I can say without a doubt Ferris would be the greatest camp counselor, the hiking trips and shenanigans would be INSANE. I probably would work the cafeteria or the fishing team… I dunno, I like food and fishing. Lacey would definitely be good at the survivalist classes, she knows all this holistic stuff and how to use the environment to stay alive. Joey would be the campfire singalong dude, or the woodshop teacher, dude is incredibly talented at both music and wood… do they have woodshop at summer camps? I dunno – and Kyle would definitely be entertainment center chief. Anything that has to do with showbiz or media, he’s got ya. I bet he puts on a mean puppet show too
End of the season Campfire; What song are you performing?
Eh… if it’s one of our songs – “I’d say Rise or Die.” That one is always a good closer. If it was a cover? Hmmm… I dunno… the “Campfire Song Song” from SpongeBob… probably
Camp Punksylvania is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see on each stage?
The Suicide Machines are always so fun to see, War on Women had one of the most insane albums of 2020 so were definitely stoked to see them. Dissedente is the best band in Ska-Core right now, so ya can’t miss them! Working Class Stiffs, Amy Gabba, and Escape from The Zoo are our brothers and sisters so of course we’re always pumped to see them perform. I dunno yo! There’s a LOT of good bands playing this year. It’s hard to mention them all.
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
All I’m gonna say is that I know we’ve been the least active we have ever been in years. Some of us have had kids, some of us are focusing on other projects, and some of us are trying to overcome personal issues within themselves. It’s a lot to handle, and we all saw it coming, so it was no surprise. But that’s the thing, life happens and you gotta do the right thing. A band is just that… a band. This shit could burn tomorrow and I know we’d all be okay. But it won’t, because we all believe in it, we all want the same thing, and we’re all trying to do the best thing for ourselves and our families right now. We will start rolling again (assuming no one dies) and we’ll definitely put out some new tunes… eventually. In the meantime, me, Kyle, and Joey are doing this new ska-core band called The Chemical Imbalance. Lacey and Ferris are doing The Busted Mufflers, Kyle is reforming his old band The Squalors, Joey is playing in Wondermutt, and Ferris is making trippy shit with Old Toast / New Crouton
What I’m really trying to say is thank you to everyone who supported us and stuck with us through the years and continues to do so, were never gonna stop making music. The future is uncertain right now, but I’m sure we’ll see the flicker of a hopeful light sooner than we think. Fat Chance will live on as long as we do.
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
