About Far-less
Imagine a band without gimmicks, made up of regular people writing and performing honest music. Sound crazy? Then you haven’t heard Far-Less.
Priding themselves on being difficult to classify, Virginia 's Far-Less create their individual sound by merging elements of rock, metal, and pop together with a positive edge.
The band's five members -- Brandon Welch (vocals), Ray Felts (drums), Joseph Powers (bass), Jordan Powers (guitar/vocals), and Mark Karsten (guitar) started the band in 2001 as a trio with Felts and the brothers Powers coming together. They independently released the Emerge EP that same year, and fan-turned-vocalist Brandon Welch entered the lineup soon afterwards.
A more sonically focused EP, Apossibility, was released in 2002, and Far-Less continued to build a solid fan base across Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. About a year after Welch's arrival, the group yielded its first full-length, Broken Hearts Unite, issued on Silent Uproar Records and produced by Jamie King. Label heads showed interest upon the album's release, and the guys wound up signing with Tooth & Nail in the fall of 2004. Their next release was Turn to the Bright EP in November of 2004 which was followed by Everyone Is Out to Get Us released in 2006.
A Toast to Bad Taste was released in 2007. Sounding unashamedly modern while retaining a foot in the 90’s heyday of Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden, Far-Less have fully come into their own from their humble Virginia beginnings.
“Virginia has everything to do with who I am as a musician and a person,” Far-Less singer Brandon Welch says thoughtfully. “Lots of quiet time with beautiful scenery. You tend to make lifelong friends in a place like this, which is awesome. Music seemed to be my only way to get out of here. As long as I can remember, I wanted to play music.”
“It’s an album about the things that bring us down. The things in our society that hold us back and the people in our lives that show no respect or love for us, or anyone. It’s the most personal piece of art I have ever been involved with,” Welch explains.
“A few people have told me this record brought them to tears, which is the most beautiful thing anyone could say to me, because there were alot of tears involved in the writing of this album. I would hope that at the end of our career people would say that we made music that moved them,” Welch says, adding: “And that we made music that jammed.”
After a brief hiatus and several changes in band members, a forthcoming Headache EP is to be released digitally via Tooth & Nail Records in the summer of 2009.
