“Who is Freddie Fiction?” Everybody wants to know, well at least 30 people are mildly curious. Freddie Fiction is the name of a band of three hard headed musicians. The lead singer and songwriter is Aaron Rush, the virtuoso guitar player is Jack Flash and on drums we have Ritchie Ray or as we like to call him Radical Ray. We call him Radical Ray because he is always trying to sneak in those progressive drums beats to Aaron’s straight forward pop rock compositions. “Shake it up man we need to do something radical here,” Ray is often heard screaming loudly at his band mates over the top of his toms.
They band members all hark from very different backgrounds. But the spark was lit when Aaron put out an internet ad which said “singer songwriter with major label interest looking for band mates.” That was sort of stretching the truth. Aaron knew that labels would be interested if they got wind of the project. The problem was that the wind was blowing in the wrong direction.
At that time guitarist Jack Flash was flush in the middle of an avant garde experimental guitar instrumental only album. It was going to be his first album and his masterpiece. The first single was a 13 minute opus called the “Passionata in the key of E flat minor 11.” Two guitar solos played on different tracks by Jack Flash that melodically and dissonantly echoed each other, then intertwined in harmony, finally rising to a crescendo like two lovers in the throes of passion. Jack Flash sent copies to radio stations and the 5 major labels but never heard back. Finally after much confusion, cursing and asking his computer savvy brother for help he managed (through an intermediary internet company which required a valid credit card (not his) to get the song on itunes for download at 99cents a pop (of which 33 cents would go to him). He had all of 4 downloads in three months. That was a real blow to his superior virtuoso musician ego. It was during this time that he decided he needed to get out of his nerd music shell and do a bit of traveling so he made a pilgrimage to Abbey Road in London. It was here in London that he came across Aaron’s ad and answered it.
Aaron had been living in London intermittently for the last several years. He had found success in his early twenties as a pop idol in a third world country. He had been living gleefully with the big fish in a small pond syndrome for the last ten years. But after a few months in UK it suddenly hit him that he would have to actually work hard for once in his life. Breezing by on his charm and his innate ability to whip up a catchy pop ditty in under 5 minutes wasn’t going to cut it in the big ruthless international music world. He realized it was time to pull out those songs he had stashed away. Some were written in tortured angst angry at an unjust world, others were written in the throes of heartbreak over lost love and still others celebrated life, living and loving.
Jack Flash and Aaron hit it off immediately. Aaron would sing him one of his compositions on his acoustic guitar and almost instinctively Jack Flash would break into a solo or guitar refrain at the right place. His counter point guitaring to Aaron’s melody was just right. Jack Flash invited Aaron to come visit LA that summer. It was during this time that they bonded by jamming during the days and hanging out at LA live music dives at night. They would sit till late in the evening criticizing and picking apart the current big band on the charts (more out of jealousy than anything else). Continue reading
