Gamertell

Recording artists From First To Last (FFTL) will be featured in the upcoming boxing game Facebreaker. The game is still under development at EA Canada but when it’s released for the Playstation 3, XBox 360 and Wii systems, FFTL’s tracks will knock you out.

I spoke with Derek Bloom, drummer for FFTL, about the upcoming release of Facebreaker and he was excited about being featured on the game.

“We have three songs in that game. I’m not sure exactly which songs,“ Bloom admitted. “As far as Facebreaker goes ... I really don’t know much about the game other than it’s a boxing game. We’re pretty much into gaming. And it’s funny too, everyone is trying to be in their own class of games. Like our singer [Matt Good] is into World of Warcraft, guitarist [Travis Richter] who loves playing on the Wii and then I’m into first-person games. The first one I got into was Lost Planet for the 360 and right now I’m playing Dark Sector. We’re trying to lure the bassist [Matt Manning] into gaming. We’re all into gaming and stuff so when we heard about doing a potential publishing deal with EA we got real excited.“

From a band, formed in 2002 by guitarist Travis Richter and singer Matt Good. The group found their way onto the soundtrack through hard work and a little help from their Manager Jordan Schur. Steve Schnur of EA Games, a close business contact and friend of Jordan, along with a couple of more people from the label met with the EA team and presented FFTL’s music and it was determined they would be a perfect fit for the upcoming game Facebreaker.

“EA instantly loved the band and wanted to support them any way possible,“ said Jordan. “We were trying to do something outside the box and new and innovate and the opportunity with EA, offered us that.“

“The band has been around for five years ... I play drums and we have two guitarists, and a bass player,“ Bloom said and added that their music style will sometimes change as well. “I think it just changes every time we put out a new record. The sound is always different and it reflects whatever we’re listening to at the time. The records will take on some form of what’s around us as well. Like, our last record was more chaotic and electronic. [The song we recorded for EA] is more of a bare bones sound ... it’s just a bunch of songs we wrote together and we jammed out until we came up with something that we all liked.“

The band began their success in 2003 out of Orlando with their record Aesthetic EP, the group was centered around Good, Richter and Bloom according to the biography on their official website.

A year later they released albums that would get them noticed, Dear Diary and My Teen Angst Has a Bodycount. In 2006, after the release of their album Heroine, the band’s original singer Sonny Moore left due to health issues. 

“We’ve been through twice as many members as we have now,“ Bloom said and explained that despite the changes they were still able to “put out EPs and full-length records.“

It wouldn’t be long before the band resolved to keep going and enlisted the help of long-time friend and guitar tech Matt Manning who would become the band’s bassist on New Year’s Day 2007.

Soon after, the band would find success in a new media they have grown to enjoy: videogames.

“I love playing the Xbox when I’m on tour. I don’t get to play much at home,“ Bloom said and added that when EA offered the opportunity to feature their music on Facebreaker “we saw it as contributing to a game. It was something we’re interested in and thought it would be a cool path to take on in the future.“

Bloom said games are a way to the future at the rate its going.

“The gaming industry… I can easily imagine it taking over the filming industry. It’s completely interactive,“ he continued. “People are very interested in everything being hands on and we’re excited to jump on board and be apart of that.“

Bloom said the group takes their gaming so seriously that if you pay attention to their music videos you will often find their gamer tags hidden somewhere and if any Gamertell reader finds it they’re more than welcome to come game with them.

“If they really search hard, on a lot of our videos they can find our gamer tags,“ he said. “They can log on and challenge us to a game. It’s funny actually ... during one of our shows I kept announcing my top score in the game I was playing when I met this kid who came up and told me he was in the same game (I was playing at that time.) So we played three nights in a row on a team together.“

I eventually asked my usual geeky questions after listening to their music posted on their MySpace page. I asked them if the band was given the opportunity to choose the game they would like to do a soundtrack for, which would they choose. Their answer:

“A sequel to Bioshock,“ Bloom answered. “It would be cool to contribute a score to that. It would be really cool to write music using that dark eerie ‘60s sounding music.“

The group is currently preparing for their upcoming Warped Tour by listening to a variety of songs. I look forward to trying out Facebreaker to find out which song made the soundtrack but for those curious about their sound, log onto their MySpace page to hear some of their tracks, check out their tour dates and watch a few videos.

Here’s a preview of FFTL’s music:

Here are a few tracks being featured on the upcoming game Facebreakers:

Site [From First To Last] Site [EA Facebreaker] Site [MySpace]

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