INTERVIEW: Brian Mazzaferri of I Fight Dragons

So one of my favorite bands, I Fight Dragons, just released a Kickstarter, so I thought I'd ask the singer and guitar player, Brian Mazzaferri, to do another interview for the blog. Enjoy and donate to the Kickstarter here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1899688657/project-atma-i-fight-dragons-creates-an-epic-new-a.

1. To introduce yourselves to people who haven't heard of you before, who are you guys, what is your genre of music, and where are you guys from?

We are I Fight Dragons, we play a somewhat geeky flavor of chiptune-infused rock, and we're from Chicago.

2. So your Kickstarter for you new album has already been funded, in about 8 hours, and the amount of funds is still steadily going up. What was the level of elation when you saw that number?

We've been completely floored at this response.  In the first day of the campaign we were already way past our wildest hopes for the entire thing!  It's a week later now and I'm still pinching myself every morning.

3. Why Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is amazing.  It's the most efficient tool ever for connecting artists and fans - everyone wins!

4. What amount of funding do you predict you'll hit at this point?

It's hard to predict precisely, but as mind blowing as it sounds we may have a chance of breaking $100,000.  I can't quite comprehend it.

5. How much of a departure will this album be from your previous work or will it generally be similar?

I think it will be a natural evolution. We're still IFD, and this album will likely pick up right around where KABOOM! left off and go some interesting places from there.  

6. What was the inspiration to do a 20-minute (epic) song and using vinyl for the main format of the album?

Honestly I've been wanting to do a longer-form piece for a long time - I actually wrote an entire rock opera script in 2012 that we ended tabling because it was just too complicated.  When the idea came up of doing the album on Vinyl only, I knew I wanted to do something in the vein of side-long epics like Rush's 2112.

7. Can a reward of hitting an amount be bringing back your ill-fated but amazing Youtube show? 

Lol technically we never really launched it!  And we used the theme song for the kick starter!  That said, we may still do more episodes of "I Fight Dragons Takes Over The World" in the future.

8. I know you are big Weezer fans. Is this album going to be your Pinkerton?

Hah!  I love that question - actually I think this album is much more likely to be our "Songs From The Black Hole,"  the album that Rivers was writing and then scrapped to make Pinkerton instead.

9. Anything else you want to add?

Thanks for taking the time to cover us!