Fair to Midland
| Fair to Midland | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Sulphur Springs, Texas, United States |
| Genres | Alternative metal, progressive rock,progressive metal |
| Years active | 1998–2012 (hiatus) |
| Labels | FTF, Serjical Strike, E1 Music |
| Members |
Darroh Sudderth Cliff Campbell Matt Langley Ryan Collier Logan Kennedy Nathin Seals Jason Pintler Brett Stowers Jon Dicken |
Fair to Midland was an American progressive rock band based in Dallas, Texas. According to the band's official website, their name comes from "…an old Texan play on the term 'fair to middling'." The band produced two self-released albums before signing to Serjical Strike; System of a Down's Serj Tankian vanity label at Universal Republic. There, they released their only major record label album, Fables from a Mayfly, in 2007. While the album broke into the Billboard 200, they eventually parted ways with Serjical Strike and later released their fourth album, Arrows and Anchors in July 2011. The band mentioned the prospect of a fifth album as well, but the band became inactive after 2012.
Fair to Midland was formed in 1998 by friends Andrew Darroh Sudderth and Cliff Campbell, both of Sulphur Springs, Texas. Sudderth originally started as the band's bassist, but switched to be the band's lead vocalist after rounding out the band with more members, namely Nathin Seals on bass and Jason Pintler on drums. After their independent debut album in late 2001, The Carbon Copy Silver Lining, Pintler left the band and was replaced by Brett Stowers. For their second album, 2004's Inter.funda.stifle, keyboardist Matt Langley, who was a guest musician on the first album, officially joined the band. The album was recorded as a quintet, and after release, the band toured extensively to promote the albums, building up a fanbase in the Dallas, Texas Deep Ellum music scene. However, attempts to branch out into bigger music scenes, such as Los Angeles, proved futile for the band. In 2005, Seals left the group as well. While he was replaced by Jon Dicken, still, a lack of progress, combined with increasing costs of self-funding all of their efforts, and Sudderth and Campbells college aspirations, led the band to contemplate breaking up. Just as the band was seriously discussing a break up, they received a call from Serj Tankian, frontman of American hard rock band System of a Down. Their albums and live shows had caught his attention, and showed interest in signing them to his vanity label Serjical Strike, on Universal Republic Records. This rejuvenated the band's confidence, and they signed on in April 2006, starting work on a new album shortly after.
...
Wikipedia