Short Description:
Fight with Monsters is a Chicago based Progressive Indie Rock band.
useful Description:
As a band Fight With Monsters believes in creating transcendent experiences for themselves as well as the listeners. They do not feel bound to styles or normal conventions and practices. They learn from all genre, keeping what’s useful and discarding what is not. Because of this they are hard to classify. Progressive indie rock is the as close as they can get to a genre for now.
Their influences constantly change but they are influenced by blues, ska, funk, latin, progressive, jazz fusion, punk, folk, goth, and metal.
FWM also believes in playing music in the full range of human emotion. From one of their albums or performances you can expect a roller coaster ride full of highs, lows, and hotdog chunks.
Band Bio:
The band started as a partnership between Ryan Caldwell and Ryan Worthy in the winter of 2010. The two were both teachers at a local instrument store when they met. Starting as an acoustic duo Fight With Monsters soon took off and become a 4 piece with a revolving door of drummers and bassists.
They came out with their first album the summer after they started called Sack-o-tunes. Recorded at Alpha sound services that album featured drummer Billy Rider and bassist Joe Soldati as well as Trumpet player Sharla Ann. Most of the album was live tracked to save time and money. The mood of the album is very light and upbeat. They spent the next couple years playing gigs whenever they could while Caldwell went to school at Millikin University in Decatur IL. The first four years of Fight With Monsters consisted of occasional gigs during the spring and fall and then performing like mad men in the summer and winter.
Despite the back and forth nature of the project they were able to release their 2nd album, a dual EP entitled Blue part I: Blue and Blue part II: Red in spring of 2014. The two EP’s consisted of tracks they had recorded in various studios and on their own. Blue part I is a very brooding and sentimental set of songs with the exemption of the upbeat Ms. Aspartame. In direct contrast Red was a vibrant LoFi set of rock songs. Although there are many different musicians featured on this album bassist Brian Sutton became a permanent fixture at that point.
In 2015 they released Blue Part III: Pirates. It is a video album directed by Michael Pottle and released under Poolside AV. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
The newest album on the horizon is set to be released in February of 2016. Self titled Fight With Monsters, the album is a very serious, potent, and biting album centered around the idea of a false sense of control. For this album they added Drummer Zack Darce to the ensemble. The album, lovingly crafted and polished at their very own Wonder Pit Studios, looks to be a captivating and powerful transcendent experience that only get’s better with every listen.
The Current Lineup:
- Ryan Caldwell – Keyboard/ Vocals
- Ryan Worthy – Guitar/ Vocals
- Charles Grimse – Bass
- Ben Amelse – Drums
Location:
St. Charles / Batavia, IL
Influences:
The Dear Hunter, Company of Thieves, Sufjan Stevens, Streetlight Manifesto, Cake, Sublime, Minus the Bear, Rush, and thousands of others.
“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.”- Friedrich Nietzsche
Fight With Monsters 