A conversation with Five For Fighting about his songs, life, and his current tour with Barenaked Ladies
After September 11, 2001 our country went through a period of confusion, anger and uncertainty. It wasn’t until about six months later when a song came out that reminded us that superheroes like Superman struggles in times of tragedy. That song, Superman (It’s Not Easy) by Five For Fighting . The song spoke to us as we couldn’t describe how we were feeling, the numbness, confusion, and reminded us we were all feeling the same way.
From there Five for Fighting released 100 Years. A reflection in his songs has a special meaning in life. When you listen to 100 Years it takes you down a road that is a simple reminder of how precious life is. Living in the moment and counting your blessings in every aspect of our lives.
As years went on Five For Fighting stepped away from mainstream music and into his own world with songs about patriotism (Freedom Never Cries, Note To The Unknown Soldier, America Town), heroes (Superman (It’s Not Easy), Michael Jordan), humanity (Blood on My Hands, Can One Man Save the World, World) and life (Chances, 100 Years). His songs have been throughout movies, television, and commercials including The Blind Side, The Sopranos, and Hawaii Five-O.
I recently had an opportunity to speak to singer and songwriter Five For Fighting as he kicked off his tour with Barenaked Ladies. We had a conversation about life and how the basic things in life have changed since he started in the music industry and what he would do if he could do it all over again. We discussed his unique views, his support of the troops, and what’s next for him.
Finding Connecticut: Catch us up to speed, what have you been up to?
Five For Fighting: I have an interesting life we have a family business that’s been in our family for 75 years that I worked at as a kid and all throughout my career of it my dad still runs. It’s a manufacturing business wee shopping carts and my dad‘s 85 and my son who is 23 works there. During the pandemic he couldn’t come in and so I kind of took over the business and it’s been very consuming and for a couple of years I couldn’t do music and of course, the pandemic for many musicians was very traumatic. You know you don’t know what you got till it’s gone. I spent a lot of time outside of music but I still get out I still love playing I do probably 50 – 60 shows a year whether is rock shows like the quartet shows. symphony shows. I’ve been doing a lot of keynotes where I talk about lessons I’ve learned from my songs too. I’m still writing, and as you mentioned, going to Ukraine and filming that video in a blown up airport in front of a symbol Ukrainian independence with that incredible Ukrainian orchestra, and it was certainly a moment of a lifetime that involves every emotion you can imagine and it also embedded a lot with the many these NGOs. Through the Afghanistan song I was, believe it or not, helping evacuees Americans and Afgan allies from Afghanistan, and if we’re still doing that to this day. We still do that and so I’ve been involved in a lot of support with the troops in an ambassador of the Gary Sinise Foundation so we are doing a lot of stuff for our troops its a lot of stuff to keep me busy you know and end up going out on tour like this is it’s almost like summer camp because I’m with my buddies were goofing around and it kind of takes me out of that world for a month or so which is good for my wellness so I wear a lot of hats, to say the least.
Finding Connecticut: Looking at the song you have written do you have one where you look back and feels like foreshadowing to current times?
Five For Fighting: Good question, yeah there’s kind of a few I mean one I actually wrote 20 years ago was called China on the Horizon and talking about kind of the rise of China and will be kind of that that the anti-super powers the United States of freedom which is in my mind I think, and realized to a large extent. The other song people probably know more this song called World. Asking what kind of world you want and I think you know it kind of talked about you know our kind of tribalism and how the culture is kind of getting more divided and it’s unfortunate that I think that’s happened. I’ve always kind of had a certain worldview. I don’t like to get on a soap box and preach but I think you know World was one that kind of maybe pushed foreshadowed a few things.
Finding Connecticut: Your songs have been in around 350 movies, tv shows, and commercials. Have you ever come across one and felt it was a good fit or ask yourself, “Why did they use that?”
Five For Fighting: Well, luckily I get to approve them. There have been a few that I’ve come across my desk that I’m like I don’t think so and there’s been a few that actually spoof Superman that I thought was really funny that I approved. I’ve been very fortunate to have some really cool uses I think if you have the right song with the right imagery it is that serves both and can be kind of exponential to the experience and probably my favorite license I’ve had is the song Chances that was it was at the end of The Blind Side, and when they approach me for that song, they had no expectations for that movie and I thought to be a very small movie and I actually that song was tempted a big blockbuster or summer blockbusters but I pulled it and I put it in The Blind Side. I just cause my gut I’m like wow this song really seems like it was written for this movie even though it wasn’t in the fact that it became your biggest sports movie in history, was I thinking a good lesson to trust your gut once in a while it doesn’t always work out but in this case it did.
Finding Connecticut: I grew up listening to the radio, my Dad was an on-air DJ and he taught me the importance of the radio business. As an artist would you want to go back to the 90’s and rely on program directors from the 90’s like Scott Shannon and Glenn Beck who predicted the hits and word of mouth or go back to the 90s with today’s modern technology and let streaming help spread the word of your songs?
Five For Fighting: That’s a very good question. Certainly, there is a silver lining in both you know the nice thing about technology and YouTube and the Internet these days is you’re not subject to a record label you don’t have to have a record label to break your, you can put a song on YouTube and then all the sudden you’re Justin Bieber and you know your not hostage to the will of two or three people who decide if you’re worth signing them or making a record on the other hand with radio you know back in the day radio in the 90s was much more segmented in radios been so consolidated into three companies that own all of radio. Many stations could take chances on artists and play something they just like and those are the stations that they broke new artists, and they were critical. There was one in Birmingham. I’m actually in Tuscaloosa as we speak and one in Birmingham kind of leads the way. I’ve got to be an independent on radio and play my song when no one else would, so you really don’t have that anymore. These days my kids don’t listen to commercial radio they find songs and videos, and so many other different ways so I do think it’s certain level the playing field especially when a lot of the money came out of the music business. With streaming and Napster has allowed people to actually have a career maybe not be superstars so again, I’m an old-school guy that there’s certainly things romantic about kind of the 90s in and when people made records and you could tour for you know three years before your record broke. You know there are 12 songs not just a single that people put out now but I do think the Internet and technology and also the fact that I can make a record on my laptop you know for $4000 instead of spending $200,000 in a recording studio so I think all that stuff is great for young songwriters and young artists, and so if I don’t know maybe I’ll go with now even though I have fond memories of the 90s in the early 2000s when I was wandering into every radio station.
Finding Connecticut: You write songs about life, patriotism, and heroism. Do you feel you stand out instead or blend in with the rest of the music industry?
Five For Fighting: That’s another good question you know I’ve always felt like a square peg in a round hole a little bit. I don’t know why. When Superman came on the radio there was no piano on the radio. It wasn’t 1970 it was the age of Lilith Fair, boy bands, and grunge music and so I’ve always gonna be a little bit out of the box, I think it’s a songwriter and also I think some of my worldviews it is maybe a little bit different than many artists and I have a lot of respect for the protest songs of the 60s and the golden age of songwriting in the 70s and in so I think growing up with those influences it’ll be an older person and I think that’s kind of focus me on some things that maybe other artists aren’t interested in which is fine but again it’s still about you know a good song and as I said, you know, I’ve lived my childhood dream and you know for anybody to be able to do that is truly a blessing and I’m grateful every day.
Finding Connecticut: What can we expect to see at the show at Mohegan Sun?
Five For Fighting: Well it’s a family show it’s a show where you know we have a lot of fun. Barenaked ladies put on a great show. We always do a song it recognizes our troops. I will be playing the song from Ukraine with a Ukrainian Orchestra audio with a video. In there is certainly 100 hundred years, Superman, and Chances. We might have a couple of surprises at the end of our set. It may be at the end of the Barenaked Ladies set you might see a little collaboration. I really enjoy your neck of the woods especially this time of year.
Finding Connecticut: What’s next for Five For Fighting?
Five For Fighting: I will be doing a string quartet tour in California in the fall and I have some other projects coming up my sleeve hopefully they’ll be some new music coming sooner than later. I did a project with some Chicago inner-city children and we wrote a song together about music in the schools that will be coming out with a really cool video in the next few months to raise awareness for music in the schools. So projects like that or are a lot of fun at this stage of my career so there’s certainly that to look forward to.
Finding Connecticut: Vinyl, cd, digital?
Five For Fighting: Cassette
Finding Connecticut: Patriotic song or mainstream?
Five For Fighting: Patriotic songs
Finding Connecticut: Superman (It’s Not Easy) vs 100 Years?
Five For Fighting: Well with all due respect to Superman, 100 Hundred years is always in there somewhere, so 100 years.
You can see Five For Fighting as he is one of the openers for Barenaked Ladies on Friday, July 7th at Mohegan Sun. Tickets are available and can be purchased by clicking here.
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