Band gets closer even through the distance

Growing up on the shores of Indian Rocks Beach, the five members of the band FayRoy spent years surfing the waves and developing their own sound.

As the years have gone by and some have moved away, the friends find themselves in a bit of a long-distance relationship.

But, thanks to file-sharing and multi-track recording, the band — spread across the state from Tampa to St. Augustine — is still able to write and produce its own breed of rock music.

Zack Hoag, vocalist and guitar player, said the time apart makes live shows much more energetic.

"It makes live shows…so much more fun together, because we don't get to play with each other all the time. So when we do, we are super into it," Hoag said.

Hoag writes and records the base of a new song, along with keyboardist and UCF alumnus Kyle Fournier, before sending the track off to the rest of the band.

Bassist Patrick Dunn, a junior in the arts in music master's program at UCF, uses his music theory background to collaborate with drummer Chris Splendore, of St. Augustine, and guitarist Matt Knabe, of Orlando.

FayRoy, which takes its name from a beachside cottage that represents the place where the friends grew up, is still able to create songs with complexity, despite its members not frequently seeing each other.

"Most lyrics are pretty metaphorical, but some of them are stories," Fournier said.

The band stressed the fact that their friends are a big inspiration for their music, and the reason they are making music in the first place.

"We may be playing the music, but [our friends] are part of it," Dunn said. "It's not a binary thing when we perform – it's not us and them – it's us all being together."

Although the band does not want to pin themselves to any particular genre, Hoag describes the band's style as "surfy, Western music," with "a vibe of Dick Dale and an old surfy, reverb tone."

FayRoy's time in the studio is spent at Black Toe Studio, a residential recording studio in Seminole, Fla. They say they are nearly finished recording songs, and are now working on "tweaking."

"We didn't want to publish anything that wasn't complete, or something we felt didn't represent our sound well. We've been spending a lot of time in the studio honing in," Dunn said.

The band recently performed at Tampa-based radio station WMNF's Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday Bash, alongside many other Florida bands, to pay tribute to the iconic folk singer.

"We talked with all of our friends about what their favorite Bob Dylan songs are, we found a few that we liked, and we all separately learned them," Hoag said. "We all got together and only went through [the songs] once and then showed up to the show."

Other local bands have expressed their approval for Fayroy's Dylan covers.

"Their Dylan covers are great," said Greyson Charnock, senior fine arts major and member of the band, Bellows. "When I heard them, I was impressed with the way they took the songs and made them their own without compromising the original."

The band seems happy that their friendship outweighs the difficulty in creating music without the ability to rehearse together. Hoag said there is "less pressure" and "time to let things marinate."

FayRoy plans to unveil their studio recordings online in the coming weeks. Their music and other information can be found at www.facebook.com/fayroy.