Posted on May 4, 2010 - by Editor

Five Iron Frenzy: Rise and Fall

Five Iron Frenzy had a crazy eight year ride as a band. Their eclectic mix of ska and punk rock as well as fusing other genres often included sophisticated literary and music references and the band managed to overcome its Christian tag not only within the punk rock scene but ironically battling against the church itself. Amazingly the band managed to sell a bucketload of records without reaching mainstream success, rather staying rooted in the underground despite the raging success of third wave ska at the time. They even toured as far as South Africa before most other bands considered venturing to the African continent. With the recent release of their DVD “The Rise And Fall Of Five Iron Frenzy” through Asian Man Records we chatted to Reese Roper, lead vocalist (and DVD producer) of the defunct band to discuss the DVD and the band in hindsight.

Steve: So what have you been up to yourself since the end of FIF, are you still involved in bands/musical projects?

Reese: I started and ended two projects with mild success. The first- Guerilla Rodeo, only made it to a three song demo, and the second- Roper, had the stupidest name in rock history. It was a project put together by 5minutewalk, the label that Five Iron used to be on, and sort of doomed from the beginning just in the way that it was set up. We lost all of our label support during our first two tours, and basically just tried to finish out everything we had scheduled for the rest of the year before we called it quits. I ended up working in a genetics lab for a few years after that, didn’t really like it, and went back to school- and now I am a registered nurse. Last year, three of the other guys from Five Iron and I finally finished the third album for Brave Saint Saturn, a side-project that we had started somewhere in the middle of Five Iron’s success. That’s it in a nutshell.

Steve: Are you and the other members of the band still in touch/friends?

Reese:  Absolutely. In fact, we just went to a cook-out over at Leonor’s, and almost everyone who is still in town was there. I talk to Dennis, Sonnie, and Brad every other month or so and usually see the people here in town four or five times a year.

Steve: nice to hear. So what inspired the timing and production of this DVD? What are you hoping it will achieve?

Reese: We always talked about putting one out while Five Iron was still together. I had amassed and shot the lion’s share

Reese Roper

of the film, so I kind of took it upon myself to make it. It was also something that we wanted as part of our breakup in 2003, to leave something like a DVD behind for our fans. Over the past six years, there have been quite a few people that offered to help me and to be honest- they probably could have made it look better, or edited it better than I did. But I thought that if we farmed it out, it wouldn’t tell the true story of what it was like to be in Five Iron. So it took me six years to comb through over 1000 hours of footage, and to try and assemble it the way I think we would have wanted. As for what I hope it achieves, I really want just that- to honestly tell what it was like- that we were nine dumb kids who were very blessed to be where we were, and that we had seemingly enormous potential, that just built up to one point, where it all just sort of- slowly fell apart.

Steve:  What do you think fans will learn from this DVD about Five Iron Frenzy?

Reese: I hope that they learn that being in a band is actually very hard. Not always physically, but mentally- to always have to be fighting for something that some pretty horrible bands are sometimes just given, and to lose all of your friends and relationships because you never really get to go home. And I also hope that they see how much we loved and appreciated them, that none of us regret it even for a moment, and that it was the fans that made it all worthwhile.

Steve: What else can fans expect from this DVD, is it a collection of footage or an actual documentary tracing the “rise and fall”?

Reese:  It’s both. There is like five hours of live footage, a bunch of goofy short films we made, all of our videos, a gag reel, and then a three and a half hour documentary that chronicles the rise and fall of Five Iron. It is literally all that we could fit on two DVDs.

Steve: Was it difficult to produce the DVD? What challenges did you face and are all ex members featured?

Reese:  Every member is featured for sure- even Scott, our first guitar player. And yes, it was very difficult. I have dabbled in filmmaking for the past 10 years or so, but I had absolutely no idea what this would entail. It took thousands of hours just to sort through the footage, and to convert it into a digital format from whatever it was in before. There was at least one hard drive failure in the midst, which required re-watching and ripping about half of the footage again. I started out editing it in Final Cut Pro, which required me to read up on what I was doing each time I would stop and restart editing. It was very slow and tedious until I switched to using iMovie, which allowed me to work faster, but is a horrible program for professional editing. I ended up going back to Final Cut Pro by the end anyway. During this all, I was working, or touring with Roper. I got married December of 2004, went back to school, etc. Life was always slowing it down when the technology wasn’t. The last two months I switched jobs to a hospital about two hours away, and was literally getting 16 hours of sleep a week trying to make it all happen. Patients would be talking to me and I would actually fall asleep while answering them.

Steve: Haha, pretty full on. How exciting/nostalgic was the journey to relive while putting this all together?

Reese: There was a LOT of really bad live footage. Early on, I was very glad we broke up just from seeing us play some horrible shows. And then, this very distinct theme started to emerge as I went along that involved us being really young and happy with a ton of potential- and then it just fell apart. So yeah, it was exciting, and nostalgic- but still painful.

Steve: What triggered the beginning of the end for the band? Any regrets in hindsight?

Reese: As you can see in the movie, in April of 1999 all of these horrible things just happened at once. It seemed like we just never dug ourselves out of it. In addition, I think the worst decision we ever made was to stay self-managed and to remain on the little Christian-Indy label that first signed us. While sifting through the footage, it just seemed like we had all of this potential that went unfulfilled. We never had much vision beyond being signed and making an album, so every time something good happened to us after that, we were surprised. Our label’s only theory on advertising was to tour us as much as possible. By the time everyone started getting burned out and getting married, there was nothing to hold us together. I don’t want to sound like we are all sitting around pining for the old days, but it’s hard not to think back about it and not say that we could have done it better. I am positive though, that all of us feel very blessed to have done what we did for so long, and for all of the great people we got to meet and know.

Steve:  What do you think was the lasting impression Five Iron left on the music scene and its fans?

Reese: Yikes. I think we made music worse. Does that count? Also, I think we were the cause of global warming.

Steve: The humour hasn’t faded then. How emotional was the announcement of the break up in 2003 and how impressed were you by the response of the fans on the final tour “Winners Never Quit Tour”

Reese: It was pretty emotional. I think at the time, we were all pretty burned out so we were relieved over all. It was a brutal last tour and we were all very sick by the end- and really tired. But the fan response was incredible, so it was definitely worthwhile. It’s crazy to watch the footage of the last show, where the fans were just chanting “thank you” at the end. I remember editing it and just bawling at like four in the morning by myself in the basement.

Steve: And honestly, how much do you miss playing with the band and is a reunion definitely not on the cards?

Reese:  I do miss playing with everybody. Quite a bit. Mostly, I just miss hanging out with my friends from the band. And as for the rest of your question- We’re not, not, talking about a reunion…

Steve:  OK. The band’s songs had serious themes too; references to Christian hypocrisy, consumerism etc. Do you think the important messages were well received or was the 3rd wave gimmick/ hype getting in the way at the time?

Reese:  I think that it got in the way all the time. We alienated everybody. Our songs only appealed to a certain type of nerdy, Christian, braniac, band-geek between the ages of 13 and 17. (Yeah, you know who you are.) Seriously though, lyrically, we always tried to ride that line between dumbing things down for the masses, and making really thoughtful and complex songs. In the end, I think we leaned way too far to the brainy side to be accepted by any type of mainstream media.

Steve: And what about being a Christian ska punk band; did you take abuse from other bands/people because of your beliefs?

Reese:  Occasionally. Amazingly, the brunt of the abuse came from the Church, and not the other way around. It’s sad that most people, when confronted with the idea of being unconditionally loved by an all-powerful God, can somehow only take that and use it as a weapon. We were never Christian enough, or people would be upset with our song lyrics, or the venues we played, or that we wouldn’t dress right, etc. We were always rubbing the Church the wrong way, and I think we’re okay with that.

Steve: When you called it a day; you chose to stick with 5 Minute Walk for the final record. Were there other offers from labels and majors that the band considered?

FIF © Melinda DiMauro

Reese: There was one offer, from Tooth and Nail, who I guess is a major now (being owned by EMI.) At that point we just felt like we had nothing to gain by only doing one album with any other label. 5minutewalk, for all their flaws, really loved us- and really did care about our fans and us as people. We just couldn’t even think about going with anyone else.

Steve:  Finally, although the band didn’t reach mainstream media success is it true there were over a million album purchases? Were you surprised by the accomplishments of the band and the interest still shown today?

Reese:  Yeah, it’s true. And I think we are all still completely blown away by how much Five Iron is still loved and admired even today. We truly were blessed to be a part of something that was so much greater than we ever deserved to be a part of.

Please see Five Iron Frenzy for more details about the DVD. It’s out now.