By Steve Janoski
WEST MILFORD — For West Milford's Brian Fitzpatrick, playing at the township's Autumn Lights Festival on Oct. 13 is a chance to do what he and his band-mates do best: lift people's moods through their music.
"We try to get people to have a good time with us, and we try to be the conduit for that good time…big or small, bar or festival, we want to uplift the spirit," he said. "That's what music is all about."
And that's what the 40-year-old guitarist/songwriter has been doing for his entire career, the last five years of which have been spent performing with the seven other musicians who form his "Band of Brothers."
Their sound is unique, he said, and it takes but one listen to any of their songs to realize that the eclectic mixture of roots rock, old-school country, and traditional Celtic-styled music does indeed create something that is hardly similar to anything played on the radio today.
"I can't say if it's different or better than the sound that anybody else creates, but it's ours and I like it," he said.
And if the "Irish" end comes through a bit heavy due to the addition of new mandolin and fiddle player Steve Jacobus, Fitzpatrick said that it isn't his fault.
Well. Maybe it is.
"I just think that it's ingrained in you somewhere in your DNA, it's a part of who you are, and you can try to deny or avoid it, but if you're an artist, it's going to manifest sometime… I was always drawn to that sound," he said.
But most times, it's not something he does intentionally — it just ends up that way. And when Fitzpatrick comes up with a tune or melody in his head, if he hears an accordion, or a mandolin, or a tin whistle filling out the background, that's what's going to be there.
"I'm a slave to the song, and a lot is dictated by what I write and what I hear in my head, and I thought (those instruments) served the songs best," he said.
And when the group takes the stage on Oct. 13, it will be keyboardist Ed Fritz, bassist Fred Machetto, drummer Scott Minafri, drummer Johnny Powers and new lead guitarist Joe Brensinger that make the tunes in Fitzpatrick's head come to life.
They'll be playing many of the tracks from their most recent release, 2012's "The Northern Lights EP," which, though it features just five songs, was described by the singer as "solid."
It wasn't supposed to be like that — even the album title was supposed to be longer — but it wasn't until after completing the recording process that the band sat down, listened to the finished product, and realized that they weren't as blown away as they should have been.
And, even in the age of the iTunes single, Fitzpatrick wasn't content with putting out an album that was only halfway there.
"We felt half was really solid, and the other half, for a variety of reasons, we weren't overwhelmed with it," he said. "(So) it felt better to put out an EP and love all five songs than put out an LP and hate half of them."
As he's gotten older, he said, his writing process has changed, and this album shows that the lyrics and music are coming from a different place than they did years ago.
"When you're younger and you're writing, it's more emotional, whereas now, the emotion is tempered by the logic that comes with age," he said. "The process is still relatively the same, but I think I'm more open and aware of (that process) now."
And then there's the band itself, which continues to evolve and change. The simple fact that there's always so many people on stage at once, any one of which could take the lead at any time, complicates things, he said, and makes the band play better as a whole.
"You have to communicate more between one another, and I think that inevitably makes you tighter as a band," he said. "You have to pass the ball around, so to speak."
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