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THE NATALIE FIGHT

By Scott Baker

 One year into the life of a band can change your life.

Ask Nigel Silverthorn, vocalist for one of Bay City's most talented new groups on the underground scene, The Natalie Fight.

Taking a make it, or break it stance, the six-piece band is the culmination of various high school based groups from over the past few years.

Marking their first anniversary on June 4, The Natalie Fight has decided to hit the road for an East Coast tour, dropping their name in all the proper markets and scoring a slew of new fans along the way.

 Having kicked off the tour at the Skyroom in Bay City on Friday, June 25, the band trekked off to Ohio for a show on Saturday.

"It went really well," said Silverthorn, via cell-phone from Ithaca, NY, last Sunday. "We did really good. It was (at a place) called Midgard Comics, a comic book store. It's pretty cool though."
While many bands one year into the sound are just figuring out how to play in tune together, Silverthorn has spent his time booking this summer tour since last December.
"I set it all up," said the vocalist.  "I did a bunch of stuff over the phone, sent out a bunch of CDs and did some stuff over the Internet."

"A lot of my friend's bands, bigger bands that are signed, told me about some of the venues and I had to send out some press kits and stuff. It took me about probably five months to book the whole tour, just to send out the press kits and get our name out there so they recognized us."

 Consisting of 19 year old guitarist Ryan 'The Guz', drummer Ryan Wegnur, 18, bassist Travis Furtaw, 21, keyboardist AJ Schwass, 19, guitarist Nick Fonzi, 18, along with Silverthorn, 17, on vocals, The Natalie Fight are the complete package of years experience as well as goals.
"We have a night off," said Silverthorn. "We're playing in New York tomorrow, and then Tuesday we're playing CBGB's and we're in New York City for a couple of days. From New York City we go to New Hampshire, from New Hampshire we go to Virginia, from Virginia we go to South Carolina, from South Carolina to Florida for like a week. Then we're in Nashville, TN, and then Indiana, and then Illinois, and then back home. We get home July 18. June 26 was our first night out."

 Saving money for food and gas was only part of the equation to help the group put tires on the road.

We borrowed our guitar player's mom's SUV and rented a trailer and basically saved up every cent we got from shows to pay for gas money, hotels and stuff," said the vocalist. "We're not even in a hotel right now. We're in an empty apartment, because the person who booked the show moved out of their apartment and still has a couple days left on their lease, so we're sleeping in her apartment right now. It's a big money saver."

"Basically we were all in crappy bands before this and we came together and were like, 'Were really going to do this, then we're going to do it right’ and decided to take the road."

For guitarist Fonzi, that meant time off from his day job at the family pizzeria.
"I work at Fonzi's Pizza delivering pizza and stuff," said the guitarist.  "If I had another job it would be really hard. The Guz and AJ both had to put in for these days off a long time ago. We've been booking this since the winter."

"AJ works at Target, Nick works at his family's pizza restaurant, and The Guz works at National City Bank and that's it," said Silverthorn.  "Half of us have jobs and half of us don't."
The year ahead is going to be even busier for the group who plans on signing with one of the labels that have been watching them.

"We're going to put out a new CD we'll probably record when we get back, but we're not going to release it on our own," stated the vocalist.  "We're definitely going to get a label to release it. We have people looking at us. With labels looking at us, we figure why release it on our own, because we want to tour some more, but we can't afford to put out our own record and record our own record, and then tour our own record. So we need a little help. Basically it's like we're just waiting to get picked up. I mean when we play live, that's basically what's going to get us where we're going, because that's what sends the message across."

"We've got three (labels looking at us), but I don't know if we're at liberty (to mention them). We're really into Equal Vision Records. Victory Records is pretty cool. Epitaph and stuff like that. We listen to it all. We got guys in the band that listen to dance/electronic stuff, I listen to Conyay West and rap and stuff. We have a bunch of mixes (of styles that make up the band influences)."
 Having experienced their first road trip, the long hours burned the band out of the CD collection they brought.

"We're buying some new CD's tonight when it turns twelve, because we're sick of all the same CD's and basically been listening to the same ones over and over on the way," laughed Silverthorn.  "We had an eight hour drive here and a six hour drive yesterday, so we basically listened to everything we need to listen to."

"We're going to go buy some CD's at midnight (at) Soundfine Records. I haven't even slept yet. I've been up since 9:00 Saturday (morning). I couldn't sleep during the drive I was so excited and then we played the show last night and I couldn't sleep, because I had to give directions and stuff and now I just can't sleep."

The band decided to go swimming on their first day off instead of catching up on rest.
"We went swimming at a waterfall today in Ithaca. We were all tired and the person that booked the show was like, 'You guys should go swimming at this waterfall'. So we went to this waterfall and went swimming and now we're all awake and stuff, sitting around and writing songs."

With the spirit of fun in the air, The Natalie Fight decided the first tour was not going to be about making any money.

"Last night we made $150 and we only got paid $35," said Silverthorn.  "We're selling CD's for five bucks and shirts for $8. Basically we're not even trying to make money, we're trying to break even, but we need gas money. So we're basically selling CD's to try to get our name out in that area."

When the group makes its way back home, there are still dates lined up for local shows as well as a few more road trips.

"When we get back from tour we get back on July 18th," said Silverthorn. "July 24 at Redeeming Love Church  - it's an all-day festival. That's our next one in Bay City. Then we're taking off again in August and going to Illinois to play a festival on August 7th, but August 1st we have a show in Holly - it's called 'How To Beat A Dead Horse Fest'."

For Fonzi, this first trip is just the blueprint for more to come.
"We're going to tour as much as we can," said the guitarist. "That's what we're aiming for. This is what we love to do and we've had so much fun on tour already, we're going to do it as much as we can."

For Silverthorn, who will celebrate his 18 birthday in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on July 7, everything is falling into place.
"We re just having a good time on the road."

Check out www.thenataliefight.com for more info and to purchase a copy of their debut CD Murder in the Streets of St. Petersburg.

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