Things have changed for Fred Mascherino, former vocalist with Long Island miscreants Taking Back Sunday.  While solo expressionism was always on the cards, even he didn’t expect it to be happening quite as fast as it has.  With the impending release of a debut album under his new personal moniker that was incidentally voted for online, Mascherino has drawn from his own experiences and professional endeavor to create a literal set of tasty and compulsive tones that he hopes will help develop the band we all want to see.   With an exemplary penchant for everything perfect and precise, there’s no reason why that dream should not become a reality.

 

By the time Tuned catches up with Fred he’s just woken up, it’s noon and he’s off to buy a van for his new bands impending tour.  Beforehand he’s able to provide confirmation and clarity around his departure from TBS, but while it wasn’t planned he’s certain it’s for the best and in actual fact, might just be the break he’s been looking for.  “I’ve had over 40 songs piled up that I had brought to TBS and I really wanted to see some of them come alive. I’ve wanted to make this record for some time now but it wasn't originally going to take the place of being in TBS.  It wasn't a hard decision because I knew it was the right one. Things between the five of us were at the point where it was obvious what I needed to do. I'm sure I'll see them eventually after things blow over, I spoke with Eddie this week but, I'd like to say that I didn't simply leave TBS to go solo; I left because it was losing the steam that I was originally inspired by,” he confirms. 

 

Where the magic was lost, Mascherino has been able to salvage some of the steam and funnel it into a deft yet explosive blend of contemporary alt-pop and rock, creating a new form of wizardry, full of sinewy recollections that will dazzle and inspire with its all round musicality.  “Some of the songs are about the struggles I went through that eventually lead to my leaving the band and some are about my personal relationships. The album would have been called '50 ways to leave...' but that one was taken,” he says.  Following the tumultuous history of TBS, Mascherino has written ‘Bend to Break’ on his own terms and with that, has had to deal with and overcome the obstacles that come with going it alone.  “It was a lot more work than I expected it to be but that doesn't mean it was necessarily difficult. It's just very different when you put yourself in the position of writing everything and then recording it like we did, with just a drummer and me. The hardest part is that when something's off, there's no one around to tag the blame on but you.” 

 

One thing Mascherino has always been inclined to do is write his lyrics without holding anything back; full of the nitty gritty, the ins and outs of what’s going on in his life and from his times with TBS.  “There were moments where Lou Giordano, the producer, would ask me if I was going to change a line to avoid trouble down the road but I was insisting that we keep the music honest and as it was when it was written. I wasn't going to water it down.”  So far so good because having been invited to open for Dashboard Confessional recently, it’s no surprise The Color Fred has already won over a divisive audience.  “Opening for them was a crazy experience because for 45 minutes, we played songs that no one had ever heard before. I couldn't believe how into it the crowd was. It was a great night for us.” 

 

He’s also supported his buddies My Chemical Romance at a show in New Jersey, appearing totally solo and evidencing a punk style of writing that came from his early years with Brody and Breaking Pangaea.  Though influenced by the likes of J.Mascis, Sunny Day Real Estate, Bob Mould, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Fugazi, Squirrel Bait and Stevie Wonder, Mascherino displays the sum of his parts in his own balls-out, larger than life and forcible style.  “I'm really best suited playing loud rock songs. This is a solo record, but it's not acoustic with shakers and harmonicas. It's not Bob Dylan, as much as I love the guy. I love arranging drums with electric guitars. So what you hear on the album is basically everything that I hear in my head. That was the best part of doing a record on my own was getting to achieve that. It's the sound of all my past bands but it's all the parts that I contributed.”

 

There’s no doubt Mascherino will have learned from the TBS ride, starting out in tiny bars and ending up at the mighty Brixton Academy, but in the background he’s been developing an identity that has been garnered by the exemplary Equal Vision.  “My last band Breaking Pangaea released an EP on EVR. Back then, we were talking about doing my solo record because I was doing a lot of recording in my basement and Equal Vision liked the demos. I joined TBS and got busy before that could happen. When I was able to do the record finally, they were the first ones I called”.

 

In the modern day scene he has his favourite artists and with the accessibility of music online comes the global frustration that’s destroying the heritage of the search for good music, which Fred shares strongly.  “There are branches of the scene that are all doing the same thing and that's sad, but that's actually always been the case. For every Nirvana, there's a Teenage Fanclub. I just try to pick out the guys who know how to write a song and ignore the rest.  That's all you can do.  It's also a shame to see the high street stores struggling, especially the smaller ones because I find a lot of the people who own those stores tend to be the biggest music enthusiasts out there.  They're like John Cusack in the movie ‘High Fidelity’.” 

 

These days the vibe seems to be the most important thing and while Mascherino has cut his ties with one of the most renowned young rock outfits around, with The Color Fred he’s on to something and debut album ‘Bend to Break’, having been hidden from view for too long, could well prove to the scene that he can cut it as a solo frontman and musician, better than most.