FENCER – AN IN-DEPTH CONVERSATION WITH FIELD CATE
Field Cate is the extraordinary lead singer and guitarist of the LA band Fencer. Field was a child actor, and is best known for his role of Young Ned in Pushing Daisies. He was also the voice of Buddha in the Air Bud films. After his acting career Cate formed Fencer with drummer Cameron Sauve and his bassist brother, Scott. The power trio recently released a new single, “Joseph Courtney” from their upcoming self titled debut album dropping on Feb. 3rd. Fencer has also supported such heavyweights as Badflower, The Wrecks and Dead Poet Society.
Fencer‘s sound is hard to describe. It has equal shares of raw energy and poppish delights with a little hard rock and punk sprinkled in. Cate’s vocals are melodically edgy and full of emotive angst. Cameron’s percussions slam with a savage intensity while Scott’s basslines are gnarly. All their released singles have an aggressive quality with memorable guitar riffs and fills. Their songwriting is brazen with adventurous hooks. Fencer has created a singular sound that encompasses unsurpassed cinematic textures.
Field Cate sat down with AMP for this in-depth conversation about the band.
AMP: Can you give us a brief history of the band?
FIELD: We started in early 2017. The band was built around our drummer, Cameron Sauve, and myself. We worked together for a while having midnight writing sessions trying to create a totally original sound. Our new single, “Joseph Courtney”, is one of the songs written in one of those late night huddles. We started playing with a bunch of people trying to finalize a line up.
I wanted to sing and eventually taught myself guitar. Occasionally Cameron’s bassist brother Scott would sit in with us. It finally dawned on us that this grouping was working real well. Just the three of us. That’s how it all started and since then we have been honing our sound. We want to be as unique as possible.
AMP: Keeping in the same vein, do you feel being a three piece works in your favor and why?
FIELD: I like the three piece dynamic because I feel with what we are trying to do, less is more. When there isn’t a lot to work with, creativity is heightened. In our situation, a second guitarist would seem redundant. What we are trying to achieve is more about the songwriting as opposed to the technical aspects of music. With being a power trio, I believe getting the songs across is more important than anything else. It keep the songs both more creative and raw.
AMP: What is your current creative process like?
FIELD: Usually either Cameron or myself will bring in an idea, song structure or a riff. Then we flesh things out amongst the three of us. Cameron and I are constantly writing new material and everyone has a lot of input in the finished track.
AMP: How would you describe your sound to someone who’d never heard you before?
FIELD: We made up the term “Garage Opera”. We are pretty raw. Very similar to a garage band. Pop-garage is another good description. We try to be as poppy as we can be without losing our aggressiveness, That’s what we are striving for. Modern pop with a bare bones organic roughness.
AMP: Your new single, “Joseph Courtney” has some serious underlining connotations. What was the impetus for the song?
FIELD: Joseph Courtney is this personna I created where the character craves attention and the spotlight. Even though I started my career as an entertainer at an early age, I never felt like I needed that type of attention. I created this personality so I could play into that particular scenario in order to loosen me up a little bit. Courtney is a little bit out of his mind. He does all this manic talking. It also gives me the opportunity to play into some of my mental illnesses.
AMP: Speaking of social health, it seems to be one of the major themes embedded in your songs. Is that an important aspect of Fencer?
FIELD: Definitely! I have dealt with a lot of mental health issues over the past few years. It has a huge learning curve that I constantly have to tackle. I’ve taught myself techniques in order to handle them. Therefore, it becomes a major theme in our lyrical songwriting. I like that it has become a focus of the band so we can talk about it more openly. Hopefully people will interpret our words and use them to help with their concerns.
AMP: The band’s songwriting is impressive. You personally have synesthesia which is the ability to see music in color. When did you realize you had this talent?
FIELD: Basically, I associate words and letters with colors. It just something some people develop. I have been able to do this since I was in kindergarten. So when we started Fencer, we wanted to create a color scheme. The first batch of songs Cameron and I wrote were all in blue. I don’t know why but they were. We ran with that and since then it has really gotten ridiculous. Now when we write songs and they don’t come out blue, we shelve them. When we record, rehearse or play live, the lighting is always blue.
I only wear blue. I’m slowly phasing out all other colors in my wardrobe. We also learned a few years ago that we are three different astrological water signs which again are all blue. The water signs signify emotion and that is what Fencer is all about. It just this weird meant to be thing that has become super important in our creative and aesthetic processes.
AMP: You have worked with Josh Katz of Badflower in the studio. How was that experience?
FIELD: It was great. They are great guys. We’ve done a few tours with them. Josh produced our first EP. They had this place in the middle of the desert. We stayed with them and recorded the EP in what was basically their living room. We really didn’t know each other that well at that point, so the dynamic was interesting. The band was young, so we really didn’t know much but since then the two bands have gotten to know each other well. I love that EP. It was a fun start for Fencer.
AMP: On a personal note, how difficult or easy was it to transition from an actor to a musician?
FIELD: It really wasn’t much of anything. It didn’t feel like a big transition since the last time I acted was over a decade ago. When I decided I didn’t want to act anymore I was in high school. So I had a few years of being out of the limelight. Ultimately I decided I wanted to go into music and it has been a totally different experience. I carried over a lot of my acting capabilities like my ability to perform and entertain on stage and handle interviews like this one. Otherwise, it’s been its own adventure.
It’s funny. Acting and being a musician seem to be so intertwined but the fact is they are vastly divergent. Acting is just going to auditions. You get an agent and you go to auditions. You keep doing that until you land the right role for you. There’s a clear path to success. In music, there seems to be no roadmap to follow. Whenever you go for some guidance, all you get back is “write some songs”. Then you write them and there is still no straight path forward. There seems to be multiple pathways for a musician to move onward and no set direction where to focus. It’s a strange business.
AMP: Your debut album drops Feb. 3rd. How excited are you?
FIELD: Ah! I’m kind of indifferent!
AMP: Really not the answer I expected!
FIELD: I am really happy that the album is finally coming out. It’s been a long time since we released any new music so I’m excited to have it being released. I really love this record. It contains some of my favorite tracks. But part of me is already looking forward to the next phase. These songs haven’t been sitting around too long but long enough for me to say we are writing newer material now. We are working on the next batch. I’m excited about what currently inspires us.
All in all, we are super stoked for people to finally hear the tunes. We have a few more singles and videos to release. I do love that we are finally putting out a cohesive project that we totally produced ourselves. Every decision was ours and I feel that is important for our debut album.
AMP: What’s 2023 going to be like for Fencer?
FIELD: Supporting the album for sure. We are getting a bunch of things together in the background that we can’t divulge yet. Putting the record out and moving forward from there. Releasing new material more frequently. Also keeping our presence up by touring and lots of social content. The main focus is dropping new material. There’s a lot ready and more to come. We want to hit the ground running and don’t look back.
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