FIRE AT PLAY

In preparing to be in front of a crowd, some performers might picture the spectators in their underwear. Fire at Play take this a bit further, as they claim to envision making sweet love to each audience member when their onstage. No wonder they decided to call their blues/soul/rock sound (with Grace Slick-esque vocals) “sexy rock.”Fire at Play was born four years ago when vocalist Priscilla Yolanda met Chris Lopez at a party. Chris had brought a guitar along, and “tricked” Priscilla into an impromptu jam session. The Culver City residents had always wanted to be in a band, but all previous attempts had gone bust.The pair continued playing together as an acoustic act, until they realized their instruments couldn’t contain the energy of their Motown and Hendrix influences, so they upgraded to electric. Though their first incarnation was titled Hush, they landed on the Fire at Play name when it appeared in a line from a poem.When a friend took Priscilla to a Ninja Academy show, she had a musical epiphany while watching bass player Joey “Indo-Ninja.” She came to the conclusion that every song she’d ever loved had been bass driven, and decided to pick up the instrument, an experience she describes as “love at first bang.”Chris and Priscilla then began work to dispense their tunes to music lovers, recording tracks for MySpace, and playing shows at Southern California venues like The Good Hurt. After courting three drummers, they finally found love this year with Matthew Barreca of Tuesday Boozeday when Priscilla was hustling to find someone to beat the skins at an upcoming House of Blues show. Now that a solid lineup is in place, the band plans to spend the year recording some new songs, as well as staples like “Sugar Daddy,” and to spread the fire at shows up and down the west coast and beyond.

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