The Fading Fires profile picture

The Fading Fires

the guitar is a gun, the song is a bullet

About Me


Fading Fires' are chris rainier and mat watson from melbourne, australia. Their creative partnership has its origins in the Melbourne Fringe Festival, when they first met performing as part of an electric guitar orchestra. Many conversations ensued, tracing a web of infinite musical tangents. A musical bond and friendship led to their first exploratory rehearsals and first demo recordings in january of 2007. These four songs became the blueprint for their first public performance as a band at the Rob Roy in August of that year.
Fading Fires are currently (April '08) finishing the mixing and mastering of our debut EP - entitled "The Cruel Divide" - which was recorded with Reggie Bowman at SLP Studios in Warrandyte.
Fading Fires have also performed as an experimental/improvisatory duo (under their own names) at the great escape festival (sydney), and at the after dark concert series at the national gallery of victoria in october 2007.
if you're interested in the Fading Fires' more experimental side, click on the iTunes button or image below to check out the album
The Mechanical Eye - Live At Loop 04.06.06.
This album is a live recording of a performance at Loop Bar in Melbourne, where Fading Fires collaborated with electronics guru Ollie Olsen, improvising soundtracks to silent films from the 1920's and 30's.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 5/8/2007
Band Website: this one
Band Members: chris rainier
vocal, electric lapsteel, space echo & trautonium
mat watson
drums/percussion, univox organ, electric guitar, ems aks & vocal
Influences: santo & johnny, blind willie johnson, fundamental universal elements, speedy west & jimmy bryant, neu!, jimi hendrix, stockhausen, led zeppelin, kraftwerk, debashish battacharya, 13th floor elevators, ..... ....... & ... ....., chris whitley, link wray, frank zappa, faust, bukka white, dada, the shins, band of horses, richard thompson, claude debussy, erik satie, oliver messiaen, neil young, leon theremin, tinariwen, mercury rev, smiley gets a gun, harry partch, la monte young and assorted microtonality, the roland space echo re-201, robert fripp, moogerfoogers, robie ("rob e.g.") porter, vintage hawaiian steel guitar special effects, hamza el din
Sounds Like: all the musical instruments that can possibly fit into a holden commodore
Record Label: our own for the moment
Type of Label: None

My Blog

new recordings coming off the assembly line soon!

hello. we’ve just finished the mixing stage of things with the ep. soon mastering and artwork will begin and we will hold the shiny beast in our hands. a bit of vinyl and digital dust will also ...
Posted by The Fading Fires on Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:08:00 PST

the end in sight...or the knife in the road?

hello again. recording of the ep is nearing completion, with that elusive 5th track's vocals still giving me headaches, but nonetheless all should be done very soon. some tracks will be given to radio...
Posted by The Fading Fires on Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:32:00 PST

singing for our supper

recording for our debut ep will continue this week and next with two sessions booked in for vocal recording, again with reggie bowman at the controls - let's hope it goes as well as the instrumental t...
Posted by The Fading Fires on Tue, 12 Feb 2008 10:51:00 PST

lemmings on the treadmill (recording part 2)

well things went very well...we finished delta (track 5 now of the EP) and numerous overdubs and fiddly bits...last hurdle will be vocals and mixing...looking to do this once reggie's back in town - a...
Posted by The Fading Fires on Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:14:00 PST

hamsters on the wheel...

ok...first round of recording went really well...4 tracks down...1 to go plus overdubs, general fiddling around and vocals - so we're probably looking at another whole day and another half day, but th...
Posted by The Fading Fires on Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:41:00 PST

Finally...recording...

On Wednesday we head to Warrandyte to record at Scream Louder Studios. We're looking at doing 5 or 6 tracks, and maybe resurrecting another one from the demo. Vocal recording will happen soon(ish) aft...
Posted by The Fading Fires on Sun, 06 Jan 2008 12:37:00 PST

FADING FIRES @ the OLD BAR this Thursday 15th November. 9.30pm

Greetings.Fading Fires play one last show for 2007 at the Old Bar this Thursday, the 15th November at 9.30 pm.Come down for a dose of $5 psychedelia.......Hope to see you there!
Posted by The Fading Fires on Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:16:00 PST

olde bar

a new gig coming up soon! 15th of november with street walking panthers and hot air baboon at the old bar, johnson street, fitzroy. come along for the ride...
Posted by The Fading Fires on Mon, 05 Nov 2007 11:53:00 PST

The Tote and the Public Bar glimpsed on the horizon...

hello... check out our two new gigs this week on the gigs listing. We would appreciate you all coming along to any of them. Hoping to begin adding some T-shirts to the merch section soon...recording i...
Posted by The Fading Fires on Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:44:00 PST

robbing the roy

our very first gig will take place at the rob roy on the 15th of august - we're on at 10.30 playing with the fallen gentry, with another act still to be confirmed. bring your friends and your enemies....
Posted by The Fading Fires on Thu, 02 Aug 2007 05:42:00 PST