Brian Fa

I grew up in somewhat of a musical household-my dad’s been a percussionist as long as I can remember, and my mom is still one of the few people I know to have seen The Beatles in their heyday.  When I was 9 or 10 and in the 4th grade, I was given the opportunity to play violin in the orchestra, which I did, and stuck with that for a few years.  Upon entering middle school, I realized I was always tapping away at something-my desk, notebook, boxes of pencils-and knew I been severely bitten by the drumming bug.  After working with my dad a bit and getting the blessing of the middle school band director, I joined band halfway through 7th grade and never looked back.

In high school, I was extremely fortunate to play on my school’s marching band, which went on to win the state championship twice during this time and took me to Washington, D.C. and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  However, I was also quite involved in theatre, and theatrical productions usually took precedence over band functions.  It wasn’t until my senior year, however, when a theatre friend of mine who was also a guitarist asked me if I’d be interested in jamming sometime.  This eventually led to my first gig at a cast party following a performance of our winter play-I can still remember us opening with a cover of Limp Bizkit’s, “Faith, “ and experiencing emotions I’d never felt before.  It was such a thrill that I pushed for us to continue playing together several more times before I graduated (usually at theatre-related events) and soon started jamming with other musicians as well.

After graduating, I gave theatre a try in college before realizing my true passion was in music, and began to actively play in bands with friends of mine, like my friend Casey, with whom I played for three years following high school in a variety of groups (I often refer to this period as, “us learning how a band works”) and my friend Drew, with whom the, “experimental, “ rock group Manos was born.

In 2003, I began to branch out into the Milwaukee scene, hooking up with an indie group called Floating Upon Blue, with whom I spent the next year.  During this time, I was also a member of RWK, which featured a gentleman named Tony Memmel as frontman-I had met Tony two years earlier and was happy to fill the drummer slot when it became occupied in April of that year.

As time went by, I began to see bands I had been playing with part ways, such as Floating Upon Blue, and Tony & I even went our separate directions in the fall of 2004.  By that point I was also playing in a band called The Round Reality with people I’d met through a mutual work friend, a band that would go on to change its name to American Blackout and, shortly thereafter, call it quits in the summer of 2005.

That fall, however, I reconvened with both former members of American Blackout and Floating Upon Blue to create, respectively, the rock groups My Disaster March-now called Disaster March-and The Identity Theft.  I was fortunate to move up to keyboards in Disaster March in 2008, something I had little experience doing, although that same year saw the end of The Identity Theft (now called Tonight, The City Skyline).

It was around November of that year that Tony and I reconnected-I had seen him perform on TV and heard some of his music, and thought that a backing band could really help the already-great songs.  After a few jam sessions, we decided to move forward on creating new music together, which has been nothing sort of incredible.  I’m thrilled to have been a part of the recording of, “Potter Road, “ and, “Here We Go, “ and have had many amazing experiences playing a wide variety of fantastic shows.

I pride myself on my diverse performing experiences and background, and also thrive on the thrill of teaching an eager and willing student to love and play drums and percussion. 

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