Ok, that wordplay is terrible, but you didn’t think we’d cover Treefort without sitting down with artists, did you? It’s interview and artist profile time! We’re going to start with a one-to-watch bursting into the Boise scene. We got to sit down with Simeon Titmus and Jack Gardner from The Fjord People for one of their first official interviews! We talked about preparing for a show at the scale of Treefort Music Fest, the Boise music scene, breaking ground and paving the musical journey they want, and, of course, their creative process.
Though the jam-based funk band has yet to release any recorded music, they’ve been cutting their teeth in the Boise live music scene for the last few months. Following their debut show at The Hive, The Fjord People played a gig at The Shrine Social Club Basement. That second show is one that helped them fully realize their power in Boise and helped to boost their confidence.
J.G.: We got offstage, and a bunch of people left. And we didn’t realize they were there for us.
S.T.: Yeah, that was a really bizarre feeling, because that was our second-ever gig.
J.G.: And all of us walked offstage and immediately turned to each other and said, “That was f*****g garbage. Why was it so good?”
A.G.: Expand on that.
S.T.: We played very poorly. [laughs]
J.G.: We played like a**. There was a Marshall stack in between me and Leo [the drummer] so we couldn’t see each other. So you listen to the recordings, and there are mistakes everywhere, cause we were literally just jamming the entire time. Like we all knew the general idea of the song and were all going to guess when it went to the next section.
When speaking on their influences, Titmus and Gardner were quite solid in naming Vulfpeck, Cory Wong, and Snarky Puppy as massive influences for The Fjord People, both in terms of sound and musical approach. In the Boise scene, as Titmus put it, “You’re not really gonna run into gatekeeping.” Gardner added, “There’s really not a lot of siloing.” This allows each member of the band to bring their instrumental voice to the music in addition to their physical voice in rehearsals.
In one memory of a Cory Wong show from the month prior, Titmus recalled asking Wong a question between his main set and his encore.
S.T.: I asked him what steps I should take to be able to find my people, the people that I can do creative projects with, and that uplift me –
J.G.: And Cory said exactly what I’d been saying for months. [laughs]
S.T.: I just needed to hear it from Cory Wong, man.
J.G.: I know. I’m not Cory Wong, I’m not that cool yet.
S.T.: But the way he put it is very much ingrained into my brain because he compared it to throwing darts on a dart board and how some people go for triple bullseye, some people go for triple 60s, and some people go for seventeens – it’s just about where you’re shooting and looking for the people that are shooting in the same place.
J.G.: Or the people who are yeetin’ up so many f****n’ darts that it doesn’t really matter where they hit.
S.T.: Right. So I listened to that, and then thought there’s somebody in this audience who is that, and he happened to be a good 30 feet behind me and texted me at that moment.
When asked about meeting, exceeding, or even caring about audience expectations, Titmus put it plainly: “We are our first audience.” To The Fjord People, every moment of the live experience is catered to some part of the audience. It could be to the band themselves or those in the crowd, but as Gardner put it, “‘This happened musically, and the audience didn’t respond, but we did, so I think we’re gonna keep that.’ Or conversely, ‘this happened, and it sounded like a mistake, but it sounded really cool, and also the audience f*****g loved it. We’re gonna keep that.’”
Through our conversation, it became clear that Simeon Titmus and Jack Gardner are laser-focused musicians with a clear vision of what they aspire to be. If you’re in Boise, you need to go to a Fjord People show. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest, you need to make the trip to Boise to go see The Fjord People. They bring the same energy to every live show, and you won’t be disappointed. You’ll find information about upcoming shows on their Instagram, and you can also watch previously recorded gigs on their YouTube channel!
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