Hello and welcome to Melodic.net. How are you guys?
Will Lee: We are doing quite well, thanks to the love of great music by people everywhere!
Tell us about yourself, your background etc.
Will Lee: The Fab Faux are a band of five guys, made up of studio musicians/singers/performers from NYC who, starting in 1998, wanted to bring The Beatles records to the stage.
How did you come up with the idea to perform The Beatles Revolver album live, in its entirety?
Will Lee: Well, even though I personally have a love for doing the unpredictable set lists of Beatles songs with our band, packaging is important and people love the idea of seeing an album done live. Also, it’s a fun challenge!
How you done anything like this before?
Will Lee: Yes, many times! Fab Faux is pretty much known as THE band that can do this. We have performed many of the “impossible” Beatles albums in their entirety. That list includes Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road, the entire White Album (yes, Revolution #9) and others, note-for-note, sound-for sound.
How does one prepare for this kind of thing?
Will Lee: Well, I have to give Paul Shaffer some credit here. As the bassist from the Letterman show since 1982, I have learned a lot about orchestrating a “cover” band to perform music from recordings in a live situation. Fab Faux member Jimmy Vivino knows a lot about this too, from working as musical director for Conan O’Brien for all these years! We study the recordings from every angle possible and assemble all the pieces at rehearsal.
How long have you been preparing for this project?
Will Lee: All my life (hahahaha)!!!! Basically, we’ll be preparing right up until showtime. There are so many specific details inside of each arrangement of each song, that you have to log a lot of hours internalizing everything. Remember, we all sing and play simultaneously, so aside from learning the instrumental parts and the vocal parts, we must then sort of re-learn the act of doing those functions all at once. Once we’re onstage, the hard work is behind us and it’s playtime!!
You play the music of the Beatles, but do you dress up as them as well?
Will Lee: We don’t feel any need to pretend to BE the Beatles. That can’t be done. What IS possible is to do our best to honor their great songs, so many of which they never performed themselves, especially the super-challenging ones that Fab Faux likes to take on. It’s easier for us in the new millennium to do this, since the Beatles didn’t have the technology to play their own stuff!7
Are you guys scared that this project won’t turn out the way you want it to?
Will Lee: Yes! Terrified. That’s why we do it - hahaha!
A wild guess is that Beatles is one your favorite artists, but who else would you consider doing the same thing with?
Will Lee: There are guys in the band that like to cover other people’s stuff, but I don’t think we’d want to dedicate ourselves at this level to any other one thing.
Are you planning to bring this tour to Europe?
Will Lee: There are many offers coming in, but time is at a premium, due to TV shows & other commitments that the members of Fab Faux have. We do go to Liverpool every few years to appear at a huge Beatle convention there (Beatleweek) and we’re considering some one-off shows in a couple of European countries & maybe Japan.
Thanks for answering the questions. Do you have any final words for our readers?
Will Lee: Yes. Come see us! Join us on Facebook, look for us on YouTube, join our mailing list at www.thefabfaux.com and keep listening to great music! Thank you. It’s been a pleasure.
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