Biography
“When I started to write my own songs, I tried to just take in everything I heard and learn from it,” says frontman Shawn Fisher. “It wasn’t until a few years later that I really began to figure out my own way of saying things.” And these days, judging by the rabid reactions of the crowds that buy Shawn’s music and pack the shows by him and his band Son of a Bad Man, the 21-year-old singer-songwriter’s way of saying things is one that a lot of people are crazy about.
And perhaps the best testimony thus far to Son of a Bad Man's jaw-dropping gifts as both composers and as performers is This is Me, their astonishing Universal Republic debut. Full of enough huge, sweeping choruses to fill every stadium in America, and rich with soaring vocals that absolutely beg to be blasted out of rolled-down, summer-cruising car windows, the five-song EP was cut in a head-spinning five days with Grammy-winning producer John Fields (Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Pink, Switchfoot). The result? A disc that utterly explodes with dangerously addictive, radio-ready anthems like “Open Your Eyes,” an uplifting, redemptive plea to a lost and lonely girl; “Out of Control,” a sexy, hip-churning party track about a love moving way too fast; and the defiant, guitar-crunching, fist-in-the-air title track. With This is Me, Son of a Bad Man hit the airwaves like a fully formed, heat-seeking rock ’n’ roll comet.
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“Shawn is that rare breed of singer that makes you believe every word he says, just by his opening up the throttle and letting loose,” says Semisonic’s Dan Wilson, who collaborated with Son of a Bad Man on the album, along with Chris Henderson (3 Doors Down), Mike Viola (That Thing You Do and Walk Hard soundtracks), Chris DeStefano (Carly Smithson), and the Norwegian duo Espionage (Beyoncé, Train, Chris Brown).
The son of a classic rock-fan dad and a country-loving mom, Shawn started in his teens as a solo acoustic artist, working the clubs and coffeehouses of his native Jacksonville, Florida. Although he sometimes performed with his brother Cody on drums and others, it eventually came time to kick things up a few notches, and Shawn decided to put together a band that matched his increasingly wide-screen pop ambitions. Cherry picking from the cream of the local rock scene, he assembled Son of a Bad Man—guitarist Casey King, bassist Brett Barley, and drummer Brad Moxey—who quickly became one of Jacksonville’s top-drawing acts, appearing with Bryan Adams, Foreigner, Gavin DeGraw, Hinder, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and others. In 2008 the band recorded a self-titled independent EP that went on to sell a formidable 5,000 copies.
It’s at shows, however, that Son of a Bad Man is truly in their element, thanks to constant touring. “We get as many compliments on our intense live show as we do on our music itself,” says Shawn. “We really bring all of our energy to the stage.” The band is quick to return the good vibes to its admirers, keeping in touch with its rapidly burgeoning fan base by spending as much eight hours a day on its Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace sites.
“Every challenge is fun, and we work our asses off to prove ourselves,” Shawn says. “We want people to get a sense of honesty from our music, and to relate it to their own lives. And we want them to have a really good time when they hear it.”
Modest goals, perhaps, yet ones that take even older artists years to attain. Goals that Son of a Bad Man, however, hit with an ease that truly belies their youth. The future looks bright indeed.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.