(April 23, 2008) PCM's Kristyn spoke with Rob Pfeffer, lead vocalist of the rock band Feff. Read on to learn a little history behind the band, and why they are being called one of the biggest unsigned hard rock bands in the industry!

Kristyn: So could you tell our site readers a little about Feff. How did you first become interested in music? How did you all meet and begin playing together?

Rob: My brother and I, Dan, obviously we've been playing together forever. My mom was music teacher, so it was kind of hard to avoid the influence. The first time we had our amps and drums in the basement, started annoying our parents from a very early age. That's pretty much how it started. And like many struggling musicians we had to work in a restaurant for a while, and that's where we met our bass player Adam, who is a sort of virtuoso if you will. And Pat the drummer is a recent addition to the band, and is essentially someone who auditioned for us a few years ago, and he didn't get the job. But we just parted recently with our other drummer Brian, and he kept tabs on us and was ultra interested so he's onboard. And he's been with us about four months now.

K: So is the band a full time thing for all of you guys or do you still hold other jobs?

R: It's warring, especially as an independent band, I'm sure you've heard all the stories. There is a big in-between between garage band and rock and roll superstardom. We make some money on the road; we do well with our internet promotions. We buy a MySpace and sell on iTunes. It's good to pick up some work here and there when we're home, but almost there, almost there.

K: So how's the chemistry within the band? Working with your brothers is there any sibling rivalry there?

R: It's chuck full of knock down dragged out arguments, but that makes the best material. You can have a great friend, but you can't yell at anybody like you can yell at your bother and the next day everything's fine. And we all live together, in the same apartment building, and we have the first three floors. You spend ten hours in a van, it's just like being at home sitting on the couch writing music, so we get along pretty well.

K: I really enjoyed your CD "Question the Motive," can you tell me a bit about your writing process? What comes first: the hook, the melody, the lead?

R: Everybody… Adam the bass player, Dan, and myself all have different strengths in the writing process. Lyrics are always last. Essentially we'll come into the studio with a bunch different parts. For instance Adam will come up with a great riff, Dan with have a chorus set, and I'll work around some melody and we'll fight for hours and days. Everybody throws in their two to five cents. We're three very dominate personalities as far as that goes, so we're very very tough to budge when we like something or don't like something. Like I said before about arguing with your brother or anybody in the band; it always brings out the best material. It's definitely not just one song writer, it really truly collaborative and competitive because we want to make the best music. Essentially that's how it goes.

K: So do you have a favorite track off the new album?

R: Personally, me? I would say I was a big fan of "Return to Grey." I think that's the core vein of where we're going to continue to write. "Exult me" of course, that now is the most successful track. Some of it is older, some of the stuff is newer, but "Return to Grey" is definitely my favorite song.

K: Do you have any favorites to play live?

R: Yes. Exult me, you know, like I said, it definitely gets the best reaction, and we normally close with the song. And the intro and the litharge, the crowd definitely has their favorites and that seems to be the one. It's great, and Exult me is definitely the best.

K: You're labeled as one of the biggest unsigned hard rock bands in the industry. Are you label shopping at the time?

R: You know how the industry is these days. It seems that every label is losing tons of money, and there are millions of independent labels so we've decided to try to make our own action. There are lots of independent labels that we could probably jump on with, that aren't really able to do more then we can do ourselves, so essentially we promote really heavily through the internet and we tour as much as we can with help from booking agents and a management company, and essentially we're doing that to sort of build our resume. To help sales and show sales which is pretty much the only way you can get a real deal record deal is to show that you can sell. So of course the dream is to sign with that huge major label or major independent, but it's not a sense of urgency. We have a blast the way we do it now, but of course it'd be great.

K: How did it feel to be recognized by the Howard Stern Show and legendary Matt Pinfeild on KRock?

R: Any little victories are a dream. It's like you're a kid getting called out on the radio. You can't even imagine. I'm sure you've done tons of interviews and talked to millions of musicians about the complete payoff. The Howard Stern Show is totally the biggest radio show in the country, not necessarily rock and roll geared, but it's a huge audience. To have that exposure. Matt Pinfield, he's been around the business forever and a well respected critic or radio show host if you will. Those victories make it all worth while.

K: I see you're on the road quite a bit. Do you have any crazy road stories or fan experiences yet?

R: You can imagine cooped up in a van with your buddies. The funny thing we noticed is that it's not so much the major cities that are the most fun, it's the outskirts. Being from Brooklyn it's everything all the time, but when you're arriving at Denny's at four in the morning in between shows somewhere in the middle of Kansas and you walk in you definitely turn heads if you're the band guys. A kind of hush goes over the crowd. It's pretty cool in that respect. But crazy stories, it's the connotations of being in a band. Booze, drinking a little too much at times can lead to debauchery. I wish I could be more specific, but probably shouldn't be.

K: So how do you feel about MySpace as a way to connect with fans? Do you maintain your own page?

We have a funny MySpace story actually. We really hit it hard on MySpace for about a year. We found the loopholes that allow you to email tens of thousands of people. It's really a funny story. We were constantly on there promoting, making accounts, getting shut down, and reaching tens of thousands of people a day. The specifics are really boring, but essentially through computer knowledge, Dan's a sort of computer genius, we were selling tons of merchandise, of stuff through iTunes. It's really open to validation, like having radio play. The eventually called us and told us stop, or they were going to sue us for $11,000 for the account we made. Since then, it's been about eight or nine months, we've sort of taken it easy and we maintain our own page, we do our own web design but we've gathered a 50,000 person email list, personal emails not even friends list. We've had pretty much an incredible run. Those social networking sites: MySpace, FriendsPage, Facebook, Highfive they're totally the way to promote.

K: So they were basically calling you guys spammers?

R: Yeah, exactly. And it was funny because they knew we weren't doing anything specifically harmful like selling porn, but they're like: you guys are costing us a lot of money because we constantly have to keep up with you. And all the limitations they've put on MySpace within the past two years have been somewhat because of us. So I apologize if you have a page and you're annoyed. Anything to get ahead.

K: So where do you see the future of music headed? And where do you see the band in that?

R: We obviously you stay true to what you initially set out to do, but if your not cognitent of trends you're gonna get lost. And now we're writing some new material, and we're getting a little heavier but we'll always maintain the melody. We're never gonna be one of those screaming bands that scream all the time. But in the hard rock main, there's sort of a throw back to a thrash metal style like early Metallica and Slayer but modernized. These super 200 mph riffs going on and everything getting really heavier, but the early 90s was dominated by the power ballad. Creed, Nickelback, not that Nickelback still isn't huge. I just see in our vain the style is getting much heavier in intricate with guitar work. Especially with a live show, with people who are not familiar with your material, I've noticed if you've playing heavy music, it just produces energy. It's just automatic energy when you're heavier.

K: So who would you list as your main musical influences?

R: We can all pretty much say Guns and Roses and Metallica at first, when we're younger. Now I can say Alice in Chains, Killswitch, and Inkflames - Dan and Adam are very big fans. Stuff along those lines. System of a Down of course.

K: If you could share the stage with any one band who would it be?

R: I'd have to be Metallica, everybody can agree with that one and they're all heroes. Maybe that's a little cliché, maybe Metallic is in some way at some time every guy in a band's hero but that has to be the one.

K: Is another new album on the horizon?

R: Yeah, we're getting out of town a lot. We're doing a lot of touring this summer. So while we're home we're trying to put together songs on our down time to hopefully have something ready for the fall, and it's going pretty well.

K: Can you tell us one interesting fact about the band that we won't already know? Any funny habit or hobbies?

R: Maybe this is a little PG and not rock star related, but this band can eat all the time and can do so. We're always cooking and BBQing. No one in this band eats birdseed . We will stop and eat all the time. Anything and everything no matter where we are. It's like: oh! Jack in the box!

K: I see you're going to be in Sweeny's in Philadelphia on the 22nd. We'd love to come check out a show.

R: We did our first show there a couple weeks ago. When you go out into another market. New York our home base. We've seen the good and the bad of all these clubs, and Sweeny's has a built in crowd on Thursdays. It's good to see people who genuinely love music and come out not even if they're familiar with the bands.

K: Is there any final message or comment you would like to leave with our readers?

R: If you're a musician or trying to do anything, just make your own action. Do it as if you're never gonna get any help. Cause all the sudden people will start coming in your direction and you will be a great success.