Fearing Brings a Brooding, Badass Show to the Crypt

Being in a band typically requires members to, you know, regularly hang out in person and get into a room to write and jam out songs. Making music can be collaborative like that; it often results in a singular, shared sound and vision that defines the overall group and individuals who worked on it.

But that’s not how California post-punk trio Fearing approaches the process. Started by longtime musicians and music producers James Rogers and Brian Vega shortly before 2017’s debut EP, A Life of None, the darkwave act is more of a solo project that functions as a band out of necessity, mainly for touring purposes.

“My previous bands, we mostly wrote, like, a couple riffs at home, and we’d bring it in and sit in a practice space together and form a song,” Rogers says, which outlines how almost every artist operates within a traditional band.

“But Fearing has literally never done that. Maybe one time,” he continues. “We’ll pick from our mp3s which songs we’ll play live and then learn how to play them together, because otherwise the only other time we’re performing them together is in the studio.”

Rogers and Vega are constantly sharing a steady stream of ideas with one another. “I like to think of me and Brian like music producers,” Rogers explains. “He sent me literally seven demos yesterday. No joke — with stems and everything, and was like, ‘Cool, do your thing.’ I’m like, ‘Damn, I’m so busy with work,’ but I’ll hit it real hard one week and have another five or six, and we’ll just build them.”

Those batches of song snippets are in preparation for a new single that will most likely be out sometime before the end of the year, according to Rogers. In the meantime, Fearing is focusing on its recently released sophomore LP, Destroyer, and embarking on a mini-fall tour with Sacred Skin and Halloween. The brooding bands will be in Denver on Tuesday, October 24, at the Crypt.

The nine tracks that ended up on Destroyer were boiled down from a pool of 32 demos, twenty of which Rogers wrote lyrics to. A U.K. tour with L.A. band Death Bells last year helped Fearing, which now includes guitarist Joey Camello, find time to write with one another on the road. “During that time, we sat down and wrote riffs together. Usually, we write full songs per person — like me or Brian will write a full song at home and then send it, and we’ll all just learn it,” Rogers says.

“This was the first time we wrote riffs together, then we all went back to our houses and I compiled it together," he recalls. "So that created a really different tone for the record.”

Trimming the fat and getting to “the meat of the song quicker” was the goal, he adds. Then it just came down to putting together the track list “based on vibe.” The funereal feelings Fearing conveys on Destroyer are juxtaposed by poppy beats, making it danceable goth club music in the same vein as French Police or House of Harm.

“When we started, we literally wanted to be like She Past Away or some shit. But then we wrote it, and it came out like Slowdive, so we were like, ‘Whatever, let’s just roll with it,’” Rogers shares, adding that he is more interested in what comes naturally than focusing on a certain genre sound. “I think we’re always trying to make it darker and darker, but it gets poppier and poppier. I don’t know how that keeps happening. … I feel like we’re learning the dance-music vibe as we get more into it."

Given Rogers and Vega’s background making hip-hop and witch-house beats, it’s not too surprising that Fearing has turned out to be more merry than morose throughout the years. Destroyer is further proof of that, with songs such as “I Was So Alive” and “Gravity.”

“We got into this when we were in Reno a long time ago. We were making more witch house and trap stuff. It just became a habit,” Rogers says, adding he’s usually fussing with some techno project idea that eventually turns into a Fearing tune on the side. “But I’ll end up writing something that’s really awesome and I can’t keep it, so I’ll give it to the band. That’s happened a lot. But I think it’s better. I don’t know if I’m trying to be on stage by myself.

“It’s definitely what I do for fun; we just play video games and fuck around on Ableton,” he continues.

Touring at least gives him and his Fearing bandmates an excuse to socialize and bring their music to audiences outside of their current home of California.

“I think we’re both homebodies,” Rogers says of himself and Vega. “We don’t really go out. We just go out and tour, but I don’t leave my house otherwise. I even work from home, so I find myself just making tunes.

“We’re playing in a live band but not really acting like one.”

Fearing, 7 p.m. Tuesday, October 24, the Crypt, 1618 East 17th Avenue. Tickets are $15.