Forming in high school, the Australian group (originally named Small Town Heroes) displayed superior hustle by distributing flyers outside Perth Arena and recording 30-second covers to post online. After renaming themselves in 2016, they spotted a call for unsigned bands with touring experience on Instagram posted by producer John Feldmann. Despite their lack of touring experience, they wrote him anyway.
Feldmann responded and, with his encouragement, The Faim embarked on a creativity binge. “We wrote and recorded for about four months,” remembers bassist-keyboardist Stephen Beerkens, culminating in a flight to LA, with 30 partially formed tunes in hand. There they fleshed out ideas with co-writers like Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz and blink-182’s Mark Hoppus.
This led to a stream of attention from industry notables. In BMG’s case, they played a stripped-down showcase featuring upright piano. “In the studio, they can make us sound good,” admits Beerkens. “But what you can’t fake is music in its rawest form.”
Despite other offers, BMG won out. “The biggest thing we felt was their energy and passion,” affirms vocalist Josh Raven. “They said, ‘we’re not going to alter anything you do. We want to offer you advice and cultivate the beautiful thing you guys are doing.’ We really resonated with that.” They also believe BMG came best-suited to help them reach their specific goals.
Although they negotiated the finer points of their contract, the band understood BMG presented a fair deal. “At the end of the day,” claims Beerkens, “the core of what BMG were offering was reasonable.” Having already accumulated over eight million streams, The Faim intend to release their full-length debut sometime in early 2019.
Date Signed: Sept. 8, 2017
Label: BMG
Band Members: Josh Raven, lead vocals; Sam Tye, lead guitar; Stephen Beerkens, bass, keyboard; Sean Tighe, drums
Type of Music: Pop/Pop-Punk/Rock
Management: Rob Nassif - The Hen House Artist Management
Booking: Dave Shapiro - Sound Talent Group
Legal: Craig Averill - Sterling, Rooks, Hunter, McKoy & Worob
Publicity: Nathalie Rubin - BMG
Web: thefaim.com
A&R: Jaime Neely - BMG
