By Gianna Barberia, Lifestyle Editor
Most bands find inspiration from love lost, success gained or general world events. Miss Fairchild, a band from the Greater Boston area, finds its inspiration elsewhere. Their muse is an ambiguous and overall imaginary figure—Miss Fairchild herself.
Although she is not a real person, Miss Fairchild represents a person, dream or idea in all of the band’s songs. Travis Richard, the band’s frontman, said the band has been chasing and writing about her for a decade.
The band originated in the recording studio hoping to explore songwriting and production. However, Richard said that the move from the studio to the stage felt natural given their band’s sound.
“We were familiar with Miss Fairchild’s local reputation as being a high-energy, awesomely fun band for all occasions,” said AfterHour’s Senior Event Manager Josh Caress. “We thought they would be a great fit for Welcome Week.”
Taking inspiration from 80s funk and 60s soul, in addition to artists such as Prince, James Brown and Michael Jackson, the group refers to themselves as “R&B’s modern showband.”
“I think the phrase ‘showband’ peaks younger people’s interest because that’s not lingo they’re familiar with,” Richard said. “Our sound is late 60s to 70s with flashy musical interludes. It’s groovy, makes you happy and makes you want to dance.”
Although the band has been around for about 10 years, the current musicians– vocalist Richard, bassist Blain Crawford, drummer Ben Dicke, guitarist Dan Thomas and keyboardist Antonia Navarro– have only been playing with each other for a year and a half.
What truly binds this group together is their love for Boston. All of the members except Richard attended colleges in the area, such as Berklee College of Music and University of Massachusetts, Boston. Richard, who never attended college, moved to the city for the sole purpose of creating a Boston-based band taking advantage of the local music scene and talent.
“Boston has such an awesome local music community, which is very cool to be a part of,” Richard said. “There’s lots of camaraderie between groups.”
Although Richard frequently plays on college campuses, he never considered attending college himself, originally toying with the idea of becoming a minister like his father and grandfather before deciding to pursue music.
“I just had to be really honest with myself, and I don’t think I’m cut out for school,” Richard said. “I just wanted to play music. I have no regrets, and I love my music career.”
At their concert at AfterHours on Sept. 5, the band’s first time on campus, Miss Fairchild performed mainly original songs along with a tribute song to Steely Dan. Additionally, they gave Northeastern a sneak peak of their newest single, “Life of The Party.”
“The is the first new music we’ve released since our last full-length album, which we put out four years ago,” Richard said.
The band will officially release the track on Sept. 15 during a release party at The Rising Bar in Cambridge. It will then be available to stream on Spotify and iTunes.
