Faint On Call

Faint On Call is a band born in lockdown, a hybrid sound between 90's alternative
shoegaze post grunge and late 80's melody driven rock. The hooks and chunky hypnotic layers match perfectly with the heavy, yet hopeful, visual lyrics that could only have come from the dark downtimes of Covid 19 isolation. The founding members, Tobias Hawkins, Cristian Hernandez and Arthur McConnell challenged each

other’s songwriting abilities in a daily trudge through music apps and emails during 12 months over 2020 and 2021. Tobias:
“I got a text one evening from my old pal Art, a drummer, asking if I would be willing to record some vocals on a track one of his friends had created. All I had to do was download an app onto my iPhone and join in the fun. I was frustrated with the shelter-in-place policy we were living, because of the pandemic. It had meant the end of live performances and the end of work for me as a musician. So, I went with it, excited I would be making music again even if it was online. When I heard the track, I was blown away. Who was this ‘friend’? Who wrote this music?”

Cris and Toby then met formally by text and email. Their first collaboration, Pearl, resulted in magic, so they decided to work together on other tracks Cris had written. Tobias continues.
“There was a lot of emailing back and forth, hoping our first song was not just a fluke, that there was more musical chemistry involved. It was then I became aware that while I was writing in Oakland, California, Cristian was in Guanajuato, Mexico. We’d actually figured out, with the help of technology, how to make music remotely. And so began a goal of writing 30 songs in 30 weeks.”

Who are the four band members of Faint On Call? Tobias Hawkins (Toby) was born in California. He is known as the original drummer of the band Counting Crows. He also played with other Californian acts, such as Laundry, and The Girlfriend Experience (Their record was produced by Sylvia Massy)
Cristian Hernandez (Cris) was born in Celaya, Mex. He studied in L.A. and found success writing and playing bass guitar in onesidezero. He also worked with local bay area bands such as Felsen and Annie Bacon, and under producers such as David Bottrill and Ulrich Wild. Arthur McConnell (Art) Boston, Ma. Works as a session drummer. He has 25 years of experience with many bands such as Felsen, The New Up and others. He has toured North America and the UK extensively. David Rodriguez (Dave) was born in Celaya. A guitarist active in the Bajío region. Joined the band by invitation when production of the debut record began. Cristian:
“We wrote a song every week, like we had said we would. And we finally had to choose a handful of them for our demo. That was tough. I thought our songs were good and they deserved the hand of a top-notch producer, rather than self-produce. We called our friends in the industry to see who would be interested. Toby knew Sylvia Massy. I admire her work. She’s great, but I never thought we’d get a look in.”

Tobias:
“I passed along the demo to Sylvia Massy. I didn’t expect a response. I knew she was highly in demand and probably super busy. We had worked together in the past and I was always in awe of her work. She contacted me within 30 minutes. ‘I LOVE THIS! IT'S MY S**T! LET'S DO THIS! HELL, YEAH !!’ And to cut a long story short, within a few months we all met up in Mexico in a home-built studio in a 300-year-old hacienda with Sylvia Massy making a full-length album.”

Cris and Toby finally met in person in Cristian’s family home two days before recording started. “After almost a year of hard work and communicating remotely, we just needed to meet face to face,” remarked Cristian.