Meet Anthony Fondale from Recess

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Fondale from Recess. 

Hi Anthony, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Recess as an idea began a long time ago in 2008, with Vincent (our lead vocalist) and Alex (our guitarist) as two kids with the same dream. I, Anthony (the band’s keyboardist and producer), joined soon after, and we continued to learn and perfect our craft to the best of our abilities. Who we are now sonically and professionally came into fruition in 2018 when we released our first EP, “Boundary Lane.” This was really the birth of the epic, cinematic, pop/alt band we were meant to become. Soon after, in 2019, we released our second EP, “From Dust to Gold,” and really catapulted forward onto the musical and professional path we’ve always looked towards. A plethora of super cool experiences came right after that release, including things like being invited to Global Citizen’s offices in NYC during our trip to perform on the New York-based TV show “Wonderama,” playing legendary venues like The Viper Room in LA and The Cowan in Nashville, and performing on Topgolf’s “Who Will Rock You?”. Now, with our newest and biggest release to date: “The Valley In The Fog,” we’re getting ready to set off on tour through the midwest, up the east coast, and across the US. Being known for our intense, energetic live performances and our divergent approach to creating music has really made us excited to get out and show more people who we are. We can’t wait to see what the near future has to bring. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Finding oneself musically, I think is one of the hardest things any musician can do. Something that makes you unique and expresses what you love/are inspired by, all while being created in a way both you and others really like and connect with on an emotional level is super difficult. Learning to do/create things on a professional level is also usually a slow, repetitive, painstaking, and almost always expensive thing most musicians have to go through in order to make music creation a viable career path. Proving yourself, avoiding industrial pitfalls, getting out there, staying financially afloat, and tons of other things are all prerequisites for musicians like us who had to build, write, create and hone our craft from the ground up in order to succeed. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As a band, we really believe that we are mostly recognized for our live performances. We are our own biggest critic and strive for perfection with the delivery. As reads our slogan on our social media, “We make music that makes you feel like you’re in the movies.” We’ve always strived to create a Recess show that boasts an epic, cinematic type of experience for the audience rather than just a concert. It obviously helps when you’ve been playing together since childhood, as the chemistry we have is second to none. When asked, Alex always says, “We should be pretty good by now, and I say that in the nicest way possible, obviously. We’ve been playing for almost 15 years at this point, and if we stunk, then it would probably be time to hang it up and move on. So far, our fans haven’t given us that indication. A lot of our fans travel very far to see us, and that says a lot. They are all very sweet to us and enjoy what we do- so we will continue doing that as long as that’s the case.” 

What does success mean to you?
Success to us as of now? We really would just like to be doing this for a living. That would be amazing. In the future, success could be so many different things. The ultimate success would probably to be one of the biggest bands on the planet. Obviously, that’s a one in a million (and some luck), and we realize that. We really just want to be able to wake up in the morning, and music is our job. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.recessbandofficial.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/RecessOfficial/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RecessOfficial
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RecessOfficial
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/RecessBand
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/recessofficial
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5hHyalHR6NJWcXRxJlGvE4

Image Credits
Chris Corso
Kailah Cassidy
Haley Marie