Fyter | Interview | Holy Grail of US Private Hard Rock | Exclusively Reveal Their Second Album

Fyter was a hard rock group coming from the small town Morrilton, Arkansas. Their only album was self-released in 1978. It’s full of fantastic hard rock riffs with some psychedelic touches.

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I’m very happy to share their story and exclusively premiere their second unreleased album on It’s Psychedelic Baby! Magazine.

Would you like to talk a bit about your background? Where and when did you grow up? Was music a big part of your family life?

Kevin Compton: I was raised in South Texas and started my music career there. I moved to Arkansas when I was 16 and began looking for other like-minded musicians.

Travis Johnson: I grew up in a small town in Arkansas, fewer than three hundred folks. My grandmother and father were musical. My grandmother played piano and mandolin. Dad sang, and he learned a bit of guitar the same time I did. My sister had a collection of 45’s, so I would play those when she wasn’t there to stop me. Then, my cousin bought a new turntable, with new records to match. So, he gave me his old Beatles albums. I became obsessed with the Beatles and still am.

Mike Newman: I was born in Morrilton, Arkansas, where Fyter was formed, and lived within 30 miles of there most of my life. I had a few short stints in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, and Evansville, Indiana. My immediate family didn’t really have much going on musically. I had a cousin who played in a local band for a while. He was the person responsible for getting me started. I began my music career playing bass – just not very well.

When did you begin playing music?

Mike: As mentioned, I began playing bass when I was about 13. Some guys I was in school with in Conway, Arkansas, approached me and basically said, “We heard you played bass. We’re starting a band and need a bass player – are you interested?”. What 9th-grade kid wouldn’t be. I jumped at the chance. We practiced a few times and then one day I came into rehearsal and another bass player was there. He was much better – and had much better equipment (which was important). I told the group, I understood, and began to pack my stuff to leave. They stopped me and said that the intention wasn’t for me to go – they needed someone who could sing. So, my first band job was as a singer only.

Kevin: I began playing music in junior a high band at the age of 13 years. I loved rock music and wanted to be in a band. I had a friend who played guitar and another who was a drummer, so I picked up the bass guitar. I saved my lunch money and bought a bass. I discovered bassists were in short supply, so I was soon playing in several bands including a big band that played for all the snowbirds in South Texas.

Travis: I started learning guitar at around ten years old. Before that, I played drums, which I still think is the foundation of my rhythm-guitar style. I’m of the opinion that no kid should be allowed to play lead guitar until they can play rhythm guitar, in the pocket, with great syncopation, like Keith Richards. You can add the twiddly-bits later, but if the rhythm isn’t solid, you’re screwed.

When did you decide that you wanted to start writing and performing your own music? What brought that about for you?

Travis: I don’t remember the first song I wrote. But it would have been before Fyter. I had a sense from early on that original music was what really interested me. It still is. For me, music is about creativity, making something new that the world has never heard before. Writing songs still feels like magic to me. I love reaching into the hat to see what sort of rabbit I can pull out.

Mike: In my early high school years, we moved to Illinois. No friends and a few feet of snow made me pretty bored and irritable. My mother, trying to help, asked what I needed to make me happy. I told her I wanted to learn to play guitar. The standard mother response was, “You don’t own a guitar”. She was great though – a couple of hours later I was the proud owner of a Walmart guitar. I think it was a Telstar acoustic with razor blades for strings. I taught myself a few chords and wrote a couple of short little ditties. I decided then that writing my own stuff was pretty cool.

Kevin: After Fyter was formed, we realized we needed a two-pronged attack. To play clubs we would need cover tunes. To succeed in the long run, we needed original music. We began writing songs, and we would put them into our cover set when we could.

Were you part of any other bands before forming Fyter? Any recordings or releases by them?

Travis: Yes, several, if you count frequent personnel and name changes. High-school talent shows were a thing, so I did that. I even played my own senior prom. Saved me from having to dance, so it was all good. The only recordings of these early attempts were on a little push-button cassette tape machine. Sadly, or maybe gladly, those were lost long ago. We were pretty young when we made the Fyter album. I was eighteen at the time. So, I hadn’t had any opportunities to record professionally in those early days.

Mike: Yes – a few. The 9th grade band was first named Captain Jam. We actually stayed together on into high school (with me traveling the eight hours from Illinois to do our occasional shows). After I moved back to Arkansas, we morphed into a Sha Na Na like 50’s band – complete with the greased back hair and an abbreviated brass section. The full name became “Captain Jam and the Navel Preserve and the All-Star Rhythm Revue”. After that band folded, I did some one-man acoustic shows for a bit before joining with some friends to form a rock cover band called Blood Kin. The name was knocked down to just Blood at some point. That got us through high school. There were a couple of throw together groups for shows now and then, but none that stayed any length of time. As fun as they were, no recordings exist of any of these (that I am aware of).

“We became friends and went to see The Kids Are Alright, a brilliant documentary about The Who. On the way home we said, ‘Right, let’s put together a new band, and make it as big and rowdy as that.'”

Can you elaborate the formation of Fyter?

Travis: As I remember it, I was hanging out at the “Gray House”, which was where Mike lived. The house was party central. The place was never locked. Total strangers would randomly wander in and out, guns would go off late at night, and sometimes you’d have to pee around the head of someone passed out on the toilet. Rock-and-roll inspiration, basically. Kevin was there one night. We got to talking about the bands we were in, music we liked, and the idea of playing together. We became friends and went to see “The Kids Are Alright”, a brilliant documentary about The Who. On the way home we said, “Right, let’s put together a new band, and make it as big and rowdy as that.” We practiced a bit in my parent’s garage. The problem was that neither of us had much experience singing. But I knew a guy who did, the guy from the Gray House, my old pal from the bands Onyx Rose and Thunderbolt – Mike Newman. And the icing on the cake was that he even had a PA System. It had to be!

Kevin: I was playing in a southern rock style band called Sage. Travis and Mike were playing in Thunderbolt. I was interested in a more hard-rock style and approached Travis about joining forces and starting a new band. We jammed with a drummer, Duane Harlan, and tried to play as a power trio. We soon determined we needed a lead singer. Travis knew Mike and he joined the group as lead singer and rhythm guitar.

Mike: I was approached while playing pick-up basketball by Greg Wirges (who plays keys on the album – and took the back sleeve photos – and was the keyboard player for Fyter off and on), really only an acquaintance at the time, about joining a band they were putting together. He knew me from the Blood days. I found out pretty soon that a man in town was wanting to manage a band and he was hand-selecting the members. I met Travis when he came to “audition” for us. He came in with a Fender Stratocaster, an amp, and a turntable with a Kiss album. He played along with the solos on the album. He and Ace never missed a lick. He was in. That band was “Onyx Rose”.

After a falling out with our manager, we voided our contract. There was some wording in there about use of the name and a non-compete clause. We pretty much ignored that and re-formed a week or so later as a new group, with the same people structure, called “Thunderbolt”. Thunderbolt had a pretty good run, but eventually came to an end. Travis contacted me a while later about having another go with Kevin on bass and Duane on drums. That would turn out to be the beginning of Fyter.

How did you decide to use the name ‘Fyter’?

Kevin: Naming a band is always a difficult thing. We were struggling and trying everything we could think of to come to a decision on the name. We began assigning numbers to letters and comparing that to the number of letters in our surnames and somehow fighter emerged. In the style of the time we changed the “igh” to “y” and we had FYTER. Of course, if you name your band Fyter you should expect to be tested by the local toughs. Which we were occasionally. It’s only rock and roll.

Mike: I didn’t have any input on the initial thought process. The story I have always told – or how it was presented to me, anyway – was that Travis and Kevin were having a guys night out at the movies. Not family movies, if you get my drift. Kevin, or Travis, suggested the name “F*cker” – but quickly vetoed it because they knew we wouldn’t get hired for any high-school proms or homecomings. The talk continued and Fyter was the better option. Some people on the internet have speculated that the name came from L. Frank Baum’s “Wizard of Oz” books – that is not the case. I did design the logo with the extended letters. We needed something for t-shirts and business cards.

Travis: I think Mike has it basically right. I don’t remember considering “F*cker”, but given the evening’s entertainment choice, it might have been thrown in the hat on a lark. But we went with Fyter. That said, Kevin’s version also makes a lot of sense. I was deeply into some pretty esoteric things, amongst them numerology and gematria. So, it is quite possible that it was in the mix.
And no, there was no “Wizard of Oz” source. But I love the idea of that, since it’s much classier than the theatre story!

When and where did you play their first gig? What sort of venues did Fyter play early on?

Travis: I have no recollection of our first gig. There had been so many before and after that. I think they all probably blended in my mind. I’ll defer to Mike and Kevin. In general, the venues ranged from high-school proms, Catholic spaghetti picnics, bars, Halloween parties, and then a bit later, concerts and festivals.

Kevin: I can’t say I remember our very first gig, but we played Knights of Columbus community dances, street dances, high school proms, et cetera. Then when we got old enough (21 was the legal drinking age) we played local bars and clubs. Four or five sets a night for a few hundred dollars for the entire band. After the album came out, our profile increased, and we started playing some concerts with our original set.

Mike: The first Fyter show was at a Catholic picnic dance during the summer bazaar season. It was an almost guaranteed crowd because of the setting – and it was indeed full, and the crowd was more into it than we thought they would be. We played more of those, as well as local clubs and high-school type shows in the area. There were a few ventures to surrounding states for club shows and Navy reunions. Throw in a State Fair or two – and an opening slot for Black Oak Arkansas for a charity event as well.

How was the band accepted by the audience?

Kevin: No audience is the same. Your job is to find what the audience wants. That’s the skill learned from playing for different people. When you get good at that, you’ve got something.

Travis: With rare exceptions, I think audiences loved us. One thing that set us apart was that we cared about presentation, what the band looked like on stage – a drum riser, lights, special effects like flash pots, and the clothes we wore. We put a lot of thought and work into it. I think audiences register that care, even if only subconsciously.

Mike: Fyter had a following – I think in a strange way we still do. We always drew a crowd, and the crowd was always involved and enjoying it. I still have people come up to me and talk about the “Fyter days”. They’ll tell me things they remember about certain shows – even down to certain songs. It’s a good feeling to be remembered. One person lately told me he met his wife at one of our events. Luckily, they are still married and he wasn’t blaming us for anything.

“I think a band’s sound is a product of each member’s influences”

What influenced the band’s sound?

Mike: It was from a lot of the 70’s music groups. Led Zeppelin, Foghat, Peter Frampton, The Stones, Hendrix, et cetera. When writing our own music, some of that bled in, but we tried to make it a Fyter sound.

Travis: In the best case, I think a band’s sound is a product of each member’s influences. So, I won’t speak for Kevin or Mike. But for me, it was first, The Beatles; then Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Rush, Led Zeppelin, UFO, The Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton, and Tom Petty. And many others! As far as my guitar playing is concerned: Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Michael Schenker, and Peter Frampton.

What was the local scene? Any other bands worth mentioning?

Mike: Morrilton was a small town – maybe 6,000 people. When we started there were a couple of other local bands trying to give it a go – “Sage” (one of our best friends, then and still, was their vocalist, Alex Sponer – and we may have stolen their bass player, Kevin) and “The Reidmueller Brothers Band”. They were all good guys and would go to our shows and us to theirs.

Kevin: Fyter was the scene.

Travis: Kevin is right on this one, I think. We did dominate the local scene. There were other good bands. I just don’t think they necessarily hit on all the cylinders we did, especially when we were at our best.

What’s the story behind your 1978 album?

Travis: I honestly don’t remember much of the lead-up to the album. I don’t know why. I was a teenager, and I think we were moving pretty fast at the time. I was writing a lot, I do remember – many of the guitar riffs on the album, and songs like ‘If I Do’. We had this feeling that to legitimize the music we needed to record an album. It was like, “If we don’t do a record, then the tree fell, and no one heard it”. We also thought that a finished product would increase our stock value with booking and record companies.

Kevin: We had some original songs. Mike had ‘Tears’ and I think we had ‘Where I Stand’. At the time I was attending College and I took a semester off to make the album. We rehearsed and wrote every chance we could. When we felt we were tight enough, we booked studio time in Oklahoma. Only three days to make an album. Very ambitious.

Mike: It was a plan and a dream of ours to get an album out there. It was much harder in 1978 to get a record created, much less released. We submitted it to every major record company there was at the time. They apparently didn’t love us…

“The big guy said he wasn’t going to unload his gun”

There must be a story behind the artwork!

Mike: I don’t recall how it came about, but I remember we were excited to get the North Little Rock, Arkansas, Police Department involved. There were actually supposed to be many more cars in the photos, but Duane overslept, so we were late getting there. They were doing it during their shift change, so most of them had to go back to their patrols. One little tidbit is that the big guy (pretty sure he was the one aiming his shotgun at me) said he wasn’t going to unload his gun. I’m not sure he ever did.

Kevin: The artwork was shot with the North Little Rock Police Department. These cops came and we took photos of them handcuffing the band and aiming their weapons at the band on top of a shopping center roof. Our manager at the time set it up. We were outlaws, misfits, fighters.

Travis: Kevin and Mike have it right. I vaguely remember handing guitar cases up ladders to get everything on top of that strip mall. Alex Sponer, a good friend of ours, took the photo, standing on a step ladder. He had a Hasselblad camera, which was known for its ability to retain resolution when the photos were blown up. This was in the days before digital photography. I wish I could say I thought of the idea, but I have no idea who came up with it.

What kind of gear did you have in the band?

Kevin: I played a 75 Fender Precision as my main instrument. I had a Rickenbacker 4001 Bass and an Acoustic bass rig. I also used a Dan Armstrong acrylic bass on “100-Watt Head”.

Travis: My guitar heroes all played Marshall amps, so as soon as I could talk my parents into helping me buy one, that’s what I got: a 50-Watt, mid-70’s, master-volume Marshall. Early on, I played a 1965 blond Fender Stratocaster, my first proper guitar. I bought it from my high-school biology teacher for $125. Not a bad deal! As the other guys will tell you, I’m a gearhead. So, my next guitar was a white a Gibson Les Paul Custom, followed by a Gibson Flying V, then a Travis Bean. I played all of these with Fyter, but the Flying V got the most use. The neck was amazing, and the pickups were perfect for our sound. Since then, I’ve continued to accumulate instruments: guitars, basses, mandolins, ukuleles, lap steels, a hurdy-gurdy. I rarely sell anything. Frankly, it’s gotten a little out of hand! But I love every one of them. I used a different amp in the studio to record the Fyter album. My guitar parts were all recorded through a Silverface Fender Champ. Proof, once again, that you can get a big sound from a small amp. However, I did blow that amp up recording the album, may it rest in peace. Sacrifices are sometimes necessary.

Mike: For live shows, I played through Peavey amplifiers, with Gibson and Fender guitars, and a Morley Power-Wah Boost pedal. Our PA was a Peavey system as well. Our sound man, Rick Nicholls, kept that thing up and running. The studio work for the album was a Gibson Les Paul Custom played through a Peavey Classic combo. I also used a mic’d Ovation acoustic for ‘Tears’.

What was the weirdest gig Fyter ever played?

Mike: That would take some thought. I recall a Blues Brothers type club, complete with chicken wire and beer bottles being thrown against it. There were also the times we were booked into venues that were predominantly country – somehow, we made those times work without dying. The oddest may have been when we were billed as the “opener” for Alice Cooper. It’s not as cool as it sounds – it was at a drive-in movie theater. We were live – Alice was on the video screen.

Travis: Well, we played a high-school prom at the height of the disco period. I’m not fond of disco. We finished a rock song to a very lukewarm reception. A young lady marched to the front and said, “Don’t you guys know the number one tune in the nation, ‘Le Freak?'” We did not. And I, for one, had no idea of its position in the charts, and did not care. We survived, got paid, and resolved to better research our target audience in the future. I’m told by my bandmates that eventually we did learn ‘Le Freak’. If so, happily, I have blocked that memory.

Kevin: Weirdest gig? As Mike said, probably when we opened for an actual movie. We played on a flatbed truck. The film was Alice Cooper’s “Welcome to My Nightmare.” This was a drive-in movie. All the people were in cars. When we finished a song, they would honk their car horns.

Would you share your insight on the albums’ tracks?

Mike: Every track has its own story. ‘Where I Stand’ was the first song Travis and I ever wrote together. It was, in true garage-band fashion, written in his parents’ garage. ‘Fortress of Fools’ is a story of a 3-night club date in Texas that didn’t work out so well. Apparently, there was a fight and murder at the club just before our scheduled dates, so it just wasn’t the place to be at the time. The first night there were about ten people in the audience – eight at a birthday party for a deaf guy. Travis at some point during the 3 days was given a turquoise ring by a girl (that’s the “T-ring given to the man” in the song). The line “law and order on our side” refers to me getting stopped driving 96 miles per hour on a 55-mph highway (trying to make it to sound check on time) and getting away with a warning from a State Trooper because we had watched the same crappy movie. All good stuff that songs are made of, and Kevin and Travis did a good job with it. I wrote ‘Tears’ for my girlfriend at the time (she was 16). I guess it worked – we’ve been married for almost 44 years.

Kevin: ‘Monarch’ was a prog rock song about a ruthless king and the assassins who are out to kill him. This gave Duane a chance to use all those drums you see on the back cover. ‘100 Watt Head’ was a crowd favorite. The title was a double entendre, not very subtle. Funny lyrics and a frantic performance. ‘Fortress of Fools’ and ‘Last Legacy of Mr. Ring’, lyrically, were influenced by the Beatles ‘Sgt. Pepper’. The lyrics were telling a story with metaphor, not a linear narrative. ‘Tears’ got the most radio airplay locally.

Travis: I’ll skip around a bit, emphasizing the lead guitar, since that’s what I know the most about:
‘Monarch’ was wonderful as a vehicle for getting out my Rush influences. I love the dissonance of the dual-guitar interlude between the verses. Mike and I had just started developing this style, which would eventually become one of our trademarks.
‘100-Watt Head’ was a bit of naughty writing from Kevin. My major contribution, apart from the Chuck Berry guitar licks, was the harmonica solo, which I think added a unique drive and character to the track.
‘If I Do’ is my homage to Peter Frampton and Django Reinhardt. Jazz chords, with a nice melodic solo, just to prove I could do it, in a pinch.
‘Long Way to Go’ features an E-Bow guitar intro and outro, which some of our competitors were convinced was a synthesizer. That makes me smile to this day. When I finished the overdub on the outro, I slammed E-Bow into the pickup, which made the last note squeal like a pinch harmonic. The engineer yelled “Jeff Beck”, over the talk back system! Thanks, I’m not worthy, but I’ll take it.
‘Teenage Rampage’ is fun for two reasons: one, it’s the first song from the album that I heard on the radio; and two, I was using a Tychobrahe Octavia through a maxed-out little Fender Champ. The only time I’ve ever used that sound. But it communicated teenage angst pretty well.

What can you tell us about FMP Records? Was the record self-released?

Kevin: FMP is short for Fyter Musical Productions, the name we used to register and copyright the music. We recorded the album at a small studio in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and yes, we self-released.

How many copies were pressed and where were they distributed?

Mike: 1,000 copies were pressed. We sold them at our shows and a few record stores around Arkansas. The small number definitely contributes to the collectability of it. They’re rare now.

How pleased was the band with the sound of the album? What, if anything, would you like to have been different from the finished product?

Travis: For the most part, I was pleased with everything. I think a couple of numbers were a bit fast, but that’s in the ear of the listener, I suppose. I do know that Duane was not happy when we had to cut one of his temple-block overdubs short. We just ran out of time.

Mike: I think, at that time, we were okay with it. You have to remember it was a three-day project. Knowing what we know now, we would probably have worked out how to have a little more time to tweak stuff and make some edits. I am proud that it has sustained through all this time and we’re still talking about it 43 years after the fact.

Kevin: My biggest regret was not obtaining the master recording. The album was a great promotional tool. I think the album sounded professional for the time. We spent a lot of time on the mix and obviously the record has legs.

What happened after the band stopped? Were you still in touch with other members? Is any member still involved with the music?

Travis: Well, we lost a lot of hair. We moved in different directions, musically. I was still writing a lot of new music, some of it fairly innovative, I think. I began singing a lot more. But, at the time, I was still primarily a lead-guitar player. So, I auditioned for a Little Rock band called Silverheels. I got the job, and we had a lot of fun. Then, Kevin and I toured the country with a band that Kevin founded. So, he and I certainly stayed in touch through that period. While on the road with that band, I was head-hunted by a group emphasizing original music in Natchez, Mississippi. I lost touch with Mike and, to some extent, Kevin at that point. That’s a regret of mine.

I drifted away from music in my 30’s, then came back in my 40’s, to front a series of Celtic bands. It was great to be the lead vocalist, for a change – I see why Mike enjoys it so much! And my songwriting took off wildly again, in directions I couldn’t have predicted. But the results have been good.

Mike: The band stopped gradually – it wasn’t a sudden death. A year or so after the album was made, Duane moved to the Dallas, Texas, area. After Duane, we had Stan Bane as a drummer for a while, and then settled in with Mike (Orville) Quattlebaum (my drummer from Blood) for the long haul. Along the way Kevin left first to pursue bigger and better things. Travis followed sometime later for the same reasons.

We replaced Kevin with our Thunderbolt bass player, Don Mallett, and brought in Tim Tipton as a lead player when Travis left. Probably after a year or so of that line-up, my wife and I were expecting our second child. I quit to be able to be at home more and help raise her. Everyone else gave it up then. I didn’t play with anyone for 18 years. Just a few years ago, my youngest daughter bought her older sister a shirt that says: “I broke up the band”.

I stayed in touch with Travis, Orville, and Greg more so than I did Kevin. We’ve all had occasional Facebook conversations, but business, distance and real life made it hard to get together for anything. We did manage 2 years ago to have a Fyter reunion. It was the first time the five of us – Travis, Kevin, Orville, Greg, and me, had been on a stage together in 40 years. After the 18 year “vacation” from music, I started playing again. Nothing original, just a cover band called “Relic”. That lasted until a few months ago, when Covid pretty much destroyed live music for a while. I am currently toying with hitting the stages again with a one-man acoustic act.

Kevin: Sad to say, Duane has passed. Mike, Travis, and I all went on to play in various bands after Fyter. I toured the country in some show bands and played in weekend warrior bands. We are all in touch and have been lifelong friends.

Looking back, what was the highlight of your time in the band? Which songs are you most proud of? Where and when was your most memorable gig?

Kevin: The highlight of my time in Fyter was meeting all the fans and people in and around the band. Our biggest fan was Strait Johnson. He loved Fyter as much or more than the band members did. He is also Travis’s dad; may he rest in peace.

It is too difficult to pick a favorite song. I like different songs for different reasons. ‘100 Watt Head’ and ‘Teenage Rampage’, for their youthful exuberance. ‘Where I Stand’, ‘Monarch’, and ‘Long Way to Go’ are more rockers. There are some ballads and love songs on there, too. I’m proud of the entire effort.

Travis: I loved everything about Fyter. We rarely fought and had a shared vision throughout most of the band’s existence. We all worked hard, and it made for a great collaboration.

From the first album, I honestly like them all. Even today, after repeated listenings. Sure, there are things I’d change. As far as innovation is concerned, the E-Bow part on ‘Long Way to Go’, to my knowledge, had never been done like that before. But then again, I’m sure there’s some kid in Oklahoma who bought an E-Bow the same time I did, with too much time on his hands. So, I could be wrong.

Also, I’m proud of the lead solo on ‘If I Do’. It’s a “constructed” solo, meaning I didn’t just waffle around in the studio. I knew what I was going to play going in. I think it stands up well. I wish the tempo was a bit slower.

Mike: The whole time we were together was a good time. I learned so much from Travis and Kevin that I couldn’t begin to tell it. We had a ton of fans that turned out to be life-long friends, while the guys in the band turned out to be like family.

As for which song I’m most proud of…I can’t single one out. During the Relic shows, people would still come up and request Fyter songs. Not certain ones, but all of them, so I guess they all have their place in the world.

We played a lot of places when we started that made us feel like the stars we wanted to be, so there were quite a few favorites. I think the most memorable one for me though has been the reunion show. It was almost like we never stopped.

Is there still any unreleased material?

Mike: There is. We actually recorded a second album that never made it to vinyl. Travis and I discussed how to get that out there – it seemed kind of selfish to keep it for only us. So, we’ve uploaded it to SoundCloud. There’s a link to the SoundCloud page here with the interview. So it’s there, if anyone wants to check it out.

There’s also the new stuff we’ve started working on just a couple of months ago. Maybe we’ll put it on Spotify or some other vehicle in the future.

Kevin: I think the unreleased “Second Album” is superior to Fyter.

Travis: I agree with Kevin. Even though they’re demos, warts and all, the songwriting was maturing and they captured what we were going for. So I hope folks will follow the link and give it a listen. Or you could just hop on SoundCloud, and search for “Fyter Band Arkansas”.

In addition, I also have a lot of demos, from the Fyter period and post-Fyter, a few of which I’ve posted to SoundCloud, under the artist-name “Galen”. Bad choice, since there seem to be hundreds of “Galens” out there. So, I should probably re-post those, using a unique name, or better tags, or whatever will make it easier to find.

 

Thank you for taking your time. Last word is yours.

Kevin: Thanks for your interest in our record. It was a labor of love and for some weird reason it rears its head every so often. The memories are priceless.

Mike: Thank you for reaching out to us old guys to let us know people still think of us. It’s nice to matter. It’s amazing to me that we get as much, or more, noise about the album now as we did when it was first released. It’s good to be collectible. Travis calls it “Internet Immortality”. I like it.

Travis: Thanks. I loved doing this! It gave me another opportunity to reflect on one of the best times of my life. Kevin and Mike are my brothers, in all the best senses of the word, and my life is inextricably linked with theirs. I wouldn’t want it any other way! And R.I.P. Duane.

Oh wait, there’s one more thing: I was wondering if you know anyone who would be willing to road-manage an aging rock band’s tour of Slovenia?

Klemen Breznikar

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Fyter SoundCloud