Fialta

“If summer had a soundtrack, they’d be a power artist.” -Content Magazine Fialta, a California-based indie pop quartet, includes Michael Leibovich, Beth Clements, David Provenzano, and Sarah Shotwell, all experienced multi-instrumentalists who joined forces in 2011 to write and record their harmony, keyboard, and percussion-driven pop. Leibovich and Provenzano were touring with former band Sherwood when they met Clements and Shotwell, who were living in Connecticut and Seattle, respectively. At the time, Clements was finishing her Master’s in English Education at the University of Connecticut and Shotwell was enrolled in a creative writing MFA at the University of Washington. Soon, all four were sending tracks back and forth over email and holding critique sessions over Skype. When, one-by-one, the foursome finally returned to California, they already had a great foundation in place. Self-described as a democratic collective of songwriters, Fialta has been characterized in live performances by constant movement and instrument-swapping (a spectacle that sometimes happens even mid-song). They have come to describe their sound as “Central Coast Literary Pop,” a genre they dotingly created for their sun-drenched, winter-dreading, narrative sensibilities, honed as much by a love of poetry, fiction and film as by the landscape of their beloved town, San Luis Obispo. Fialta is fairly unabashed about this regionalism. As Turntable Kitchen writes, “...there is the sense that they couldn’t have come from anywhere else.” On the first day of summer Fialta looks forward to putting out their debut full length album, Summer Winter. Currently unsigned, they will self-release the LP using funds earned by a serendipitous spring ad placement for KMART trampolines. While Fialta’s 2011 release (a 3-track EP) was a great intro to the band’s music and remixed versions of those songs will be included on the full-length, Summer Winter will feature nine new ones, including a few darker ballads balanced by some kicky power-pop tracks. The album runs a spectrum in terms of mood, with the goal of taking the listener on a pop journey that explores both lyrically and melodically the changing of the seasons, fading youth, loss, new love, and homesickness. Fialta will release Summer Winter locally on June 21, 2013, and nationally on July 23rd, 2013. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.