Peter Fanone (Col ‘17) is a double major in Theater and Government with a minor in Italian. He’ll be performing at Kickback today. I sat down with Peter this weekend to talk about his musical style and his set for Kickback.
How did you first get interested in music?
It all started when I was about four years old, when I started playing the piano. I took lessons from then on and spent the next twelve years going to music festivals and performing, which eventually snowballed into me learning to sing and teaching myself guitar.
I started writing my own music in seventh grade and have been doing so ever since. Luckily, my high school had a recording studio. So I was able to record most of my music and have been doing so periodically.
You started recording music that early?
Yeah, starting in Sophomore year when, Georgetown Prep, my high school, opened a new learning center with a recording studio. Since then, I’ve released one EP album, Dreams, Fate and Everything In Between, which has five songs on it and three singles and I’m set to release another one on the day of Kickback.
How would you describe your music?
I would say it’s folk inspired Indie Rock. It teeters a bit on the work of the Avett Brothers and the Decemberists. But I’m definitely also influenced by the style of Coldplay, one of my favorite bands. Generally though, I try to do something different with everyone of my songs. I never attach myself to one sound.
For Kickback, I’m actually going to have a ten-person band with guitar, piano, saxaphone, banjo, harmonica and other stuff like that.
What do you write your music about?
A lot of different stuff, really. Usually my own experiences. Some of them, like “Santa Maria,” are very philosophical, where I talk about doubt and finding one’s place in the world . Other songs are about the girls that I’ve loved and lost, like “Friends For Now.” In another song, “Darkness of the Night” I tried to explore more challenging topics that don’t come from personal experience, like domestic abuse.
How did you get invited to perform for Kickback?
Well, I heard that it was happening from a bunch of my friends who are in The Corp. I reached out to them via email and sent them my stuff. And they liked it and asked me to perform.
So what’s coming next, after the performance? Is there a full album in the works?
Yeah, I’m working on the full album, which I’d really like to release before I graduate this spring. But for now I’ll be releasing singles, starting on Monday.
Photos: Micaela Beltran/The Georgetown Voice
