Ship comes in for Passafire

By Rusty Nixon
Director of Development and Alumni Affairs

PLYMOUTH - After a whirlwind major U.S. summer tour, a hit new album and preparing to head out on an east coast tour of their own, Plymouth's Nick and Will Kubley and the band Passafire have even more good news.

The group has been invited to play with the band 311 in May on their special Carribean Cruise.

"Its really all kind of amazing. 311 was my favorite band in high school, my friends and I were all kind of obsessed with them really," said Nick Kubley preparing to hit the road for Passafire's winter tour. "To get to play with them now is really sort of a dream come true. It's certainly not anything I ever thought would happen when we were listening to them in high school."

Local fans will have a chance to see Passafire when their tour comes to Chicago on Feb. 28. The band will play a handful of dates in the midwest with the bulk of the tour on the eastern seaboard. It will be a different sort of tour than the grueling Vans Tour schedule the band had in the summer.

"I really have to admit a lot of the summer really runs together," said Nick. "It's (Vans) a really different type of tour. You sleep in the bus all night and you get there you have to get off the bus, find the catering tent so you can get something to eat and get your set time, then it's back to the bus to travel all night to the next spot.

"All the venues look almost exactly the same and you don't have any chance to actually see the city that your playing in so it all has a tendency to just blur together. This will be a lot different tour. I'm really looking forward to getting out there again. We've been home awhile now and it will be great to have something to do."

The band's new album and fourth release - Start From Scratch - is gaining rave reviews, not just from fans, but from the band themselves.

"I really feel good about the album, I'm happy with all of it - how it turned out and how it sounds," said Nick. "It's the first one we've done that I've been completely happy with. I really think it's our best effort."

Passafire spent the days before the Van's tour at the Sonic Ranch in El Paso, TX with new producer Paul Leary - who has worked previously with bands like Sublime and Meat Puppets - putting the record together.

Nick and Will Kubley during a break at the Sonic Ranch

"I like the process of recording but I'm not nearly as into it as (brother) Will is," laughed Nick. "Will and Ted (Browne guitarist and lead vocalist) are really into the recording process and playing with all the things in the studio. You have to understand that the first thing that's done in every record are the drums. I was finished in four days and spent the rest of the time sitting around really. Playing live is more fun for me."

What's next on the goal list for Passafire?

"I'd love to see us be able to get out there in more opening slots for some of the big name bands out there," said Nick. "It would be nice to see us in a place where we were selling out 1000 to 2000 seat venues on a regular basis."

Keep up with the Kubley's and Passafire at http://passafiretheband.com/en/ or search Passafire on Facebook.