Last Thursday night, Utah band Fictionist announced its new contract with Atlantic Records, a major recording company currently supporting such artists as Death Cab For Cutie and Lupe Fiasco.
The group, partially composed of Utah natives and BYU graduates, delivered the news somewhat subtly though a minute-long video on its Facebook page. In the video, band members perused CDs at Graywhale record store in Orem. Showing the Atlantic Records logo on CDs from John Coltrane, Led Zeppelin and others, the video ended with Fictionist lead singer Stuart Maxfield holding a Fictionist album and looking into the camera.
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Jacob Jones, who plays keys in the band, said Fictionist is not at liberty to discuss details of the contract, but that it is more than a one-album deal. While the group has done a lot on its own, Jones said band members are looking forward to the exposure and promotion a major label can provide.
“Up to now we’ve done everything on our own, and we’ve done as much as we could,” Jones said. “But the fact is you can’t do everything on your own. You need some help, and this is going to be a lot of help for us to get our music out there.”
Maxfield said at this juncture, Fictionist’s signing feels slightly surreal, but is also a big relief.
“We’ve been touring for the past four years,” Maxfield said. “We’ve played an unbelievable amount of shows and just really been to the bottom of this whole experience so many times. Right now I just feel really relieved to have the confidence and support of Atlantic. They’re very, very excited about things.”
The band’s collective effort and sacrifice, Maxfield said, has brought the group closer together than ever before.
“We’re better friends now than we’ve ever been,” he said. “I think in order to do something you want to do in life, you have be willing to sacrifice quite a bit. And all of us have made the decision that we’re willing to walk a slightly different path. That kind of brings us together. All of our late nights, good shows, bad shows. When we suffer a loss we usually suffer it together. When we have a really great experience, we share that as well.”
Corey Fox, owner of Velour Live Music Gallery in downtown Provo, has witnessed the band evolve over the last few years, and said its major label signing was, at least to him, not much of a surprise.
“They definitely paid their dues, and I think it was a long time coming for them,” Fox said. “Anywhere else, [people are] going to say, ‘who’s this new band that popped out of nowhere?’ But I watched them grow for five years. They’ve definitely put in the work to fine tune it, to get to this point where they’re now getting national attention.”
Fox said Fictionist’s signing is one in a steady stream of major-label attention coming Provo’s way. In the last three years, Fox said, major labels have signed three local acts — Neon Trees, Isaac Russell (RuRu) and Fictionist — and offered a contract to Joshua James, who decided to stay independent. Fox said he thinks this success helps local musicians take their craft more seriously.
“It raises the bar for the rest of the local bands,” Fox said. “With these bands succeeding, it shows bands if they take this seriously they can make a career out of it.”
To celebrate its big news, Fictionist will be playing a show on Sept. 21 at Velour. Maxfield said the show will feature a lot of new material, including songs from an EP to be released the first week in October, as well as two or three songs that will likely be on its next full-length album, which will probably be released next year.
The upcoming concert is mainly for the local fans who have helped Fictionist get to this point, Jones said.
“It’s kind of just a celebration, to celebrate everyone’s support of us,” Jones said. “Just letting everyone know that we’re not going to forget about them, and we’re not going to forget about the community that has helped us get this far.”
