Brian Fitzpatrick-Biography by Mil Scott

The youngest of four brothers, Brian Fitzpatrick was born in Holliston, MA and grew up in New Jersey, where he still resides. He embraced music at an early age and, influenced by such legendary artists as The Who, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne, was already playing guitar and writing his own introspective, character-driven songs by age 11. “Being Irish, there’s a long lineage of storytelling I associate with my grandfather and down the line,” Fitzpatrick has said. “So, the most interesting thing for me has always been songwriting and storytelling more than playing guitar or being a rock star.”

Given such a heritage, one might say it was “luck of the Irish” that nonetheless brought the latter of these aspirations knocking on Fitzpatrick’s door in the form of various hardcore bands with whom he spent his early twenties touring Europe and the U.S. As part of this scene, he found himself in the company of a group enjoying regular rotation on MTV, sharing magazine covers with the likes of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and participating in several major European festivals.

Still, in spite of this early success, Fitzpatrick has said of that era, “I was miserable. I was up there on stage with 5000 people in front of me and realized none it meant anything. It wasn’t me.”

Having arrived at this daunting conclusion, Fitzpatrick promptly quit the hardcore scene and returned home to NJ. Unsure of his next career move, he sought solace in the boyhood friends who had once shared his acoustic songwriting vision and collaborated on his early musical endeavors. Encouraged by their continued interest in and willingness to support his work, Fitzpatrick gradually discovered his Other Side – a collection of personal reflections and a mix of musical styles that became his debut album, released in 1998.

Fitzpatrick’s goals for the album were modest...mainly grounded in the hope the effort might be sufficiently well-received to allow another disc to follow. Toward this end, he began playing local venues in both solo acoustic and full-band formats and, of course, continued to write. As a result, by early 2000 he had built a devoted hometown following and released his second album, When I Bleed. As the title implies, this work once again centered around thought-provoking self-exploration-themed compositions, and once again was quickly embraced by his ever growing fan base.

Certain by this time that a third album would soon be in the works, Fitzpatrick felt some changes were in order to more adequately translate his live performance quality into his recorded work. Toward this end, he teamed with producer Jerry Jones (The Fiendz, Factoids, Plug Uglies) and engineer Tim Gilles of Jersey City’s Big Blue Meanie Studios (Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sebastion Bach, Susanna Hoffs) to create his artistic breakthrough, State of Grace, released in March 2002.

Another round of touring followed, this time including a short Southeastern and Midwest run, and again changes and improvements to fine-tune the Fitzpatrick sound were implemented and embraced. By summer of 2002 a new band lineup had emerged, offering a wholly rediscovered interpretation to many of the songs from State of Grace, and providing the inspiration for a flurry of brand new compositions. And, as one might expect, Fitzpatrick soon became eager to yet again enter the studio to capture this musical expansion in recorded form. As one might also expect, an increased confidence level in both the live and studio formats allowed Fitzpatrick to create an even more detailed and complete sonic interpretation of his lyrical ambitions than he’d achieved on any prior work. It’s not surprising, therefore, that before arriving at a title for this album, Fitzpatrick jokingly referred to it as State of Grace, Part II. For, indeed, it could be argued that more than anything else this collection serves as a logical progression to the beginnings of musical growth represented on that release.

That said, Fitzpatrick currently stands at the doors of a new era. With a street date of Oct. 2, 2004, his latest recording effort, Further Down The Line, shares not merely songs reminiscent of those he began writing at age 11, but it also introduces listeners to characters he met at or about that time (“Valhalla”, “For Mr. Brown, Wherever You Are”) and offers fearlessly open insights into the person he was already then becoming. And, in yet another echo of his childhood, it represents a collaboration of four “brothers” (Fitzpatrick on guitar and vocals, Jay Forsythe on bass, Rich DeCicco on drums, and Ed Fritz on keyboards and accordion). In light of these considerations, truly the phrase “come full circle” takes on a whole new meaning…and Rolling Stone’s prophecy dubbing Fitzpatrick “a writer to keep an eye on” has proved not merely sage advice, but one the writer in question has resoundingly self-fulfilled.