By Nicholas Jason Lopez
At the “Re-Release Show” for their album ‘This Is Where We Came From,’ which was played in their producer/fellow member Mike Tripoli’s backyard in 2015, Atticus Finch geared up to play fan-favorite “Scrubs” in what was supposed to be a farewell show.
Lead Singer/guitarist Patrick Malowski called one of his buddies who worked at his television news station to come to the show. He came with one of his cameras and took photos. Another friend who went to school for broadcasting at the time also brought a camera. The band set up a plethora of cameras.
As the song began, they called up to the stage their five biggest fans – people who had known them since their high school days who came out to see them seven years later. Dressed to the nines in Atticus Finch shirts, they screamed along to the songs the whole show.
“We literally just said, ‘You guys come take these three microphones up here and you guys sing the song,’ so that was just a really cool moment for us,” said guitarist Mike Ferrucci. “We knew it was our last song of the day. We kind of all just looked at each other at the end of the song and just kept playing because we kind of didn’t want the song to end.”
In turn, the song went from four minutes to nearly eight.
“I don’t know how someone thought it sounded, but I can tell you how that felt and that was probably the coolest moment of my life so far and I’m so happy that it’s on video because I get to look back at it and it’s a reminder every time maybe something gets hard in life,” said Patrick. “It’s like ‘Man, this is a pretty cool thing to do. This is a pretty cool thing to get to experience in life.'”
Since then, the band members put energy towards their own careers, but their loyal listenership refueled their desire to play shows once again. The band decided to take their music back on the road. They recently hit the West Coast from May 31 to Jun. 5 for the first time on their “Coasts Collide Tour” with friends Takers Leavers, a band based out of Southern Calif..
“For us, this kind of is the dream,” Patrick said. “It’s like no matter how big of a stage you’re playing or what it is, that didn’t really matter to us. We’d love to play to as many people that want to come see us play, but if we’re playing to two people, we’re gonna make that the coolest, most intimate show for those two people that we can and if we’re playing for 200 people, that’s really cool too. We’re gonna make that the most family feel that we possibly can.”
In total, Atticus Finch is Patrick, Ferrucci, Jordan Sommer (lead guitar), Terran Fernandez (bass guitar), Nick Moran (drums) as well as family members Tripoli, Ryan Newman, Trevor Roorda and Brandon Malowski.
They knew quickly from early on that there was always strength in numbers and that was going to help them get whatever they went for. Even if that meant they had to “do it themselves.”
“We were really into music and there were other people that were super into music, but there was nowhere to play,” said Patrick. “There was no scene. It was DIY and we decided, along with other people who were interested in this, ‘Let’s build the scene. Let’s build it from the ground up.’
One of the first places they played was the cafeteria at Herkimer High School, with approval from a “cool” principal.
“We would get like 100-125 people who maybe weren’t super into that style of music and then after a few shows, I mean, that was one of the cool things to do,” said Patrick. “People were coming from outside towns to go to these shows and all of a sudden, we had a scene we were building. The population [of Herkimer] is 8,073 people. Now this wasn’t My Chemical Romance and Blink-182, but a lot of bands that were looking for cities to play, Herkimer, New York became a favorite stop for them. I wouldn’t want to grow up any other way and with any other group of people. I can’t ask for better than what we had.”
They’ve put out two albums – ‘TIWWCF’ and “Off The Grid.” Each one highlights themes such as separation and never forgetting what made you who you are. The band would have it no other way.
“Whether you think our music sucks [or] you think our music’s awesome, we want to be your friend,” said Patrick. “A lot of pop-punk songs will talk about hard times that you go through and they’ll help you relate, but they don’t always pick you up. We listened to bands like The Starting Line and Four Year Strong and we said, ‘We never want to write songs for an album that doesn’t pick you up in the end, that doesn’t make you feel like you can get through whatever you’re going through and that you’re alone, because you’re not alone. You’ve got people around you, people that love you, people who don’t even know you yet, but all you’ve got to do is share your message and share what you believe in and you’d be surprised at how many people believe that as well.”
“More Than Partners, Brothers In Arms” is more than a mantra for the family. It’s a way of life. The phrase was coined by Brandon and featured in the song, “Heist.”
“The whole idea is no one expected you to do what you know you’re capable of and no one expected you to do all these things in life, whether you’re going to a job or you’re a team or a band going and playing a show,” said Patrick. “No one knows who we are, no one has seen us live before and then we go and play and that’s our chance to make a first impression, but the idea of it is that you show up as a team, make a ‘heist’ and try to steal the show. You know, we’re more than partners, we’re brothers in arms. You know you’re not gonna win this race unless you stick together.”
Influenced by the positive message other bands put out with their music, they simply wanted to do the same in their own way. When it comes down to it, “leaving town” was the only end to the story, but they were always proud of their roots and who it made them.
“We wrote songs about wanting to do more with ourselves, wanting to be someone, wanting to stand for something bigger than ourselves and I can say that even now, 10 years later, I still listen to our music and believe in every word of it,” said Sommer. “We’re just a bunch of dudes that found professional jobs and we just want to play our music. I think that’s genuine and I’m not saying that anybody else isn’t genuine, but I just think that that’s one thing that we really want to put out there is like, we genuinely want to play music that brings people together, that makes people happy and gives us something to believe in.”
