Fade Point combines Pitt, German musical talent

Fade Point

Club Café

March 4, 2010

10:30 p.m.

$5

Club Café

March 4, 2010

10:30 p.m.

$5

When Ryan Adamiak was looking for a new addition to his band, Fade Point, he didn’t expect to find a German drummer named Bernhard Sassman.

Adamiak and his bandmates also didn’t think Sassman, who is spending a year abroad at Pitt, would send Fade Point in a different artistic direction.

Fade Point began two years ago with Pitt student Adamiak and his friend Craig Farrand.

“[Farrand] and I have been writing songs since my sophomore year,” Adamiak said. In that two-year time frame, Adamiak and Farrand added bassist and Pitt senior, Alex Schwartz, to the formula.

Fade Point became a trio, but something was still missing.

The members attempted to find a drummer and invited numerous percussionists to try out. However, they were unable to agree on a drummer they wanted to record an EP with until Adamiak met Sassman in a history class last semester.

[Sassman] saw me with my guitar one day in class, and he told me he was looking to play with a group while he was in the [United States],” Adamiak explained. According to Adamiak, he and the rest of the members “jammed” with Sassman, and the band knew it had found its drummer.

“He’s a really strong drummer,” Adamiak said. “He’s finally someone that we wanted to record with.”

“I have a band in Germany that I’ve been with for five years,” Sassman said. When he arrived at Pitt from Bavaria, Germany, he was “really desperate to play the drums.” Upon seeing Adamiak, Sassman leaped at the opportunity to do what he loved. He was unaware how he would affect Fade Point as a whole.

Before Sassman, Adamiak described Fade Point’s sound as “more raw, a little less refined and more of an edgy sound.”

“The element that [Sassman] brought with the drums has really helped us broaden our sound, and we’re excited,”

Adamiak said. He describes Fade Point’s new sound as “a blend of a lot of melody mixed with classic rock ’n’ roll.”

Sassman described the music he was accustomed to overseas as a cross between funk and hip-hop. “I think I brought a little bit of that influence with me,” he claimed.

“We felt more like a band [with Sassman] as opposed to before.” Adamiak said. He explained that before Sassman joined the group, it was just three individuals bringing their talents to the table. “But now I think we’re more of a collective sound, more of a team,” he said.

With the band member quota of Fade Point met, Adamiak and his fellow members are ready to get into the studio and put out an EP to display their newly acquired sound. The bank is trying to finish its EP before Sassman returns to Germany at the end of this semester.

Fade Point’s good fortune continued when the band received an invitation to play alongside the Philadelphia native band, Find Vienna.

This will be the first time all four members of Fade Point will perform together on a stage.

“We’re going to debut four new songs that we’re looking to put on our EP when we go into the studio [later this month],” Adamiak announced.

Fade Point is looking to begin touring the East Coast this summer. Therefore, they are welcoming interested drummers to again audition for the spot.

Interested applicants can contact Fade Point via its MySpace page.

“If we could find another Bernard, that’d be great,” Adamirak said. Though it can’t keep Sassman with them forever, the band can continue another mission.

“I think the Pitt band scene is becoming really strong,” Adamirak said, listing numerous Pitt bands in the area that are finding themselves exposed to the community. “I think there’s a movement that’s starting, and we’d like to be a part of it,” he said.