“Gerfety is pronounced Grafitti” … Tommy, the guitarist and lead vocalist of Geferty tells me, “I work at an elementary school as a janitor and one day a kid tagged the word “Graffiti” and spelled it wrong, I thought that was funny. We’re also inspired by street art.”  

Naming themselves a nonexistent word is where the singularity of Gerfety begins. The band’s new LP Fight Songs is a testament to the craft of creative songwriting. What began as a bedroom bandcamp project in 2023, has developed into a fully fledged LP.  The trio — Tommy (guitarist, lead vocals), Dominic (drums, backup vocals), and Grant (bass, backup vocals) — worked on the album for two years. Now, Fight Songs is out on all streaming platforms via Candlepin Records. 

Speaking with Gerfety, it became clear how the congenial comradery between the bandmates shaped Fight Songs’ sound. Immediately upon entering the “zoom room,” Grant apologized for being a minute late because he had to jump his car. In need of some help, he Facetimed Tommy and Dominic to show him how to perform the rote mechanic job. A few laughs later, it was obvious: friendship is at the heart of Fight Songs. 

Your record Fight Songs drops October 24th. How are you feeling about the release?

Grant: I’m excited. I feel like it’s a very nostalgic record. Our friend Korgan did a great job of doing the mix on it, it’s very professional.  

Dominic: I’m proud to have made something with love, with my best friends. I also feel very grateful and lucky to be able to create and release music.  

Tommy: We started recording in February of 2023. We’ve been working on it for a while. We’ve all been excited about the album, and we’re excited to put it out. For how long we’ve been working on it, it still feels good. 

Your first EP was all home recordings, did your writing process transition between creating your EP Come Back Bright, and Fight Songs?

Tommy: Yeah. We wrote all the songs together in our practice room. I usually come in with a song, essentially 85% done, and Grant and Dominic help make it a rock song. Everyone writes their own parts, bass and drums. 

What made you choose Fight Songs to be the single and title for the LP? 

Grant: I feel like it was one the first songs we played together where we felt in our element. Fight Songs also had a lot of different elements to it, you can hear it in the song, and it was one of the first songs we did that on. It set the tone for the record.

Throughout Fight Songs, you incorporate a variety of sampled sounds—from bird calls in “In the Movie” to lo-fi textures in Into the Bark, which remind me of Smog’s debut album Julius Caesar. For me, these choices create a sense of intimacy and closeness with you guys, the artists. What inspired you to include these kinds of samples in your work?

Dominic: It was all Korgan’s idea. He produced and did the synth work on the album. When we were recording, Korgan had a mic on the entire time we were recording and would record everything. We called it the “fuck track.”  Sometimes we’d mess around just to get cool sounds. 

Because most of the synths and samples are done in studio, for upcoming gigs, how do you translate Fight Songs live? Do you try to stay true to the recordings? 

Tommy: We make up for the lost instrumentation with whatever energy we bring to the performance; sometimes high, sometimes low. Grant likes to dance around on stage and we all like screaming in the mic when we’re supposed to be singing pretty. We’ve found a cool way of translating the songs live by playing with as little as possible, no pedals or anything. Sometimes there are woodblocks or shakers. Maybe that’ll all change, but for now, we have a lot of fun filling up the space with chaos or quiet. 

What’s next for Gerfety? 

Tommy: We’re playing a few release shows. We have shows on Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday, and the record comes out on Friday. It’s exciting. 

Grant: We’re also writing what’s going to be our next record right now and plan to record it this winter.  

Tommy: Gerfety is now a record only band. Bring back the long lost art of the record.

Fight Songs is out today, and you can pre-order it on Cassette via Candlepin records.

Written by Maddie Breeden | Photos by Braeden Long