By JASON MURRAY
Crossfire is more than a game, more than a battlefield situation. They are a band. And they rock.
The Capital Region group, composed of Amelia Wargo, Mark Allen, Paul Brassard, Micah Scoville and Chris Toma, does not distinguish itself by playing tribute shows or catering to a specific genre. Crossfire prides itself on technical skill, and its members say they like to challenge themselves by playing the difficult songs that other cover bands won’t play.
“Some pieces that are more challenging are not played as much. We like to play those pieces, whether it’s a hard singing part or a lot of intricate keyboards,” Scoville said of the band’s approach to selecting music.
The other members echoed this opinion. “We like to pick songs where we have to go learn the parts rather than just sit and play through it once,” Allen said.
“It’s safe to say we like a challenge,” Wargo added.
“I love that and I’m proud of this band, and I couldn’t say that about every band I’ve been in,” Brassard said.
It’s the challenges that keep them engaged, Brassard explained. “We’re not bored. So many other bands you play, you just play. You go through the motions after a while and it’s not an adventure anymore, it’s a job. Not this one. This is a rewarding experience,” he said. “We do what we like and we don’t do anything that we don’t like.”
“And we have fun,” Wargo added. And that fun extends beyond the shows themselves.
The other members joke that Wargo is responsible for selecting the songs the band plays, but she said they take a more collaborative approach. “I like everybody to have a say. I don’t want to be the one saying, ‘I want to sing this!’ and not have everyone be happy with it,” Wargo said. “I think we’ve all come to the table and said, ‘Well how about this one? How about that one?’ We all try to do it together.”
What comes out of those debates, which Wargo said are the most time-consuming band activity, is a varied selection that doesn’t match the typical cover-band lineup.
Despite avoiding the songs every cover band gets tired of playing, the band said they seek out songs that are well known. “Everything we do is very recognizable and every song was a big hit in its day – the classics, things with radio time,” Brassard said.
The process of starting the challenge-loving band began in 2007, but it wasn’t until June 2008 that the right lineup fell into place. Brassard and Toma explained that they had been in a band together and decided to track down a friend from school, Micah Scoville, who proved tougher to find than they though.
“I literally did drive up to the north country to find him,” Toma said of the search to find Scoville. “I couldn’t find a phone number for him, so I literally had to go scour the Adirondack Music Department campus and knock on the door and there we he was.”
The rest of the members came together with less geographic difficulty, but the results are something they said they are all proud of.
While the band is a part-time, though serious, commitment for the members, they still make a living outside it. Lead vocalist Wargo is a bank teller by day, bassist Allen lays ceramic tile, Toma works in music retail when he’s not behind the drums, Scoville is a professor of music when he’s not playing guitar for the band, and keyboardist Brassard makes his living as a full-time musician.
Despite her day job, Wargo is no stranger to the music spotlight, having competed on American Idol and placed 88 out of more than 13,000. Born of a music background, Wargo said she was encouraged to try out for American Idol by her parents, and is pleased with her experience but glad it’s over. “I’m really happy being who I am, where I am now,” Wargo said.
Toma explained that the band stays strong by making itself a priority. He said their practices run long, and that the work doesn’t stop there because six to eight shows have to be booked and played each month. “If you make it a priority, and I think we all do, because when you like what you do, you make it a priority, then it becomes natural.”
“We’re doing this because we want to, and we look forward to every show because we’re playing music that we all dig,” Allen said.
Like many cover bands eventually do, Crossfire is dealing with the question of whether or not to produce original music, a question they say their audiences often ask after shows. “I think people hear and see how good the band is, and I think they see it as the next step,” Brassard said.
Scoville said that group isn’t throwing up any walls between covers and original music. “We’re just playing music that we like, and if it rolls into our own music, which I think it will soon, you gotta dig it.”
“I think we’re pretty comfortable with the fact that none of us are going to be rockstars, so if something cool comes out of it, cool, if it doesn’t, we’re still having fun doing what we do,” Allen said. “It kinda takes the pressure off it.”
Whether debating new projects or playing live shows, the band’s attention to detail doesn’t stop with mastering the parts. All five members can sing vocals, and frequently do. “In 99 percent of the songs, everybody sings something somewhere,” Allen said. “And the one thing it does open up for this band, that you don’t hear a lot other bands do, is the ability to do the background vocals that are very important to us. There’s a lot of bands that just have the lead singer, and when the background parts come up, nobody does them. We’re doing them to a T.”
Toma explained that proper tonal delegation, putting the right singer on the right part, is another strength of this variety. “There may be a part that both Paul and Amelia can sing, but her tone will lend itself better to that particular piece, or it might be me and him,” he said.
According to the band, those decisions are serving Crossfire well. “Along with the audience saying, ‘I’ve never heard anyone do that song before,’ it’s ‘I’ve never heard anyone do that song that well before.’ We get a lot of that. Just hearing it makes us want to work all the harder,” Wargo said. “We want to do the music justice and we want people to come back.”
Hear Crossfire play: www.myspace.com/crossfirelivemusic.