FM
History
Channeling classic skatepunk, thrash, and surfy lo-fi indie, Los Angeles combo FIDLAR emerged in the early 2010s, rising from the D.I.Y. underground to make a surprising run on Billboard's Heatseekers chart with their eponymous full-length debut, which was also a critical favorite. Named after an acronym for a skate mantra ("fuck it dog, life's a risk"), FIDLAR's freewheeling party punk was brought to a global audience over the next several years via their 2015 follow-up, Too, and 2019's Almost Free.
Influenced by SoCal punk rockers like Offspring and blink-182, as well as older bands from the area (which they learned about from their dad's record collection; he was the guitarist of T.S.O.L.), Max Kuehn (drums) and his brother Elvis (guitar/vocals) were playing punk shows around L.A. by their teens. By the time they were out of high school, guitarist/vocalist Zac Carper and bassist Brandon Schwartzel had joined up. Later the group went the independent route and started a homespun label to record material, while embracing the reaches of the Internet and making several videos to promote their music and as motivation to film their drunken antics.
