Fastball

About

Few bands can claim their biggest hit was inspired by a real tragedy: Fastball's "The Way" grew out of a news story about an elderly Texas couple with serious health conditions who vanished on a road trip and were found dead in a ravine hundreds of miles from home. Tony Scalzo chose to reimagine their fate as a romantic, eternal journey, and the result spent seven weeks at the top of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart. The 1998 album behind it, All the Pain Money Can Buy, went platinum within six months and earned the Austin trio two Grammy nominations. Fastball are the work of dual songwriters and vocalists Scalzo and Miles Zuniga, backed by drummer Joey Shuffield, a combination that gives their pop rock sound an unusual depth. Their third album, The Harsh Light of Day, pulled in Billy Preston on piano and Brian Setzer on Latin guitar, showing the band's taste for texture over formula. Based in Austin since their 1992 formation, they have kept the music coming through a Patreon campaign that also shares demos and the stories behind the songs.