WEHM All Access - Great South Bay Music Festival - Firetog & Co.

 In this episode, Harry catches up with Phil Firetog as he dives into the evolution of Firetog & Co. It is a project that began as a trio and has grown into a nine‑piece, multi‑instrumental ensemble that thrives on collaboration, experimentation, and friendship. Phil talks about his Farmingdale roots, early influences from Green Day to Dave Matthews, and why Great South Bay and Montauk feel like annual “vacations” for the group. He also shares how the band arranges music for such a large lineup, the joy of hearing songs transform in the studio, and the excitement of debuting brand‑new material at this year’s festival. 

@FiretogCo

@GreatSouthBayMusicFestival 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Alright. Let's do this. Odd one, three, two. It's the Agent Breakfast Show with Henry. Looking forward to the Great South Bay Music Festival and uh so many great performances happening uh over the weekends, uh starting up on the 23rd, and then uh want to mention an act that's coming. Saturday, July 25th, Jambalaya stage, I believe it's 4 10 p.m. Uh Firetalk and Company. Uh Phil Firetog, how are you? Doing great.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Thanks for having me, man.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Oh, my pleasure. Nice to uh to get you on to talk about uh what's happening with the bands. Now you guys have started off as a trio, and I read that I think you have as many as nine members now, or even possibly more. What's that been like to grow this project over the years?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Uh I mean it's been extremely exciting to see it like fully bloom. Um, working as a trio, we always had the vision to have ensemble members and to grow the band. Uh and yeah, right now we have nine members or up to nine members, and those members are kind of like interchangeable like players, basically, where they they come and go uh regarding like availability or whatever, but it's always exciting when we see something new every time that we play. And and those guys, which even makes it even more exciting than just nine players and then like a huge ensemble, is the fact that they're multi-instrumentalists. So they'll switch up on the instruments that they're playing, which is always exciting to hear like new takes and versions of the songs, even like for me, you know. Um, but yeah, that's it's that's always been the goal, and it's great to see it actually come to fruition.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Now, well, let's go back a little bit uh to where where did you grow up and and kind of how did music become uh what you wanted to kind of focus on?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

So I grew up uh in Farmingdale. I went to Farmingdale High School and also Bose's for um the arts, um not for music, actually for dance, but uh music has always been attached to me since I was little. I grew up, uh I played piano at an early age, and then in high school I played oboe, so that's my whole love for woodwinds. Um and then just I I think it really probably struck me to do music when I was doing a long time ago, I was in another band, Page and Grace, and that band really brought out the the songwriting energy that I had been holding on to. And I knew from that moment when Page and Grace was like no longer, I was like, Oh, I'm gonna keep on doing this, I'm gonna keep on writing now my songs and continue doing everything that's kind of like stuck in my head.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yeah. No, uh yeah, you've court has been doing this band, I think, since 2015, and and it has grown from the the trio, uh, like you said, to a nine-piece. What's changed most about? I mean, there's the obvious, there's more more sound, but what changed most about it? So, and what kind of stayed the same? Uh, has there been a thing where you want to keep the same focus, even though you have a lot of different interchangeable parts?

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah, I mean, the focus is still the essential songwriting and the the core elements of the song, you know, lyrically, um, topically, uh, even like I guess stylistically, like the way that I would go about writing a song or the melodies and everything, that's always the same. Um, the things that are really changed is kind of like everyone else's perception of it or how it's put forward into the world where you know it's more through composed now. And there's all the things that I was hearing in my head that I really wanted to do, and like those other elements, like it's it's like options. Yeah, you've got so much more to do, and I have like a musical theater background too, and like hearing it this way, it just it it adds so much life into the songs, especially when we go into recording. Recording just becomes so much more fun now. Um, because one thing that always held me back as a trio or as a solo artist was I did not want to like overly record and overly produce things that I wasn't going to be playing live, you know. Like I just felt like that was a lie. Like I get it, like so recordings are separate, but like if I'm not gonna be doing that live, then I I kind of don't want it on the album that way. Um, so now having like the the horns, the keys, the organ, strings, all that stuff, it's um it's nice to add those elements into the recording.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

What did you uh what did you grow up listening to? What kind of inspired you and kind of influenced the direction you wanted to take your own music?

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Um that's really good. Uh my taste in music definitely was weird. Um, but like I think growing up, first things like listening to is uh Green Day Dookie album. That was like I was in fourth grade for that. That was I think one of my first CDs that I ever had. Um that was a huge thing as far as like song structure and writing, and that's what that showed me. Um then I I I really fell into Matchbox 20, loved Matchbox 20 growing up, Google Dolls, 90s, all that stuff, uh the Counting Crows. Uh and from there, as I was like finishing through high school, um John Mayer was becoming big, and that was like, oh my god, this guy's doing what I what I always wanted to do, and it was like making mainstream acoustic uh music and making it popular, you know. Um, and then from him I fell off into the Dave Matthews world. Um, and from Dave Matthews started going into uh John Butler trio. Oh wow or John Butler, and then it started becoming a little bit more folky and like more abstract, I guess, if you want to call it that. Not so mainstream, but you know, really diving into the the musical elements of everything. And then I always had like a like a taste for what would I like what is it, like more indie stuff. So like as tall as lions was one of my I mean they are my favorite band, as tall as Lions, and it's completely different than everything that that I play.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Yeah, yeah. When you're when you're writing songs, uh how does how do you what is your process? Is it the lyrics first? Is it the music? How does that kind of evolve? And also I'm curious, do you hear kind of the full ensemble in your head? And how does it work when you put down put down kind of words on paper or or lyrics and notes?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

So majority of the time, like I'll I'll say like 90% of the time, I am writing the music first on the acoustic guitar. I'm sitting alone in the room, just playing some stuff, things that sound good, everything's sticking, and then all of a sudden, like as I'm playing like vowels or sounds or like just these tones start coming out of my mouth, and like they start hitting in certain spots where I want it to be, and then like a phrase will magically appear, and it's like, oh, that's the phrase that's stuck, you know. Like that's the one that got pulled out of me. And then I'll start writing around from there, um, and continuing the song. Usually, like, probably it's always like the chorus first over the verse. Um, but sometimes like I I have written the verses first and uh had an idea and concept that I wanted to follow throughout. Um, but as I play it over and over again, and the more repetitive it gets, like as I'm working on these lyrics and as I'm working on like finishing the song and the song structure and all that thought process, like that repetition's helping me hear everything else in that song, and it's pulling out those other little parts, you know, even if it was something that I hummed and it was like, oh, that would have been like a really, really beautiful like piano part, or like this is you know, this is the groove on the drums, and this is where I'm feeling that. Um, and then also like stylistically, how I play guitar, like I actually have to like tone it down when I'm playing with the band because I'm like very rhythmic on the guitar, and like I already hear the drums and the bass over the acoustic playing, like right off the bat. That's always like the first thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

How do you decide when a song needs the the full lineup as opposed to kind of more of a stripped down sound? Because now you've got a lot of different members uh in in the group. Is it tough to kind of decide which ones get which instruments and what uh how how do you decide those those uh how do you answer those questions, I guess?

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Um trial and error, like, and then sometimes it's like we just stop arguing about it and we'll be like, let's just do it both ways, you know, like let's just let's do like a really stripped-down version of it. Let's let what would it sound like if everyone was on it? But like what are we playing, you know? And like from there, it's just it's textures and tonalities of what they're playing. It's really it's nice because like they're multi-instrumentalists, you know, so it's like they can they can kind of just jump onto something different, they can play flute if they want to play flute, you know, and it's like oh that's that's prettier, it's not sex, you know, that's great. It's not so abrupt. Um, but yeah, like it's we we at the same time, like I don't want to limit it. Like there's a different version on on um on Spotify of things that we did, like we did some in studio recordings of some of the songs, and then we even stripped those and we made them instrumental versions of the songs because we're just like, why not have all these things? Someone might not really be attached to the lyrics, and it's like, well, let's just listen to it instrumentally. Someone might I mean I actually had someone from an interview that I did too about one of the songs as we did the release for it. They're like, I really love the the acoustic version of um what was it of cruel over your studio version, and it's like you should have just done it that way. And it's like, yeah, but you say that. Like other people, other people said that they like the other one too. And it's like just I'm not gonna limit myself as far as like what that you know how many different types of recordings we can do off of a song. If it if it works for us and like it makes us exciting, uh excited to play the song in a certain way, um, we just do it.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

One of the uh the things I read about uh you was that you've got this quote that the company we keep defines who we are. Uh that seems to be your philosophy. Um, how do you choose people to work in in the band? How does that I'd imagine that's uh kind of the rule you have for for including people in this project?

SPEAKER_01 10:25

I mean, I don't the the funny thing is I don't think we we really even choose, you know. It's the company that we keep is is really like we keep each other around because we are all friends at that point, you know, like we all thrive on one another's energy. We're all like I can't I can't even stress this enough. We are all different in that band. There are uh like nine completely different personalities that like just mesh together and the music brought us together, but we enjoy playing with one another um every minute that we can. You know, it's it's we bump heads a bunch of times and like but we always enjoy making music together. And especially the the two things that we look forward to every year is Great South Bay Music Festival and Montauk Music Festival. Like those are like little vacations for us where we just we love it, we love the the vibe and we love the energy that we bring together on those stages.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

How many years have you done the uh the Great South Bay? Uh, this would be maybe three or four, I believe. What's it like to develop? Because you have a limited time span. You never know, too. It's it's an interesting thing where the the weather's a factor, the whole the heat. Um, it's an interesting weekend. How do you guys kind of craft the set uh for each year and how has it changed each year you've done it and getting ready for this year?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Uh um has it changed. Uh we we always try to bring the the newest songs in. Um this year is gonna be different. Like we crafted it that we wanted two new songs in there. Um one we've been playing around a lot. Uh the other one is brand spaking new that we're gonna be putting on that no one else outside of the band knows what the song is or the story behind it and the the reason of this song like coming out. Uh so it's supposed to be this uh exciting surprise that we're gonna be releasing. Oh wow um and then we we want to like arrange the set in a way that it would be I don't know, like exciting for everyone watching, attention grabbing, and um yeah, uh it's kinda how you know like anyone puts together a set, you know, we want our ups and downs in it.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

That makes sense. Uh your music is and the term genre-defying is is certainly certainly applies to it. Blending modern rock and folk, jazz. Uh how do you kind of define, or when you're writing, um, which side do you kind of do you have to choose a certain style or do you just kind of take it how how does that work to know which direction the the sound will go in? Because you do a whole bunch of different sounds.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Yeah, uh I think like like I like I said about like the songwriting, the thing that hasn't changed. It's like the way that I go into writing the song really hasn't changed throughout those years as far as like trio versus uh true uh uh Firetog and Co. Um, it's still the same way that I would treat the song, it's just everyone else bringing in their their elements that they have. Like uh my two horn guys are extremely jazz-oriented. Um my my guy and piano Alex, he likes um his favorite band is Dawes. And um he brings in that kind of element in and it's uh he has like a good ear for like pop and um how to just make things just overall just sound good. Um but we just relay on like rely on what we do in order to shape the song. So I think it really at this point just becomes it's just an extension of us. Like we we don't try to make it sound like unless like you know we're playing the tune and we're like right off the bat, we're like, oh, this reminds us of this, let's go for that like type of sound. Um, but we really just go into it as us, and I think that's probably the best part about it now.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Is there a song that kind of started one way and took on a completely different meaning once the full ensemble started playing it?

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Oh, yeah. I mean, so the the last the last record or not we kind of did our last record in a series of um singles uh that we released over the year. Um so there's a there's a few different singles that were in there. But going into the studio that first time with with all the all the guys, it was um Storm was the one song that we just didn't know how to do and what we wanted to do with it. And it was a lot of figuring out in the studio and like self-exploration of how we wanted to get that to come across, the tonality that we wanted, the story. Um and I think that was really like eye-opening on seeing how we can do that in the studio and just like taking the time always to just listen back and think like, oh, that's that's what we're putting there, or that's too much, or this doesn't work, or you know, the trial and error. And it it was one of those songs that definitely did not sound like how we went into the studio with, and then out of the studio, we're like, wow, this is something like really, really nice.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Are you um I guess so when you first start writing songs and you're beginning them, are there certain themes you're trying to incorporate, or is this the type of thing where you can almost at the end look back and go, Oh, uh you know that that clearly those things in my life were influencing that time period or whatnot. Or do you go into good consciously trying to um write things about a certain topic or feel?

SPEAKER_01 16:05

I think I it initially I think I let my subconscious kind of make that decision for me and like see what sticks and what like I want to say or speak out of. Um, but it definitely like what's going on in my life does it definitely affect um the songs and the topical aspects of the songs and what's going on. Um yeah, and and then the one thing that I do like to do with all my songs, I feel like, is like there is just multiple meanings behind the lyrics and the song itself. And um like I remember one thing that I I read with Rob Thomas, and he said um that all of his songs are about relationship, and I was like, ooh, that's that's really nice. And it's like it could be the relationship between you know me and the listener, it could be the relationship between me and this object, it could be the relationship with you know me and another person in an actual relationship or romantic relationship, and I really like that, and I kind of stick with that. So a lot of the songs are all at first glance always about relationship, but then there's this always undertone of another thing that this song could be about that might not be so apparent.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

That's interesting. You have a lot of different types of musicians in the band, uh Fire Tag and Co. And I'm I'm curious what's it been like? You've got, if I'm not mistaken, was it Liam and and Johnny who were kind of there from the beginning with the trio? How has that um how have they evolved as players working with other other people, other musicians? You were on the brass players and violin and cello, uh different things happening. How have they uh kind of adapted to it?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Um, yeah, initially it was a huge like it was a drastic difference in like dynamic of bringing a group together in a in a room uh for practices and writing. Um and we had to get used to talking to one another of like how we meant for to understand one another, you know, like we would say something, but like from the bass player or a drummer, it's not what a horn player wanted or knew what you were talking about. Um, and then I mean, me, I am not um as as much as I play all those other instruments and I had like a background, a little bit in music, like I am not terminology-wise, I I don't know theory or anything to talk to everyone. I I go based off of like I wanted to feel like this or this mood or like this, and like you know, I use emotion over the the theory, and um Johnny is extremely all into theory, surprisingly for a drummer. Um Liam has a strong background in theory too, but the horn guys and the ensembles, we learn that like these guys don't um they don't learn like how uh you know garage band guys and people that grew up doing bands and like how the Green Day era like learn how to play music. They learn from charts. So we had to write charts, we had to talk to them in in different ways and prepare things for them, um and and try to pull out or not educate, but like try to like teach them the way that we learn too, you know, like oh, you know, memorize this, don't read it off of a chart, or like, you know, it's you can put in your own. You don't you don't need us to write it for you. Why don't you write something for yourself? Because you know, when you're an ensemble player, a horn player, a cello player, and you're used to being in orchestras and bands and jazz bands, the music's prepared for you and given to you to read and play versus you making your own music to play.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Looking ahead as far as with with the bands, what do you want to do as far as recording and then albums or EPs? Or where do you guys want to take this project?

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Um, oh, I mean, for me personally, I always want to go back into the studio. I always want to put out more music, uh, new songs, keep the catalog growing. Um, so that is definitely one of the things that we want to keep doing, and then playing out more um as a full band is something that we've been striving for. And it's very hard just to get nine guys together in order to even do that, but more opportunities as far as like festivals elsewhere uh in different states, um, and just more of these like bigger opportunity shows.

unknown 20:32

Perfect.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Phil Fire Talking Co. Thank you so much, Phil, for coming on. We appreciate it. Getting to learn the history of the band and and more about you guys and everything that you're doing uh here today. And to get ready for the Great South Bay Music Festival. Can't wait to see you on the stage and to have a great show. And we look forward to seeing you that the uh the Great South Bay Music Festival 2026 edition and and in the future as well. Well, because I love the fact that you do Mon Talk and other festivals, and we'll we'll see you out there. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

All right, thanks, man.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Perfect. Let me save that. That's great. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it, man. And yeah, no problem, man. Really appreciate that. We're gonna start airing these or start promoting them next week, probably the middle of next week, and getting ready for the festival. And I will see you, uh I will see you there on that you're on that Saturday. Yeah, yeah. You're you're actually gonna be there. Yes, I'll be there all weekend. So perfect. All right, awesome, man. Very good. Thank you, Phil. I appreciate your time. Thank you. You too. Thanks. Bye.