Expanding upon the creative lineage of the Chicago indie rock scene, three man band Gerfety combines raw field recordings and a rugged lofi sound to create an immersive sonic experience on their new album, “Fight Songs” released through Boston tape label Candlepin Records.

Forming in fall 2023, Chicagoland natives Tommy Russell (guitar), Grant Goode (bass) and Dominic Folino (drums) have crafted a truly unique blend of abstract textures and intimate ballads. With tracks transitioning from noisy post rock climaxes to solo acoustic guitars, Gerfety explores every avenue possible within the confines of DIY recording. The group is also not afraid to experiment with song structure as song lengths vary from one to eight minutes. In light of their recent release, we caught up with the band to talk about recording their latest record and what defines them as a group.

Where are you all from and how did you make your way to Chicago?

Grant: Guess we’re all kind of from here. I’m from Forest Park, right outside of the city.

Dominic: I was born in Bridgeport and then lived in Midway. Then lived further south in Beverly, Mount Greenwood, Morgan Park area.

Tommy: I was born in Park Ridge. Always been a part of the circuit.

How did the group come together?

Tommy: Me and Dominic played in a band together and had known each other through music and just being in the scene for a while. Grant and Dominic had also played in a band together and then at one point we kind of just formed this band. So it's just a hybrid of playing music together separately and then together.

Dominic: Me and Grant actually met in line at Sub-T for a Post Animal show like in 2016 or 2017 or something like that. And then he was in a band, I was in a band. We started talking because we had mutual friends and mutual tastes and then our bands played together. Then actually funny enough Tommy's old project and my old band played a show together at Sub-T upstairs and then that was the first time we met in person.

What were the names of your old bands?

Dominic: Grant’s previous band was called My Bad but then they changed their name to Pam Macys and then Tommy's old project was called Mimic [which then became Joyfriend] and then the old band I was in was called Ex Okays … Tommy started Joyfriend and was looking for a drummer. I remembered him and liked his music and was like, ‘This guy seems like he has the same taste in hats as I do.’

What musical influences do you all share?

Dominic: I would say that we all share songwriters like Greg Mendez and people like that.

Tommy: It's a smorgasbord sport for sure. I think as far as my roots I was raised with my older brother listening to pop punk and emo. So that shit was always embedded in me. And I always gravitated to that stylistically as far as melodies go. We all listen to a good blend of the classics and some new stuff. I think one of our favorite local acts I can definitely say is Patter. The three of us love Patter.

How did the recording process go for the new record? How is it different from recording the initial EP?

Tommy: I guess the EP was just a string of songs that were home recordings. And then [for the album] we just started getting together in the practice space and writing full-fledged rock songs. And then we just took them to [our producer and engineer] Korgan Robb and tried our best to translate them the way we did them here in this room. Through the recording process I feel like we discovered more about the songs and then after recording we translated that into our live performance. Because we're only a three piece and in the recording we did a lot of extra vocals, sounds and dynamics that we later kind of adopted into our live sound.

Were you using a formal [brick and mortar] studio or was it still like a home studio with your own personal or rented equipment?

Tommy: Our friend Korgan, his family has a whole property in Naperville where he has this coach house and he's got a bunch of recording equipment. And so we would go spend like a weekend there and just crash there and just work on recording songs pretty much the whole time. Just having fun, goofing around.

How long was the duration of the recording?

Tommy: Like we would go in there and probably get two songs done every time we went in. So I think there's maybe like three or four weekends of recording.

Dominic: It was probably over eight months. Like he said, we only went there three weekends. The first weekend we went we finished like four songs. The second one was like two or three.

Tommy: We didn't have time to line up with Korgan as much as we would have liked to. We probably could have recorded the record itself within a month if we had the time for it but we had to spread it out just because of scheduling.

How's it been recording under Candlepin? Have any of you recorded under a label before?

Tommy: I have at least never done it under a label before. It was more so after the fact. We had finished the record but we hadn’t even really talked to them yet. We tossed it out to a couple of people. Our friend actually recommended them as this cool Boston DIY tape label. We liked everybody on the roster and just emailed them and they were down. So I think it was just like a good fit. It wasn't much thought behind it. We didn't know that that was going to even really happen. We were planning on just self-releasing it if nothing else came about. It's [helpful to have] the extra push and being in a scene of like like-minded [musicians].

Grant: It's nice because they will [recommend us] to touring bands … if the band's coming through Chicago. So we've played like a bill or two so far just with bands from out of town. It's nice having that exposure to other artists from around the states.

How would you describe your lyric writing process and production preferences? Do you guys split lyric writing or is one person handling that the most?

Tommy: For this record I came to the practice space with most of the songs and then I fleshed them out with Grant and Dominic. But recently we've been coming up with songs here in the space where we'll toss words out and different melodies and kind of like piece stuff together but it's a mixed bag.

Grant: Tommy had written all the lyrics for the record.

Tommy: Not all of them.

Dominic: If we had like background vocals, we came up with the lyrics. But it's just like a couple lines or like a line. Lyrically [Tommy] had all the verses and the choruses. … And then we bring them and then maybe we like flesh them out musically. Like he said recently we've been a little more collaborative with the lyrics I would say maybe you know, like how he said piece them together. And then production wise, Korgan’s place isn't like a real studio. It is kind of like a home set up. He has a lot of really cool stuff, but it's not like how [people normally] rent out a studio. I think that kind of lent it to the sound. Sort of just his like recording ethos or whatever you want to call it. He said yes to everything, like every idea. We kind of took a lot of the first takes of stuff. There wasn't too much like, ‘We did this one guitar track like 130 times to get the perfect one.’ We kind of like leaned into that. I think the record sounds fun and not like whimsical but maybe like immature … like in a fun way. We took it very seriously. We tried to play to the best of our abilities.

Grant: I feel like Korgan had a vision for production in a way. Whatever we brought to the table to record he kind of produced it the way he felt it should sound. We would … finish the song in a day and then he would be mixing as we went. And uh, so a lot of the mixing was done like on the spot like right after we had finished like the song. There wasn't anything we were trying to really go for on this production wise. It just kind of ended up being what it was. [The group also credits Shravan Raghuram with playing harmonica live and helping the band record.]

Where did the band name originate from?

Tommy: I work at a school. And on the side of the building one day, this kid had tagged the side of the school. And he just spelled graffiti wrong. And he just spelt it g-e-r-f-e-t-y and I just thought that was funny. It didn't really have a placement or a hold of anything. You could kind of just throw whatever idea you want to it because it has no real attachment. I don't think we have a stylization as far as a genre, but I think the one thing we always go back to or what we try and capture is this mood of memories and like childlike exploration. It always feels like towing around the way we write songs. I guess the name gives the same effect. I've always liked drawing street art style. It just kind of worked. It was just a name that I tossed and then we kept with it. People don't know how to pronounce it and that's awesome.

What plans do you have to support the current album and what do you have planned for the distant future?

Grant: I feel like just playing shows and word of mouth is a lot of it. … I don't think we've put much thought into reaching out and promotion. Like the promotion we do is like making homemade videos. Tommy will do animation over different videos and put our songs out that way on YouTube. I think we're still kind of figuring that out.

Any upcoming shows?

Tommy: In January we're playing TNK Fest (Tomorrow Never Knows Festival). We're playing with our friend Michael who goes by CrashPrez.

Is there anything else you feel I should know?

Tommy: Start a band with your friends

Gerfety is playing with CRASHprez on January 31, 2026 8:30 PM at Gman Tavern. Tickets can be found on tnkfest.com

Gerfety Explores New Sonic Avenues on ‘Fight Songs’