“Empty cooler, let’s go n’ fill it up, come on girl, won’t you hop in my truck…” sings Drew Fish in “Small Price to Pay”. This catchy song is the bands latest single that will be released next month and is the perfect summer anthem. From playing sold out shows to recording with numerous Grammy award-winning artists, the Drew Fish Band is on a continuous rise to success.
It all started when Drew Fish was pulled up on stage at a Cory Morrow show that inspired him to start his own band while he was still in high school. “We were hanging out at Gruene Hall and randomly Cory was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring my good friend Drew Fish up here to play this next song.’ So I got up on stage, my knees were shaking, my heart was racing, and I didn’t really know what I was doing. I turned a three and a half minute song into a minute and a half because I was so nervous.” Afterwards, he knew he had to get a band together. “We started jamming out in my sisters backyard. The first practice we had, we were really loud and this cop showed up. We asked where the noise complaint came from, and the cop said it came from a house a mile and a half away. That was the beginning of it all.”
Drew Fish started playing music when he was only four years old. “I played piano for eight years. When I was in middle school, I hated playing piano, but I had to play because my dad made me. He said I could quit the piano, but that I had to pick up another instrument. Then I decided I wanted to play the guitar. So I stopped playing piano and started playing guitar, and slowly fell back in love with the piano.” In high school, Drew Fish put his band together and started playing at his friend’s house parties. “In college, we played a lot of fraternity parties and on Sixth Street. We played around Austin for our friends and not really anything serious. When we got out of college our parents told us we had to get jobs. So we were like, ‘What do you mean? We’ve got a job, we’re playing music!’ We started booking outside of Austin and have a radio promoter out of Nashville that’s pushing us to Texas and regional radio.”
The Drew Fish Band is made up of Drew Fish himself on guitar and vocals, Gary Wilder on bass guitar, Marty Mueller on lead guitar, Andrew Estrello on drums, and Andrew Fish, Drew’s father, is the keyboardist. “Gary and Andrew are from Austin and Marty is from Raleigh North Carolina. Andrew, Gary and I have been together for about ten years now. We’ve gone through a couple of lead guitarist and Marty has been with us for about three years now.”
Last June, the band got a tour bus. Then in September they started pushing their first single, “Playin’ with a Flame” to radio. The Drew Fish Band stays busy traveling from East Texas, West Texas, Central Texas and South Texas. “We play in the Dallas Fort Worth area quite a bit. We always love playing The Rustic and Magnolia Motor Lounge. Pat Green is one of the owners of The Rustic in Dallas and set it up as a venue atmosphere. Magnolia Motor Lounge is in Fort Worth and owned by Ryan Bingham’s drummer Pawpaw. Any day of the week you’ll walk in there and run into William Clark Green, Red Shahan or anybody who’s not playing and in the area will come by and hang out there. It’s cool to get to be around all the guys that you work with in a non-work setting.” The band’s tour schedule is continuing to fill up more. “We’re playing Thursdays through Saturdays and doing radio tours. It’s a lot of driving. I put 35,000 miles on my car since September.”
“Just outside of Fairbury, running from the law, the year was 1861, he didn’t do no wrong…” is from “Playin’ with a Flame”, the bands current single and the title track of their most recent EP. “It’s a song about Wild Bill Hickok. Gary and I were sitting on my couch and decided to write an outlaw song and why not write about Wild Bill since Gary is distantly related to him somehow. Wild Bill is credited with the quick draw and the dead mans hand, so when we were putting the album together we had the Dodd sisters do our album artwork. Since we made ‘Playin’ with the Flame’ the title track, we wanted western themed artwork and wanted the dead mans hand and the quick draw incorporated into it. There are two revolvers at the bottom of the artwork that signify the quick draw and then there’s Aces and 8’s, which is the dead mans hand. The reason why we decided to make ‘Playin’ with the Flame’ the title track is because the tag line is ‘…you might get burned if you’re playin’ with a flame.’ It touches the subject of each song on our CD.”
Many well-known musicians and friends have inspired the Drew Fish Band. “Everybody in our band listened to different types of music when we were growing up. I listened to Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker and Asleep at the Wheel. Our drummer used to listen to a lot of hard rock and our lead guitarist never even played country music at all until he was in the band. I think our music is a mix between Randy Rogers, fun drinking music like Pat Green or some old Cory Morrow. There are definitely some Wade Bowen songs in there too. I don’t think there’s one artist that we can be compared to. The artist that has come out and really supported us has been Cody Braun of Reckless Kelly. I can’t even begin to express how much he has done for us and it’s been incredible getting to work with him. We’ve gotten to work with Sam Riggs a lot, Shane Smith and The Saints, and Curtis Grimes, who’s an awesome guy. We started playing music together and he took a song that we wrote called ‘Irresponsible’ to number five on the Texas charts.”
What’s the bands favorite thing to do while on tour? “Our drummers favorite thing to do is stop at Taco Bell. It doesn’t matter where we are he wants Taco Bell. It’s nice just getting to relax before the show and sleep and then hit the stage. Then after the show we always love to party. If we’ve got a radio tour the next day, I usually can’t stick around and drink. When we get to play with the bands we’re friends with, it’s nice to close a show out and then have a good time and have a couple of Lone Star beers.
Speaking of Lone Star beer, they’re one of the bands sponsors. Yeti Coolers and Strait Music also sponsor the band. “We’re working on getting Rebecca Creek Whiskey right now. They’ve done a lot for Texas music and we would love to be partnered with them. We’ve been in talks and will see where that goes. It’s nice getting to work with companies like Lone Star, Yeti, and Strait Music who support live music and help us do what we do. We appreciate all of our partners.”
One can expect to hear more music in the future. The band is planning on going into the studio in April. “We have Adam Odor who’s a five time Grammy award winner producing this next album. He also produced our last one. We were fortunate enough to work with five-time Grammy award winner Cindy Cashdollar and two-time Grammy award winner Jason Roberts. We are looking for a release date in August, but we’ll see how everything actually progresses before we officially announce a release date.”
Playing shows for a good cause is something the Drew Fish Band enjoys and they have worked with several different charities. “One of the charities we did a lot with was Red White and Bike out of Houston. It’s a charity that gives back to the children of soldiers. They give bikes to the kids and help give money to the families and support the kids of POW’s killed in action. It was one of the coolest things we’ve done.” Drew Fish and his band have also supported the Salvation Army for the past two years. “The Salvation Army has local musicians play at the different kettles to raise money every Christmas season. Cory Morrow is actually the one who puts that on. Every time I get a text from him, I’m excited to do it again.”
Drew and his band have come a long ways since his high school days. “Small Price to Pay” is the bands next single that will be released on April 17th. To stay informed on what’s next for the Drew Fish Band, you can follow them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Periscope @DrewFishBand and visit their website, DrewFish.com
