Celebrating 25 years as one of New Jersey’s most enduring indie rock bands, Fairmont returns with Everything Is Fleeting, a reflective and emotionally direct album that finds frontman Neil Sabatino taking stock of time, relationships, and the band’s long, evolving journey. Formed in 2001 after Sabatino’s departure from Pencey Prep, Fairmont has grown from a solo acoustic project into a full band with fourteen full-length albums, numerous EPs, and a steady presence on college radio, including their highest-ever NACC debut with 2024’s I Wish I Was Stupid. The new record continues that momentum while subtly reshaping the band’s sound through a more indie-pop-leaning approach. Everything Is Fleeting is also deeply personal, highlighted by the single “Buy More Records,” written in memory of longtime drummer Andy Applegate and released on what would have been his 44th birthday, serving as a heartfelt tribute to his life and influence. With songs that balance catharsis, clarity, and quiet reckoning, the album captures Fairmont at one of its most thoughtful and mature moments, embracing growth and the fleeting nature of it all. We caught up with songwriter Neil Sabatino to get his thoughts on the record:
· Everything Is Fleeting feels very intentional in both sound and theme. At what point did this album stop being a collection of songs and start to feel like a complete statement to you?
I think once I made the conscious decision to write the entire album with the guitar capo’ed at the third fret. It put most of the songs in a similar key and forced me to sing and come up with melodies that were in tunings I hadn’t really used much before. I think also there really is only one song that uses mostly minor chords so this overall album I think musically feels a little poppier than some recent stuff. All of that helped to give a more cohesive feel to everything.
I think also I write differently than most songwriters, I sat down in one afternoon and had the outline of the entire record musically and wrote most of the choruses shortly after. Originally I was going to take a long break from Fairmont because I had started another project called Please Be Careful with Fairmont drummer/keyboard player Christian Kisala. We were taking so long to get our debut album together that I figured why not get another Fairmont record out. So this record I would say is the most spontaneous one I’ve ever worked on.
· You chose to include a Paul McCartney & Wings cover, “Let ’Em In,”. Why did that song feel right for the album?
Usually the catalyst for starting work on the last few Fairmont albums have been that we were working on a cover for a Mint 400 Records compilation. This year the label is doing a 70’s compilation and “Let Em’ In” was chosen almost a year ago or more. Whenever I cover a song and really dive into why a songwriter made specific choices it really helps me to then write a bunch of songs using what I learned. This track in particular was mentioned in a review of our last album as the critic said the bass and drums had a “Let Em’ In” feel. It’s funny because at that point we knew we would be covering the song but I hadn’t written the rest of the ‘Everything Is Fleeting’ album.
What I learned was Paul McCartney had this track that was very basic in that the whole song is back and forth on 2 chords for the most part and for 80% of the song aside from the chorus the bass is just hitting one pulsing note. However the additional instrumentation makes the song sound more complex than it actually is. The flutes, the horns, the piano. I really tried in the rest of the album as I was writing to be more simplistic but use overdubbed instrumentation to add flavor to each track. I really like what Christian and I came up with for this album. It was written and finished in a hurry and I think our writing was spontaneous without pondering or contemplating too much. It really gave the overall album a different feel, or at least I think so.
· You’ve mentioned that using the same capoed guitar tuning from “Let ’Em In” across the record changed how you wrote melodies. How did that physical limitation affect the emotional tone of the songs?
I don’t think it limited the songs in any way I think it just forced me to write melodies differently. Like I was playing everything with similar chord structures but a full step and half higher than previous Fairmont albums. So playing that high up on the guitar neck when it was time to sing the melodies just came out differently so that I could sing in a good range for my voice. To me playing capo’ed higher on the neck also let’s you use chords that might not sound great in standard tuning but have more presence and melody to them when you move that chord shape up a step and a half.
· A lot of the lyrics feel like reflections rather than reactions—less about immediacy and more about processing things after the fact. Was this album written with more distance than previous Fairmont records?
I think the way I write is I sit down and come up structurally with the entire song musically. Then I’ll come up with the chorus of the song and work backwards to create the verses and bridge. I think this record has it’s positive songs about work that I’ve done on myself like “In The End I Only Hurt Myself” and then there’s a handful of songs about dealing with difficult people in my life. I think specifically there are a few narcissists that got the brunt of my attention on this album. It’s vague however and definitely I like to take a page from the Morrissey playbook and be as sarcastic as possible where applicable. I wouldn’t say any one song though was about a specific situation, it was more the trials and tribulations of dealing with people who are very wrapped up in themselves and myself being a people pleaser always try to keep everyone happy even at my own peril. Having this band and writing songs is cheaper than therapy so that’s it’s other function.
· The tribute song for Andy Applegate is deeply personal, but it also avoids feeling overly sentimental. How did you decide what to say directly and what to leave unsaid in honoring him?
Well knowing Andy for the last 23 years he definitely wouldn’t have wanted an Eric Clapton “No More Tears In Heaven” type song dedicated to him. I just tried to think of the positive and why so many people loved Andy. I wanted to make a song that honored Andy’s memory and everyone that knew him, they knew Andy was all about playing drums, buying records and going to indie rock shows. Andy also had this strength about him, he always showed up even when he wasn’t feeling well he made the band a priority. I remember at the North Jersey Indie Rock Festival he showed up minutes before we played with a fever over a hundred and played a stellar set. Aside from that though, Andy was just the kind of guy you wanted to have in your band, he always figured out how to enhance the song but not overplay. He was really a pleasure to play with, he was like a soldier who always understood the mission. We were complete opposites most of the time, as I’d be losing my mind dealing with show promoters or things like that, Andy was even keeled and always chill. He just was exactly who I needed to be in a band with and I hope the song I wrote conveyed everything I wrote here in some way.
· Songs like “Shallow & Small” and “You For Lack Of A Better Term Are Impossible” are very direct in their titles and emotions. Did writing those songs feel cathartic, uncomfortable, or freeing at this point in your life?
I feel like this band has always been cathartic and about me saying in an unfiltered way how I am feeling towards certain people. The people I’m writing about I already know what their reactions have been to any form of criticism. They are entitled crazy people mostly so I’m having these conversations through song with myself in hopes that someone out there is dealing with the same thing and confirms I’m not the crazy one.
· Several tracks touch on navigating difficult relationships and learning when not to overstep boundaries. Do you feel like those themes came from personal growth, exhaustion, or simply experience?
Usually I allow people to use me as a doormat and don’t get into confrontations but the songs on this album are about the people in my life who were constantly overstepping boundaries. I feel recently I’ve been very into letting a lot of things go, moving on, giving second chances or forgiving, but a few special people recently in my life have really made everything all about themselves so I needed to vent about it.
· Compared to earlier Fairmont releases, this album leans more clearly into indie pop. Was that a conscious stylistic choice, or did it naturally emerge from the writing process?
I think I’m definitely writing in a way that lends itself to the way I sing. Again with this album I tried to be a little more spontaneous and not overthink too much. I feel like the results were pretty good. This band has become more my own personal therapy sessions so I’m not interested in much more than just getting these songs written and released as a form of exercising my own personal demons.
· Everything Is Fleeting sounds like an album made by someone taking stock rather than trying to prove something. Do you feel less pressure now than you did earlier in Fairmont’s career?
Way less pressure. I have no faith in the music industry and I have always existed as an outsider. In fact I’d be surprised if anyone even reads this interview and gets this far. This is something I would do if there was no internet and my songs just got written and put on tape and then were placed on a shelf. I’ve spoken with other artists about this, it’s just this intense need to create and I can’t stop. I’m pretty much over the records I release by release day and I just move on. I guess if I was hoping this would put food on the table I’d be in trouble but luckily it’s not, it’s more of a diary entry.
· When listeners finish Everything Is Fleeting, what do you hope lingers with them—the melodies, the lyrics, or the feeling that moments and connections don’t last forever?
I’m not sure, I don’t really want to tell people how they should feel or what they should take away from my music. Someone said that paintings decorate a room and music decorates the space the in that room. Like if this record gets you through your drive to work or a rainy afternoon in a café, great, I’m glad it was a small piece of the soundtrack to your life. Lyrically maybe someone somewhere will relate, but it’s ok if they don’t.
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