UT film students utilize their talents as musicians

The Faux Pas, meaning "The False Step" in French, is a folk rock trio of female film students from the University of Toledo.

"Our experience at the University of Toledo is extremely positive," said band member Hannah Fritch. "We all really have a passion for what we're doing. We have that incredible friendship but we also have a really cool communal spirit going on in the film department because it's so small. We have a lot of affection for it. We don't have the best of equipment but it's all very familiar and intimate. We really get to know our faculty and staff as well as the other majors. We have a lot of support and genuine concern for other people."

"When we got started, we knew we weren't incredible musicians but we love it and are going to pursue it anyway," Fritch said.

The group has been playing around Toledo since December 2008, combing their artistic efforts into a collaboration of music and film. The band consists of Amanda Thompson, Carrie Theuring, Ashley Theuring and Hannah Fritch. The girls have been close friends throughout their college careers and decided to pursue their love of movies and music while studying at UT.

Together, Thompson, Theuring and Fritch sound like a fusion of their influences and folk icons, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Simon and Garfunkle. Their instrumentation, although sometimes simple, is composed into sweet, melodic songs about their personal, cathartic experiences.

"We never set out to sound like anything, we just play it by ear and tinker with different sounds," Fritch said. "Once something starts, we expound upon on it and carry it in whatever direction we feel like. I like music all [across] the board, we're also into classic rock."

"It's interesting because I've always really loved music. I was in bands in high school. I remember thinking ‘I'm not a good musician, so I'd better knock off the whole music thing and go to film school.' I think its fun because music came back around and found me," Fritch said. "The truth is that we started off trying to have fun but now we love what we're doing. I don't think we could function without the creative outlet and friendship. We're pretty serious but we don't want to get too caught up in what we strive for. If you get too obsessed with yourself or your art, you end up compensating your friends and your career."

Taking every opportunity to book shows around Toledo at venues such as Frankie's Inner City, Woodchuck's and The Black Cherry, the band believes there is a strong artistic and musical community in Toledo.

"Playing in Toledo has been amazing for us because we found a loose group of other musicians. There's a strong current of musical community that I didn't know was there," Fritch said. "I used to have a stigma against musicians but, lately, I have met a lot of amazing and talented people who are supportive of each other. We fuel each other's creativity."

"We have a base of music, we're always writing new stuff," Fritch said. "At the same time, we're in film school so we have access to equipment. We're taking advantage of it and utilizing the facilities at the university to make things like music videos. It's a dual purpose."

Their song, "Come along evangeline," was used in "A Whim Part I: The Beginnings of a Whim," a music video/film directed by Fritch. "I wrote the song first. After I wrote the song, I did a special project over the summer," Fritch said. "It's about the people in my life that matter to me. It's part of a larger project that I want to pursue with the rest of my life. I want to shoot footage of the things and people that are important to me so that when I die people can watch my life, so they can see what I saw throughout my lifetime. People told me this dream was all a whim."

The music video was crafted in traditional documentary style as opposed to the lyrical or poetic style of contemporary music videos. The song is a whaling ballad about the experience of life, friendship, travelling, making music and welcoming new life into the world. In the lyrics, the girls sing, "Evangeline, I'm so sorry that I have to go but I hope you know that I love you so. I hope that you will know me through the words I write in pen and send addressed to you."

The music video can be found online at www.YouTube.com/watch?v=hjBltCk4v2g.

"We do want to keep going. We're planning our futures around our band. We all get along really well and spend a lot of time together," Fritch said. "We're planning on going to New York, renting a big house and hopefully becoming roommates and musicians. We want to take what we can get. The band is a catalyst of it all."