It's January 2011. There's two feet of snow on the ground. Just blocks from Brooklyn's largest garbage dump, a group of people are huddled around a space heater in a wasted apartment above a metal shop. It seems like a place where things go to die. The view out the window reveals a strip club and a poultry slaughterhouse. Even by the standards of a city not known for its scenic beauty, it's a dirt...y place.
It's in this primordial ooze that Fort Lean was born. For five old friends tired of working shit jobs, this is the very beginning, but it feels like the last chance. "You can only make so many heros," quips frontman Keenan Mitchell ('09). "Sandwich art is exhilarating, but I feel like I'm starting to run out of ideas."
Having holed up in their metal shop bunker, writing and rehearsing for the first two months of 2011, they played their early March debut in front of a sold out crowd. "Beach Holiday," "Dreams (Never Come True)," "High Defintion," and "Perfect" are the band's first recordings. The result of a weekend recording session, the four songs were released for free on April 13.
Fort Lean is on an urgent mission. They're ready to go. "What the fuck is everyone waiting for?" asks Mitchell. "The world's about to end."
