All Photos by Derek Fung
Welcome.
This is the web presence of the rock collective known as FOTY.
Striking beyond the reach of a simple Internet document, this page will allow you to properly immerse yourself in the world of FOTY, dragging you up from the mire of humanity to stand among the legions of Foty-philes proudly striding the globe. You’ll find all sorts of stuff here, like pictures of the band (and maybe pictures of you, if you stand close enough to the band), and info about us (the band and individual members) that is mostly true.
If you’ve been to a Foty show, you know that it’s not just a pint-sipping evening observing a band, it’s an experience. It’s a give-and-take with the audience (that’s you). So please, be in contact with us. Join the mailing list. Tell us what you dig about the shows. Tell us what you want.
Rich Foty
Rock gods often have humble roots. Rich Foty’s roots begin with a six-year-old boy sitting in front of a piano, praying for it to be five o’clock, because that’s when Transformers is on. Despite his affinity for all things Optimus, Rich found competence with musical instruments at an age at which most children struggle for competence with silverware. This led to a nearly decade-long stint with Toronto’s prestigious St. Michael’s Choir School. To Rich’s everlasting chagrin, however, his tenure there was between Papal visits. During his teenage years, Rich came to feel that he should be able to sit around with his friends and sing a song whenever he wanted; the difficulty of bringing an eighty-member choir to his friend Joey’s place prompted him to pick up the guitar. This led in turn to the formation of a band named after a crude reference to a sexual act (ten points to the Foty afficionado who can guess which one!), and a coffee house show. Another incentive to make the switch to rock was the fact that singing U2 gets you way more girl-type attention than singing Schubert. Rich busted his bar cherry at the legendary El Mocambo, and fronted Random Thought until early 2005, when he released a solo EP. There’s more to the Rich Foty story, but it’ll get taken care of in some of the stuff below, some of which has to do with:
Ben. Well-spoken, trustworthy and hygienic despite having been born in Windsor, Ontario, Ben Payne set his sights on the Humber College School of Creative & Performing Arts. He really liked the way the building looked from an architectural standpoint. The lines flowed smoothly, and it had both porticos and vestibules. Once he got inside, however, he found a top-notch music school, and as he had been playing guitar for some time, decided to stick around. Years later, there emerged from the dank second-floor lounge an electric gunslinger, fronting (and side-ing) jazz, funk, soul and rock acts across Toronto, as well as warping the minds of innocent young musicians on the side. Ben and Rich met in mid-2005, and initially mistook each other for the same person. Once the families sorted out who was who, Ben and Rich decided to work together on a new band. Rich won the coin toss and pretty much wrote the songs, so the band was named ‘Foty,’ confusing audiences almost immediately. But they needed more musicians. Rich could sing and Ben could rip it up on guitar, but that just sounds lame. However, Ben’s connections at Humber had introduced him to at least two other musicians. Musicians like:
Ben Payne
Aaron. Born and raised in the Greater Toronto Area, Aaron Spink got an early start in music on piano at age 7 which set the foundation for his musical future. At age 10, Aaron took up playing drums and has never looked back since. After developing his skills throughout numerous high school and extra curricular programs, Aaron attended Humber College where he studied under the tutelage of Mark Kelso, Paul DeLong and Roger Flock and perform alongside the likes of Randy Brecker and drum legend Steve Gadd. After Humber, Aaron began working vigorously as a session musician both live and in studio in and around the GTA as well as drumming for countless theatre and musical productions across Ontario.Aaron is also a passionate and dedicated drum educator both privately and corporately. Besides keeping a home studio in Ajax, Ont. Aaron is a also the lead drum instructor for the Yamaha Music School in North York. Aaron's list of live and studio work includes the likes of: Sarah Brightman, Danilo Perez, Randy Brecker, Steve Gadd, Eddie & Quincy Bullen, Rob Christian, Lindsay Schoolcraft (Cradle of Filth), Exes For Eyes, Doron Zor, The Rough Copies, Parkside Drive. Aaron's list of theatre productions includes: Broadway Gold I & II, Scrooge (The Rose Theatre in Brampton), The Altar Boyz (North York Centre For the Arts and The Victoria Playhouse in Petrolia), Hello Again (The Terragon Theatre in Toronto), Ann of Green Gables, Annie, Jekyll & Hyde, Hairspray, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Nunsense (Oshawa Little Theatre), Assassins (U of T) and various reviews at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope. His playing has taken him across North America, and back into the supportive and semi-tattooed arms of Foty. Two of those arms (some would say three, but really only two) belong to:
Joel ‘Junkyard’ Dawson is an expatriate of Cambridge, Ontario, but will expel his dying breath spitting in the face of anyone who talks mean about Grey County, Ontario. He picked up the saxophone in Grade 7 and became part of a national-level concert band in high school. He picked up the bass guitar on starting his first band in Grade 10, owing to the fact that he was the only one with access to a bass guitar. His obvious passion for the instrument endured in nearly a decade with Vincible, a blistering trio responsible for Joel’s aggressive playing style and penchant for nudity. He honed his musical blades with four years at Humber College, forging alliances with Ben and Aaron and at least two or three other people, but those people aren’t in Foty, so they don’t matter. When he’s not plonking on his plonker, Joel is a ski instructor, and if there’s anything you should know about those people, it’s this: Don’t dare a ski instructor to do anything you’re not prepared to see them do. Anyway, Joel’s a real goddamn good bass player, and he’s the only guy in Foty with four wheel drive.