Bio
Formed in 2013 in the Vale, Guernsey, Coastal Fire Dept. serves as a throwback to the heady days of 90s alt rock & grunge guitar bands with a modern twist & other influences thrown in from time to time.
CFD is all about big driving melodic guitars with catchy choruses that stick in your head. The band is guitarist/vocalist Ollie Goddard, bassist Saad Frihmat & drummer Ozzy Austin.
CFD first released music in 2019 with their mini-album Control & have been pushing their sound ever since. In 2020, Ken Andrews (Failure, Stone Temple Pilots, Chris Cornell & more) mixed their single You Are Stuck which they followed with their catchy two minute grunge song I Don't Wanna Hold Your Hand. Keen to evolve their sound, 2021 saw a move towards a harder guitar driven vibe. It also saw the band record three singles with Kellii Scott (Failure, Queens of the Stone Age, Veruca Salt & more) on drums.
CFD released their latest album Outsiders in 2023 & are currently mixing their singles for release later in 2023. Sonically, CFD are moving to a slightly harder, looser, punkier grunge sound. Often compared to Nirvana & Pixies, the band is unashamedly influenced by those iconic bands, but are also influenced by later bands such as Violent Soho, Superheaven, Balance And Composure & Title Fight.
Band Members
Ollie - Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
I have always loved music and when I was much younger always seemed to be in that little minority of kids listening to alternative music. I remember I was about nine hassling my mum to buy me The Clash’s album ‘London Calling’ (she didn’t approve!).
Being a keen music lover I graduated towards learning guitar and quite quickly was only interested in writing original music influenced by the genres that interested me mainly grunge, alt rock, indie & shoegaze. I drifted away from music for some time and came back to it in 2013 when I formed CFD with Bob.
My songwriting is heavily influenced by observations, feelings, emotions and stories already told (film, tv, real stories etc). Although our songs can be interpreted as being angry or aggressive they are not…they can be loud in places and deliberately written to punch hard at times!
My main musical influences are Nirvana, Pixies, Violent Soho, Suoerheaven, Balance and Compsure.
Saad - Bass
I started playing the bass when I was 14 years old. In 2011 upon returning from traveling around Asia/USA, a friend wanted to start an Alternative Rock/Metal band and needed someone to play Bass, so we formed Stone Em All.
Unfortunately, Stone Em All broke up after a few years when my friend relocated to the USA, although we did manage to play lots of gigs and festivals, recorded a mini EP and had fun playing.
I then joined a new band after Stone Em All, as my work colleague Ollie needed a bass player for his band Coastal Fire Dept. and the current project commenced.
The music i was exposed to in my household when young was very diverse ranging from Bob Marley, Queen, The Doors and Deep Purple.
