Interview: The Fatal Flaw

A Conversation With Joel Reader About His Boston-Based Power Pop Band

The Fatal Flaw (L-to-R, upside down): Ryan Mercedes (guitar/vocals), Randy Tartow (drums), Joel Reader (vocals/bass), and Jim Keaney (guitar/vocals)

The Fatal Flaw’s latest single, “Stop Pushing Me Away,” is a perfect slice of ‘90s power pop…that came out in 2024.

Which is really no surprise when you consider that it was co-written by a couple of genre veterans, Joel Reader—formerly of Mr. T Experience, The Avengers, The Plus Ones and, for 15+ years, the driving force behind The Fatal Flaw—and his equally pedigreed pop rock pal Wyatt Funderburk.

“Wyatt brought me the first verse and chorus for an unfinished song he couldn't quite crack; I revised the chorus lyric (including a new title), wrote lyrics for a second verse, composed a bridge section and voilà! My bandmates and I painstakingly hammered out the final arrangement together,” Reader told me for the interview below.

This hooky should-be-hit—like much of The Fatal Flaw’s impressive catalog—is worthy of comparisons to legends like The Posies, Fountains of Wayne and Superdrag.

“Superdrag are a huge influence on me and my songwriting to this day,” Reader said. “I draw a lot of inspiration from bands that marry big melodies with even bigger guitars, like mid-period Jimmy Eat World, early Green Day, even earlier Weezer, and Bob Mould/Sugar.”

I caught up with Reader by email as the band plays regional shows around New England while writing and recording new material for a string of singles leading up to their fourth full-length album.

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Joel Reader Interview

I'm loving your latest single, "Stop Pushing Me Away." Can you tell me a little about how that one was written and recorded?

Joel Reader: Thank you kindly, Steve! That particular song is the realization of a longtime ambition to co-write with my good friend Wyatt Funderburk. We go back decades—as a teenager, he was a fan of my first band; on one early tour, we even slept on the floor of his parent's house. I really admire his writing and production work with his partner/bandmate, Kurt Baker. Wyatt has always had a keen sense of melody and a gift for songcraft (he also hosts the incredible Beach Boys podcast Sail On, so maybe the Beach Boys influence on the vocal harmonies should come as no surprise).

The drums were recorded at a professional studio here in Boston called Mad Oak, while everything else we tracked ourselves from home. The final mix by Chris Dugan (Green Day) really elevates the ultimate sound of the track. We're very lucky to be working with him on all of our new material. 

You're a '90s musician yourself (Mr. T Experience, The Avengers, Pansy Division), mostly on the punk end of pop. What drew you to straight-ahead power pop as a musician/songwriter?

Joel Reader: Probably a desire to carve my own path and to distinguish my songwriting from the bands I'd been in as a teenager. I think there was a while there where I wanted to distance myself from genre categories like ‘pop punk.’

These days, I'm a lot more relaxed about classifications like that, and I consider the fact that my bandmates and I all came up playing punk rock to be hugely important in informing our sound...I'm not running away from being called punk music!

Punks playing power pop is one of my favorite modern micro-genres (The Whiffs, Young Guv, Extra Arms, The Girls, etc.). Why do you think punks make such good power pop?

Joel Reader: It's all in the intensity of the delivery, and about playing with conviction. You can roll back some of the distortion off the guitars and shave a few beats per minute off of the tempos, but if you cut your teeth playing in punk bands you simply can't disguise that energy.

Speaking of your '90s pop pursuits, I really love what I've heard by The Plus Ones. Would you consider that band a precursor to The Fatal Flaw?

Joel Reader: I definitely would! The Plus Ones were my first band where I was the main driving creative force—the principal songwriter and front person. Our debut EP was pretty much pure bubblegum power pop, and what I'd consider a relatively successful example of the form.

On subsequent releases, though, we steered into more of a hard-edged direction. I'm essentially still trying to perfect that same formula, but I don't think I really came into my own as a writer until after I moved to Boston and formed The Fatal Flaw. Even now, I feel like we're still leveling up our execution, especially with the quality of our recordings.

For your previous single, "Olden Days"/"How Will I Know" (Whitney Houston cover)—the dancy guitar is front and center amidst the pop hooks. What inspired the brief stylistic pivot?

Joel Reader: That cover was recorded mostly as a lark! We had participated in a cool covers event called MIXTAPE, where all the bands performed interpretations of a wide range of artists, with the only requirement being that the songs picked must have all been released in the same calendar year. This edition was MIXTAPE: 1985, so we played songs by The Cure, The Replacements, Talking Heads, and ... yes ... Whitney Houston. I was pleased with our rock and roll arrangement of "How Will I Know," and I thought it merited preservation. Plus, it's fun to sing!

I also really love the tracks"Very Special Episode," "You've Made It," and "Cursing The Dark" from your 2011 album Narrow Hours. Any plans to release another full-length album?

Joel Reader: Cheers…and, yes, hopefully! Our current plan is to release a series of new singles over the next several months, with an eye toward eventually compiling them on a full-length vinyl LP early next year.

From what I understand, standalone singles are the way that everybody consumes new music these days...but my old school brain is hard-wired to think of our songs in terms of 10-track collections, which taken together represent a snapshot in time. Maybe there's room in this world for both formats to succeed. 

You guys have been playing some shows lately. Any plans to tour wider?

Joel Reader: It's pretty unlikely that you'll see us venture too far outside of New England anytime soon—but I've learned to never close the door entirely.

If I got in the van with The Fatal Flaw, what would I be listening to?

Joel Reader: Great question. We're all big-time fans of the Canadian hard rock band The Dirty Nil, so you'd definitely hear us bumping their latest album Free Rein to Passions, or their previous LP Fuck Art. I hugely admire The Beths, and in particular adore their last release, Expert in a Dying Field. White Reaper would almost certainly make everybody's approved list. And you might hear Chappell Roan meriting a few spins; I'm only human, after all. 

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Power Pop Playlists

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