CREDIT: JULIA SCIOLI
Lost Arts, a band formed by current Fanshawe Music Industry Art (MIA) students are having a moment in the spotlight and are hard at work creating their upcoming EP

Lost Arts is one of the most unique bands to spring out of the Music Industry Arts (MIA) program at Fanshawe College in the past year.

Drawing inspiration from acts such as Queens of the Stone Age and Alice and Chains, this alternative rock band may be in its infancy however, the group is already gaining lots of traction in the local London music scene.

Lead vocalist, guitarist and frontman Caleb Thompson, told the Interrobang how the band came to be and shared some exciting news of what they have in store for the future.

In addition to Thompson, the band features Nick DeSalvia on lead guitar, Hayden Vandenbosch on bass, and Drake Campbell on drums.

All members are second years of the MIA program, with Vandenbosch, Campbell and Thompson having met after being assigned into a band for their performance class.

Thompson shared how during a rehearsal for their class project, the three jammed with a song he wrote prior to their meeting.

It went well and was so much fun that the three of them decided to continue playing together, bringing in DeSalvia to cover lead guitar.

“It was pretty lucky…because it’s just a random selection of people so that could really go either way but [the band] came out of it, so that was pretty cool,” Thompson said.

Though Thompson is the frontman of the group, he gives equal credit to the other members of Lost Arts.

“I’m never gonna tell anybody what to play or anything like that… Everybody knows what their role is and everybody is cool with that,” Thompson said.

In this manner, songwriting and composition duties have been split amongst the group in order to be certain that everyone’s creativity is heard.

The band even brought in outside help of another second year in the MIA program, Karl von Estorff, as the producer of their upcoming project: a five song EP.

According to Thompson, having Estorff on board has been a key part of the bands creative process.

“Karl’s kind of got the reins and it’s easier that way because…he’s not in the band, so there’s no bias,” Thompson said.

The group took full advantage of the fact that the program’s recording studio facilities were open during the strike, recording the bulk of their music during this time.

“The first week of the strike, I think we spent like 15 [to] 18 hours in there just in collaborative studio time and we got most of it done,” Thompson said.

Once the strike came to an end, the group was also able to enrol the help of MIA program co-ordinator and Juno winning engineer, Dan Brodbeck, to mix and master the recordings.

Thompson is excited for people to hear this project and shared how the band was able to get very creative in the recording process.

“We’re only a four-piece on stage but when you’re in the studio you can do so much more,” Thompson said.

The band recently released their debut single “Explain Me Away,” which can be found online at lostarts.bandcamp.com. They also put out a music video in support of this song, which can be seen at bit.ly/LostArtsYouTube.

The band is excited to release the full EP in the near future with many upcoming shows in the works to support this release.

More info on Lost Arts and upcoming releases can be found on their Facebook page at Facebook.com/lostartsband or on Instagram at Instagram.com/icantfindmyarts.