By Matt Bieker
If punk’s not dead, it’s because of guys like Chris Holloway, Shaun Rucker and father-son duo Pierre and Josh Marché—all members of local band Engine Fire. With the release of their second EP Our Dying Resolution on Feb. 12, the band now plays “dad rock” according to Holloway, who provides vocals and rhythm guitar.
It’s a fair description—three of the four members have kids of their own—but theirs is not a quiet, outdated sound. Instead, Engine Fire’s raucous, pounding energy is a generational effort, evidenced by drummer Pierre and bassist Josh. And to Holloway, being a rocking dad is a family tradition.
“My stepdad and my biological father were both touring musicians,” Holloway said. “Growing up, they’d play at local casinos in California and Nevada. I actually got to travel with them a couple of times as a kid.”
A young Holloway found his way into his father’s vinyl collection, where he discovered the legends of rock—from AC/DC to Jimi Hendrix. After a stint in the military, Holloway returned to Reno in his early twenties and was drawn to the infamous underground punk and hardcore houses around Ryland Street. He also began pursuing his own music.
“I had a band back in the past called Even Ground and…we did the ’90s punk rock thing,” Holloway said. “We opened up for every band under the sun—from AFI to NOFX to Bad Religion. We did the Warped Tour.”
Holloway’s music career almost ended in 2012 though, when an accidental exposure to carbon monoxide left him with brain and nerve damage. He didn’t touch his guitar for six years until he got the call from Pierre Marché to join a new band. Ultimately, though, his biggest reason to play again was his young son.
“He was my biggest little fan,” Holloway said. “So, I just started playing again, taking all the songs that I’d written since the accident and before the accident, and just went from there.”
Holloway and his fellow veterans of the Reno music scene meshed in their appreciation for old school rock and the heavier sounds of the ’90s. The result is a more contemporary sound, with the manic energy of ’90sskate punk bands and the melody-heavy riffage of ’00s hardcore.
Holloway leads with steady, powerful vocals cut by Rucker’s sharp fretwork on lead guitar. Pierre pounds in the frantic beat and Josh fills in the gaps with a relentless bassline.
Engine Fire released their self-titled debut EP in 2019, but in the two years since, have watched the country grow even more ideologically divided. The vicious politics of the times inspired their new album’s cover art: two warring factions stand on opposing boats arguing while a ship sinks and a person drowns in between them.
“I’m going to quote my cousin on this,” Holloway said. “He was actually guarding the Capitol building; he’s a Marine, and one of the things he said on his Facebook weeks prior to being there was, ‘We’ve become a society that no longer listens to understand. We only listen to react.’”
Politics is prominent on the album, but Holloway took care to say Engine Fire is not an explicitly political band in the style of Rise Against or Propaghandi. Our Dying Resolution’s six tracks cover an emotional range drawing from the band members’ own experiences. The song “Say” (an acronym for “Song About You”) was written about Holloway’s childhood friend who was kidnapped and killed, and the broader national issue of child trafficking. “Round and Round” is about the album making process itself and trying to reach an audience through music.
“[The album] was a lot of what was going on in the world and our lives,” Holloway said. “Everything from depression and politics and so on and so forth. But it was all based around the last two or three years and being in lockdown—just everything. There’s a whole song that’s pretty much dedicated to mental health.”
With the release of their new EP and the potential of COVID-19 restrictions being lifted sometime this year, the members of Engine Fire are thinking about what comes next.
The dads don’t intend to stop rocking under any circumstances. Rucker, for example, came to band practice last Sunday one week after undergoing emergency surgery—sporting 31 staples in his torso, which gave the appearance that his ribcage had a zipper. Mostly though, they’re tired of being cooped up.
“Hopefully, fingers crossed, September, October, we can hit the road again,” Holloway said. “We’re doing it, and we’re going to go out there with some hard vinyl, grassroots style, go meet everybody. And, hopefully, rejoice that we’re not wearing masks and people aren’t sick and dying anymore.”
Holloway said if he gets the chance he’ll bring his kids on tour too—as dad rockers do.
