"I was quite a metalhead, way too long, way longer than anybody should be a metalhead," Fitzgerald said. "I was way into metal growing up, and our guitar player Pete [Marceau] also was."
On the other hand, he said, the other guys in the band were "much more into underground and indie rock."
Despite the clashing of two completely different ends of the rock spectrum, Fitzgerald said the band holds common ground.
"We try to focus on the song itself, but at the same time we feel it would be really cool to bring in some of the technical aspect," he said.
That technical approach comes from the band's musical background. Fitzgerald said he was in school bands growing up in New Jersey and that he played in jazz groups in high school. Fitzgerald's musical flavor was not solely jazz-influenced, however.
"I'm kind of a product of my generation, being 12 years old and going into middle school when the whole Pearl Jam-Nirvana thing happened," Fitzgerald said.
Much like the other masses of teenagers who started bands in the early '90s because of the huge cultural impact of the grunge era, Fitzgerald said he started playing outside of school as well, with Hero Pattern's vocalist/guitarist Jason Kundrath.
"Jay and I started working together musically when we were freshmen, sophomores in high school," Fitzgerald said. "We had an impact on each other that's pretty undeniable."
Having grown up with music, Fitzgerald said Hero Pattern brings a professional attitude to its live show.
"We always focus on being really tight musically," Fitzgerald said. "We try to be energetic and entertaining. We try to do what we do well enough so that people will be compelled to get into what we're doing."
He said the band tries to maintain a good rapport with the crowd, without being pretentious.
"We take what we do seriously, but we don't take ourselves too seriously. We're not going to go up and act like we're too cool to be nice."
