TheStart

Infobox musical artist
Name = TheStart


Img_capt = Aimee Echo & Jamie Miller
Img_size =
Landscape =
Background = group_or_band
Alias =
Origin = Los Angeles, California, United States
Genre = Alternative rock Synth rock
Years_active = 1998–present
Label =
Associated_acts = Human Waste Project
Snot
Street Drum Corps
URL = [http://www.thisisthestart.com ThisIsTheStart.com]
Current_members = Aimee Echo
Jamie Miller
Lance Webber
Chelsea Davis

TheStart (stylised as theSTART) is an American synth rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1998. Their current lineup includes Aimee Echo, Jamie Miller, Lance Webber and Chelsea Davis. They have played with major bands such as Weezer, AFI, The Birthday Massacre, Scarling., Goldfinger, Alkaline Trio, The Used, The Offspring, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Berlin, Bow Wow Wow, Garbage, Incubus, Head Automatica, Team Sleep, and She Wants Revenge.

History

Aimee Echo and Jamie Miller met in the late 1990s while touring with their former bands, Human Waste Project and Snot. They formed Hero in the fall of 1998 with Aimee on vocals, Jamie on guitar/bass/synthesizer, [http://www.ellisdrums.net Scott Ellis] on drums, and Mike Smith on guitar. Within only two weeks of writing songs, their first show was on September 9, 1998 at The Dragonfly. They played numerous gigs throughout Los Angeles, including opening for Orgy. In 1999, they recorded their first demo. It featured "Gorgeous," "Hang On Me," "Flying Machine," and "Be Mine." "Gorgeous" and "Hang On Me" would later be re-recorded for their debut album.In July 1999, Hero were signed to 143 Records/Atlantic Records and recorded their debut album named "Circles." The band was forced to change their name, as "Hero" was found to be already taken. At the suggestion of Aimee's mother, they changed it to TheStart. The name would soon prove prophetic, as they would be one of the first bands of the new wave revival. Mike Smith left in October of 2000 so Jamie Miller switched to guitar only and Jeff Jaeger (previously with 30 Seconds To Mars) was brought in as the new bassist. They left 143 Records but eventually signed with The Label, a sub-label of Geffen Records, and finally released the album (renamed "Shakedown!") in 2001.

After touring with Weezer and Incubus for the rest of the year, TheStart returned home only to find that The Label was shutting down. Not willing to give up, Aimee and Jamie decided to buy their own touring van and do everything themselves. Scott Ellis instantly left the band, so Brian Ferraro joined as the new drummer. In 2002, they recorded and released "The 1234 EP" independently. Only 500 copies were made and the band sold it at their shows and online.

The summer of 2002 proved to be successful for TheStart as they went on their first headlining tour with Scarling. and played a portion of the Warped Tour. They gathered up $800 to record "TheStart EP" (unofficially called "The Death Via Satellite EP"). It was released by August with the help of Smallstone Records and Newblack Records. With little to no press at all, the band sold thousands of the EP on tour and on their website. Later that year, TheStart went on their first European/UK tour with Sparta and Strung Out.

In January 2003, AFI invited TheStart to open up for them. TheStart continued to jump on tours, including Vaux, The Used and Coheed and Cambria. Having had a tour with Alkaline Trio still planned in June, TheStart borrowed friends Todd O'Keefe and Justin Rocherolle from The Green And Yellow TV to fill in as Brian Ferraro was let go.

Erick Sanger met TheStart when his previous band, Kissing Chaos, had played a show with them in Texas. He told Aimee he loved TheStart and would like to be in the band if they ever needed him. Bringing along friend Billy Brimblecom, Jr. to play drums, the lineup was finalized in July 2003. That summer they opened tours for Ozma, Onelinedrawing, and Taproot.

Nitro Records had been watching TheStart since they played with AFI. TheStart were signed in October 2003 and the Death Via Satellite EP was re-released with new artwork. They then joined the first Girlz Garage tour along with Lennon Murphy, Brassy and Lillix.

TheStart began to record their second full-length album Initiation in February 2004. In March, they embarked on another UK tour, this time with The Offspring. They continued to tour with The Offspring for North America, opening beside The (International) Noise Conspiracy and Auf Der Maur. They embarked on a co-headlining tour with The AKAs throughout July.

On August 24, Initiation was released on Nitro Records. Unfortunately it seems with good must come bad, as drummer Billy Brimblecom, Jr. announced the same day that he would be leaving the band. TheStart took a month off then resumed headlining tours with new drummer Frank Zummo. For a few shows, Adrian Young of No Doubt filled in for drums.

In February 2005, Goldfinger asked TheStart to be on their animal rights tour, as both bands have vegetarian and vegan members. In the next few months, TheStart had another co-headlining tour, this time with Showbread.

In July, they were very excited to begin a tour with Head Automatica but less than halfway through it, Daryl Palumbo (Head Automatica singer) got sick and was hopitalized. The rest of the tour was cancelled. So TheStart jumped on the Team Sleep tour for the rest of the month. Frank Zummo left the band to focus on his project Street Drum Corps and Ed Davis was brought in on drums. In August, Garbage invited TheStart to be the only opener on their last North American tour.

March 2006 had TheStart joining The Birthday Massacre for a month long tour. They continued on touring until the summer when longtime bassist Erick Sanger was unexpectedly let go. Drummer Ed Davis also departed to join Juliette and the Licks. They brought in friends Lance Webber (ex-Man Will Surrender / The Art Of Safecracking) on bass and Colin Strahm (of The Johns) on drums.

The band was once again without a label as they had parted ways with Nitro Records. Though on Halloween 2006, they announced their signing with Metropolis Records and began work on their new album.

Aimee and Jamie wrote and recorded the new songs entirely by themselves this time. The band began playing again in March, until Echo was asked by the Teddybears to do vocals on their tour in April, which included a stop at the Coachella festival. When she returned, they hit the road with Front Line Assembly. Drummer Frank Zummo had returned for a stint replacing Colin Strahm.

The new record Ciao, Baby was released on June 5th, 2007. They played the whole cd live at the record release show at Safari Sam's on June 14th. Singer/drummer Chelsea Davis of Digital Black joined the band on drums as they prepared to tour in support of the album. In July 2007, the band released on their Myspace page a cover of the song "Cities in Dust" by Siouxsie & the Banshees, one of the band's life-long musical inspirations. The song was intended to be featured in promotion on the third Resident Evil film.

Ciao, Baby track "Blood On My Hands" was released as a digital only single on October 16, 2007 and featured a remixed version of the song by Chris Vrenna of Nine Inch Nails. TheStart are spending the end of 2007 opening shows for She Wants Revenge. Ironically, founding drummer of TheStart and ex-Human Waste Project member, Scott Ellis, plays drums for She Wants Revenge, making it the first time the three founding members of TheStart have toured together since 2002.

In March 2008, "Ciao Baby" was used on The L Word and "Wartime" was used on Lipstick Jungle during broadcast of these television shows. Also in March saw TheStart take up residency at Crash Mansion including a final show with a reunion set from Human Waste Project.

In April 2008, the song "Rat Tat Tat" written by Jamie Miller, Aimee Echo and Chelsea Davis with Street Drum Corps was released on the Street Drum Corps album "We Are Machines".

Band members

* Aimee Echo - vocals
* Jamie Miller - guitar, synthesizer
* Lance Webber - bass, guitar
* Chelsea Davis - drums

Former members

* Scott Ellis - Drums
* Mike Smith - Guitar
* Jeff Jaeger - Bass
* Erick Sanger - Bass, Keyboards
* Billy Brimblecom Jr. - Drums

Discography

*"Hero Demo" (1999)
*"Circles" (2000), never released
*"Shakedown!" (July 2001), The Label/Geffen Records
*"The 1234 EP" (April 2002), independently released
*"TheStart EP" (June 2002), Smallstone Records
*"Death Via Satellite EP" (December 2003), Nitro Records
*"Initiation" (August 2004), Nitro Records
*"Ciao, Baby" (June 2007), Metropolis Records

External links

* [http://www.thisisthestart.com Official band website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/thestart Official Myspace profile]
* [http://www.nitrorecords.com/artist.php?artist_id=2 Band's entry on Nitro Records]
* [http://www.metropolis-records.com/artists/?artist=thestart Band's entry on Metropolis Records]
* [http://www.her-song.net Her-song.net (fansites)]
* [http://www.losangelos.bythethroat.org Tag, You're It (fansite)]
* [http://www.rockmidgets.com/features.php?page=3&id=1265&page=3 theSTART interview on Rockmidgets.com]