Black
Velvet first heard about Steriogram when Applejacks, a moderator of
the Steriogram message board (AKA Jackie) wrote and recommended them
to us. Because Applejacks has awesome taste in music (we actually crossed
paths at Concert For Compassion in Irvine, CA in March 2004, the animal
rights concert which featured bands such as The Used, Goldfinger, Story
Of The Year, My Chemical Romance and Letter Kills), we took the time
to visit the band's official website - www.steriogram.com - checked out some audio and video - and yep, they rocked.
Ace
new band alert.
So
now, six months later, they're heading over to the UK. 'Walkie Talkie
Man', the awesome afore-mentioned single hits stores on November 8th
with the full length album, 'Schmack!' following a week later on November
15th.
It
seems to have been a whirlwind dream so far for the five guys (Tyson
Kennedy on vox, Brad Carter on vox/guitar, Tim Youngson on guitar, Jake
Adams on bass and Jared Wrennall on drums) from New Zealand who have
now set up home in California. "I'm sitting with some of the band
in my hotel room on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood CA, it's about 1.50am and
we are all watching ourselves being the house band on NBC's Last Call
with Carson Daly that we shot in New York last week," says Brad.
"This episode is extra cool cause Duran Duran was the guest band
that night..."
Steriogram
earned their spot on the highly acclaimed TV show thanks to touring,
touring and more touring. Oh and fab songs of course. "Before New
York we just finished a tour of Australia and New Zealand with Yellowcard
which went wicked," Brad recounts. "Now we are just preparing
to come and play some shows in the UK for our first time ever so the
band is really excited for that."
"Steriogram
started in New Zealand in 1999," he tells us. "The band dropped
their day jobs and went full time in 2002 then after playing lunchtime
shows at almost every high school in the country and sleeping on many
floors nationwide. Steriogram got signed to Capitol Records in the US
via an A&R scout spotting a video of ours on a website called NZmusic.com
and loving what he heard."
"So we have spent the last two years living in the US. Our label
let us tour for a year before releasing our CD here in May. Things are
off to a good start here, back in August we went to the MTV VMA's in
Miami 'cause the video for our song 'Walkie Talkie Man' received four
nominations."
More
recently Apple used 'Walkie Talkie Man' in their new iPod commercial.
Brad says this helped get their music noticed all over the world, "but
for us more importantly it means we can finally come to the UK."
As a Liverpool football supporter he adds, "I really wanna get
to see a major league football match... I hope we have time!"
"See
you all very soon," says Brad to all the UKers reading. If you're
in the UK, make sure he does indeed. Keep your ear to the ground for
any Steriogram shows and appearances and for more info on the band,
visit www.steriogram.com. Make
sure you check out issue 43 of Black Velvet too, out in Feb 2005 - we
have a bigger Steriogram feature in there!
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