A Skylit Drive is an American post-hardcore band from Lodi, California

Striking that perfect balance between melody and mosh has become an art form for post-hardcore quintet For All Those Sleeping, but with the release of new album ‘Outspoken’, the band are about to take it to the next level. Their second full-length captures the Minnesota quintet at a new creative zenith, and this time, they’re pissed.

“This record is a big ‘Fuck You’ to anyone that’s doubted what we are and what we are capable of,” says lead singer Mike Champa. “We were just fed up with a lot of things in our lives,” adds guitarist/lyricist David Volgman-Stevens. “We were proud of our last record and we’ve been having a blast touring, but we feel we’ve been holding a lot of stuff in; we figured we’d be honest with ourselves and through our music, to our fans. It’s just letting everything out and saying what we feel. It’s an unapologetic, angry, honest and emotional record. There was no other title really for this album but ‘Outspoken’.”

For All Those Sleeping—which also includes drummer Ethan Trekell, bassist London Snetsinger and rhythm guitarist Jerad Pierskalla—formed in St. Cloud, MN in 2007. The band issued the independent EP ‘The Lies We Live’ in 2008, and then signed with Fearless Records in 2009, leading to their 2010 full-length debut, ‘Cross Your Fingers’. The album debuted at #25 on Billboard’s Heatseeker’s Chart and #11 on the Alternative New Artist’s Chart. The band hit the road hard in support of the release, including tours with Falling In Reverse, Asking Alexandria, Motionless in White, A Skylit Drive, Breathe Carolina, Sleeping With Sirens, The Word Alive, and a summer run on The All Stars Tour, featuring blessthefall, Emmure, Alesana and Born of Osiris.

With a full slate of touring planned behind Outspoken’s June 19th release, 2012 promises to be the year that For All Those Sleeping reach more potential fans than ever. Armed with their most impassioned and confident release to date, the band is sure to win over hordes of new heavy music devotees, while giving longtime fans an even greater blast of what they’ve already come to love.

There’ s something special that happens when just the right people come together at just the right time with a like-minded goal. Such is the case with the rapidly emerging post-hardcore outfit Wolves at the Gate. “We aren’t trying to appease anybody.” says guitarist/vocalist Steve Cobucci, “If we never get to play music for a living, this is awesome.” Saying this, Cobucci is speaking of the bands explosive “We Are The Ones” EP. However, with the imminent re-release of that EP via Solid State Records, things are about to get very busy for the enthusiastic 5 piece.

Originating from the small town of Cedarville Ohio, the men of Wolves at the Gate never saw themselves ending up here. Forming in 2008, each member was on a completely different track in life. While all attending college in Cedarville, music was a passion for each individual, but wasn’t where they saw their lives going. “I got my degree in History Education.” says Cobucci “Jeremy got his degree is communications, Ben got his degree in marketing and I actually taught high school history for a year” However, as it turned out, there was more in the cards for the hopeful college students than looking for a job after graduation. “I was always going to shows and seeing bands perform. I always loved being the listener. Listening to it so much though, I really wanted to create my own version of all the music I liked. Just to combine all the things I really appreciate about music.” This drive led Cobucci to join with vocalist Colin Jones, bassist Ben Summers, guitarist Jeremy Steckel and drummer Ben Millhouse to form… Goodnight Doctor? Cobucci explains: “The first few shows we ever played we were called “Goodnight Doctor” That was a phrase my dad would say when he would stub his toe or bang his head on something and we thought that was hilarious, but when we realized we wanted to start trying to be a real band we wanted something that had a real meaning to it.” And meaning they got. The origins of the name “Wolves at the Gate” are explained by Cobucci: “The name comes from the bible in Acts 20 24-32.” He continues to explain the verse which is spoken in whole on the first track of the bands EP- “Toward the end of that passage Paul says that there will be a time that savage wolves will try to come in and try to distort the truth, and that’s just what we see today. People not giving a clear depiction of the gospel, so as it says in our album, we aren’t the wolves at the gate, we are the ones who face them.”

From that point on, the band had a unified mindset, started writing better songs and set out to put their ideas to tape. The group jumped into recording their EP with an impassioned fervor. “It was pretty grueling.” reminisces Cobucci, “We all worked full time jobs, so basically for about a month we would go to work, then be at the studio until 3 in the morning, then back to work at 7:30 in the morning.” The result of this diligent schedule would become the exceptional “We Are The Ones” EP. An intense and equally moving piece of work, We Are The Ones is an exciting look at a band with creativity completely flowing out of them and striving to give it a proper outlet. The first track/intro does an exceptional job of setting the tone of what’s to come while at the same time making the clearest statement possible about the hearts of the men playing the instruments. Next is Vapors- a high-energy assault right out of the gate before turning the corner with an ending of soaring vocal melodies and equally big guitar playing. The tracks following do an uncanny job of carrying the listener from one peak to an equally impressive and dynamic valley, all leading up to the closer Oh The Depths. This lead single from the EP holds a special place in the bands heart… as well as well as the hearts of some lucky fans as well. Cobucci explains: “I remember once we got the gang vocals done at the end of Oh The Depths, that was really special. We wanted to build a sense of community within the sound of it, so we posted on our Twitter and Facebook that if anyone wanted to come sing on our record to come on down. We posted it only about an hour before we wanted to track it, but there were over 30 people that showed up to sing. It was really special.” This moment tops off a piece of work filled with an amount of urgency and feeling so big, that it can’t help but shine through.

Looking forward to the future, Cobucci says the band is anticipating going different directions with their craft. “We are extremely proud of our EP, but we are all about our music progressing. It’s not fair for the listener for us to keep doing the same thing with different chords. We are really looking forward to getting into a legitimate studio and working with people who are really going to push us.” Already having music in the works for the future doesn’t dampen the excitement that the band has to finally be able to showcase We Are The Ones on a bigger scale though, via a re-release from Solid State Records. “We got an email from Solid State and we didn’t think it was real. We thought it was a mass email telling us to buy new albums or something.
We couldn’t be more excited to be part of the family.” The chance to have a more widespread audience and be able to spread their message to a growing number of people is something that couldn’t come soon enough for these 5 Ohio natives. With a tone that can’t hope to hide his excitement, Cobucci exclaims: “We just want to get on the road! We just want to get out there and support the EP as much as possible.”

When the perfect group of people come together with an idea to create something, something bigger than themselves, something beyond any one of them individually, extraordinary things can happen. Something extraordinary has happened…in the form of Wolves at the Gate… and they’re just getting started

Brent Walsh vocals, guitar Ian Pedigo guitar Chris Hinkley bass Blake Dahlinger drums

“We don’t want people to just listen to our music on a surface level. We want people to dive into the songs and dissect them and to really feel them,” states Brent Walsh, vocalist for the San Francisco Bay Area band known as I the Mighty.

I the Mighty will release Karma Never Sleeps – their new EP and Equal Vision Records debut – on March 27, 2012. “Our new material is pretty different from our previous releases. Karma Never Sleeps is a lot heavier, a bit darker, and has a moodier ambient,” explains bassist Chris Hinkley.

The ambitious and captivating EP, which was produced by Erik Ron [Panic! At The Disco, VersaEmerge, Foxy Shazam], features six sweeping tracks filled with soaring vocals, catchy hooks, charging guitars and explosive instrumentations that make for a mesmerizing whirlwind of cinematic soundscapes.

Karma Never Sleeps envelops the listener into dramatic, dreamlike imagery of tales of political corruption, desperation and despair, and even words of cautionary counseling for the young and reckless. Lyrically infused with powerful and poignant storylines, some tracks take inspiration directly from Walsh’s life experiences, while others are written as if they were dreams illuminated onto a screen through a stream of imagination. Seamlessly woven throughout each track is the ubiquitous theme of Karma.

Since their 2007 inception, I the Mighty has melded together effortlessly and has already compiled an impressive following of support on the west coast, seeing regular rotation on local modern rock station Live 105 and sharing stages with the likes of Hawthorne Heights, There For Tomorrow, Deftones and more.

“In a sense, heading into the recording together was really a discovery of what our band would become,” explains guitarist Ian Pedigo. “The process was very organic. The first three songs actually stemmed from jam sessions we had while practicing our old sets for live shows.”

I the Mighty has undoubtedly achieved their goal of creating bright, bold and memorable music on the new EP but certainly don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. Blake Dahlinger (drums) expounds, “At this point, there isn’t one singular goal that would satisfy what we aim to do. We want to tour the world. We want to continuously put out records that will hopefully mean a lot to us as well as many people. We want to put our own stamp on the music scene by developing our own sound. We want to continuously set and reach goals throughout our career so that we can better ourselves as musicians and people.”

Walsh concludes, “And the thing we hope for most…is that our music means something to someone, the way that other artists have meant so much to us in our lives.”

Hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, the four musicians that form the entity entitled Paris certainly have a fascinating story to share. Upon meeting in 2009 while partaking in a previous musical affair, vocalist and guitarist Lynn Gunnulfsen and drummer Brad Griffin soon met eye to eye on one thing: something didn’t feel quite right. Towards the end of their run together with their previous band, they met guitarist Alex Babinski. “When we met him and he and I were writing together it was just instant chemistry,” says Gunnulfsen. Soon after the band clicked with Babinski, they gracefully entered the studio to create the being in which rock n’ roll fans everywhere would soon begin to know as Paris.

“During that time we entered the studio together, several changes came about… an entirely new sound, new approach to writing and more. Since we had a whole new approach, we only felt it would be right to just become a whole new band,” Gunnulfsen states. It was around this time that the band was introduced to bassist Brian MacDonald and once again felt the instant chemistry they experienced with Babinski. “From then on, we felt as if we had finally found the perfect line-up for the direction we wanted to take. It was gratifying!” adds Babinski.

Whilst continuing their time in the studio over as one single essence, the band has taken time to return to ad bits and pieces to each composition to be sure that each piece fit exactly with the rest. The four of them find it difficult to pinpoint exact influences but Gunnulfsen is satisfied saying, “We didn’t want to aim for any particular sound, but we wanted to keep it really gritty and in your face, yet catchy with a sense of grace to it. Beauty and the beast in music form, in a way.”

To summarize what Paris offers musically, it’s easy to sense that they bring a concourse of strong emotion straight to the table. That being said, the band has flawlessly used their teen angst to form a remarkable EP due out late summer that is sure to astound the music scene. With a tight knit line-up, unshaken balance, alluring vocals and a drive unlike any other, the four members of Paris are ready to step onto the nearest stage at any given time to show you just what they’ve got.