BulletProof Messenger

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BulletProof Messenger

BulletProof Messenger - Left to right - Matt Litwin, Voley Martin, Marcus Klavan, Alex Straiter, Scott Martin, Jesse Downing.
Background information
Origin Long Island, New York, USA
Genres Alternative rock
Post-grunge
Years active 2001 - Present
Labels Independent
Associated acts Gone To Earth
Website BulletProof Messenger
Members
Matt Litwin
Voley Martin
Marcus Klavan
Scott Martin
Jesse Downing
Former members
Josh Rieger
Jon Maisel
Marc (last name unknown)
Alex Straiter


BulletProof Messenger is a rock band from Long Island, NY.

Contents

[edit] Formation (2001 - 2005)

Prior to being named BulletProof Messenger (BPM), the group was originally named Gone To Earth (GTE)[1]. GTE was formed by DJ/Programmer Matt Litwin, bassist Josh Rieger and guitarist Jon Maisel in 2001[2][3][4][5].

Rieger and Maisel met while attending the same high school while Litwin joined the band through an introduction of a cousin of Rieger[4]. Due to the band’s use of programming and electronics it was a struggle to find a drummer who could keep up[4]. After unsuccessfully auditioning multiple candidates[4], the band's drummer Voley Martin[4] (current guitarist) was found in 2002 through an ad posted in a music store[5].

At this point the band still didn't have a vocalist and all of the music being played was instrumental. In Farmingdale, NY the band played an open mic at a venue called The Downtown in hopes of meeting a potential vocalist and after a few performances, paired with vocalist Marc (last name unknown).

With Marc the band added vocals to some of the instrumental tracks and recorded a demo at a friend’s local studio. Because of the success at the open mics the band was invited to be the opening act for Derek Sherinian[2][6][4][5] at The Downtown in the summer of 2003, and outsold the headliner for the night. For this performance, most of the songs performed were instrumental while Marc joined later in the set to perform a few additional tracks.

However, a few months later Marc stopped showing up for practices and ended up parting ways with the group to pursue a different style project. This was a major blow to the band. In the words of DJ Matt Litwin: "This left us pretty bummed since we knew that if we were to really make anything of the project we couldn't be like every other local band. The vocalist was the key to the puzzle and a being a great act ... finding a vocalist is easy, but finding a great one is a different story." (Quote from an email).

As a result of Marc’s departure the group began a search for a new vocalist[3]. Making the search more difficult was the fact that the group attended different colleges at the time[7]. Litwin and Rieger attended SUNY Binghamton[2][3], Martin went to SUNY Cortland[2][3] and Maisel attended Miami University[3]. The group was forced to tryout potential vocalists through demo tapes sent via email or CD and writing new material came to a slow down. Over the next 2 years, Litwin and Martin spent time writing and recording parts of new songs sending each part back and forth over the internet to each other[2][3], piecing songs together part by part until they were happy with the result.

While a great number of vocalists were listened to the group wasn’t satisfied[5]. In November of 2003 the band received an email from Marcus Klavan expressing his interest in the project. However, since Klavan lived in Maryland[7] at the time the band sent him an instrumental track to prepare something over and requested he email back a demo tape. Upon hearing his demo the band believed that he was the right person for the project[4]. After some discussion the band met Klavan in January of 2003 for a live tryout, after which the group decided to bring him on board as the group’s vocalist[2][5].

During the 2 year period without a vocalist, Litwin and Martin had written a significant number of new tracks which needed the vocal element introduced. With these instrumentals in hand, Klavan spent the next few months traveling back and forth between Maryland and Long Island to join Litwin and Martin[5] in writing and recording vocals. Apart from the demo Klavan recorded over named “Eight” the first two tracks recorded as a group were entitled “Break Outside” and “Wasted” respectively - (“Wasted” appears on Arm Yourself). Also recorded over the following months were songs entitled “Everyone”, “And You Say” and “Like a Drug”.

In the summer of 2004 Klavan relocated to Long Island[4]. The band had rented a studio and began rehearsing on a daily basis. During this time the band was working on their live performance as well as writing some new songs including, “Next To Me” and a song entitled “Tomorrow” (which appeared on The Crucial Line).

Over the next few months the band played live at local venues including CBGB[8][2][6][4][9], The Crazy Donkey[7] and The Knitting Factory[2]. In October of 2004 the band secured an opening slot with national rock act Incubus[2][10][11][6][4][12][9][5]. This opportunity lead to spots on MTV, CBS, FOX, as well as being voted one of the top unsigned acts in the country by XM satellite radio.

In early 2005 the band was alerted about a Clear Channel Radio battle of the bands[13] being hosted by 92.5 KGB-FM[14] and "Magic City Music Hall”[14] in Johnson City, NY[6]. The band agreed to play the gig with the exception of Guitarist Maisel who declined to participate.

The band had eventually wanted to move Martin to guitar and bring in a new drummer due to Martin’s military obligations, as an attempt to prevent the band from coming to a standstill if he was deployed. Through Klavan’s introduction, Alex Straiter, a friend from Maryland traveled to NY a few weeks before the show to try out. With little practice the band went through with the show and ended up winning the contest[14][6].

Following this success, Straiter relocated to NY to be the group's full time drummer and Martin took the role of the band's second guitarist. With the new lineup the band played shows with Collective Soul[13][11][6] and played as an opening act for Trapt[13][11][15] in 2005.

In the winter of 2005 Maisel, upset with the groups refusal to sign a 3 song demo recording contract, removed the majority of the group’s fans and accomplishments gained over the previous years from the group’s MySpace page, bringing the project to a standstill. Being frustrated with this situation, Straiter left the band to play in a side project of From Autumn To Ashes guitar player Scott Gross. Rieger left the group to attend law school[16] and Klavan’s involvement decreased for a brief period of time, leaving Litwin and Martin to determine which way to go with the band.

[edit] Debut Album - The Crucial Line (2006)

As a fresh start to the project, Litwin introduced the potential name BulletProof Messenger[17], intended to be a play on the phrase "Don't shoot the messenger" and an easy to remember abbreviation (BPM). An Australian band had already used the name Gone to Earth so a name change was required.

With the new band name in place Litwin and Martin decided to self-fund their debut album The Crucial Line (an enhanced CD with video[18]) and complete the group’s lineup at a later date. Collaborating on the production of the new album over the internet, Litwin and Martin wrote over 25 songs using the same methods that worked for their earlier demo recordings – with Litwin coming home during college breaks to get together and finalize the tracks, as Martin had previously graduated.

Klavan returned to the group partially through the writing process and spent much of January and March of 2006 writing and recording demo vocals in Litwin’s home studio over the tracks that had been previously written. The band (now with 3 members) continued work on the album until June of 2006. By then the album had been almost completely recorded and produced at home by Litwin and Martin to lower the hours needed later at the studio. At which time, the band booked time a local recording studio "Vudu Studios" in Long Island, NY to record the final version.

The band headed into the studio and started the professional recording of The Crucial Line in June of 2006 with Litwin and Martin financing the recording out of their own pockets. The Crucial Line was produced by Litwin and Martin, and performed by Litwin, Martin – playing guitar, bass and selected drum parts (prior to Straiter’s return), Klavan and Straiter - who rejoined the group towards the beginning of the recording process. Despite doing most of the editing of the songs outside of the studio to save money, towards the end of the project money was extremely short and the final cost turned out way over what had been expected. However, additional financing was obtained to complete the album which was completed and mastered by Tony Dawsey at Masterdisk in New York, NY and released in October 2006.

The band spent months adding friends on MySpace and targeting people with similar musical interests to come and check out the album before it released. However, as well as this album was received, the band was still missing a solid lineup.

[edit] Completing the lineup/Sellaband (late 2006 - early 2007)

Though the album was complete the band was still missing a bassist and a second guitarist. The group had tried out a number of potential bassists and guitarists during the recording process but found nobody suitable.

In November 2006 the band was introduced to guitarist Scott Martin through a potential bassist they had been trying out. Impressed by the speed S. Martin learned the tracks the group decided to bring him into the group. After two months of attempting to incorporate the bassist, Straiter mentioned that he knew a potential candidate, Jesse Downing (former Shootyz Groove member), who he played with in his side project.

Straiter contacted Downing who was living in Albany, NY at the time and presented 3 tracks for him to learn. Downing took a weekend trip to Long island and visited Litwin where he performed the 3 requested songs as well as the rest of the album. Litwin later said "To say the least, I was sold .." At that time the band was hesitant to remove the bassist they had been trying to break in, however upon a live tryout with the group a week later, the group decided Downing would be the perfect fit.

By the beginning of 2007 the band had the lineup that they have today.

In 2007 the band was practicing, and performing around the East Coast of the USA. During that time Downing received an email from Rob Parzek of Wetwerks (band) saying they had reached 15,000 dollars of investment on Sellaband, which he forwarded to the rest of the group.

Interested to find out what Sellaband was, Litwin took a look at the website and ultimately joined, deciding it would be a good opportunity to fund the bands sophomore album (given how much the first album cost) and would be a great opportunity to gain new fans world wide.

On March 21st 2007 the band registered on Sellaband[19] with their album The Crucial Line backing them. During this time The Crucial Line was getting a great deal of attention and good reviews from respected music sites such as “Tunelabmusic.com”[13] and others and entered the group into the top unsigned acts chart on MySpace.

Joining Sellaband in its infancy and coming with an already professionally recorded album, believers rallied behind the group rapidly. The band progressed extremely quickly holding the number 1 position on Sellaband for their first 3 weeks on the site[20][21][22]. At that time Sellaband also had announced their London Calling competition[23]. Rallying all the fans they had made from The Crucial Line through MySpace and other outlets, the group earned a slot on the show.

The band was subsequently flown to London, England in June of 2007 to perform at London Calling at Gibson Guitar Studios[24]. At the time of London Calling the band had progressed to approximately $17,000 in budget (out of the $50,000 required). After London Calling the band started progressing rapidly to their $50,000 target. The band decided to make the move of asking believers to limit the parts per believer and to shoot for the most believers of any Sellaband 50k artist. The band believed that the more believers the better for the release of their second album.

On December 21st 2007 BPM hit the $50,000 target mark with 1171 believers[25][26]. This is currently the highest number of believers any act on Sellaband.

[edit] Arm Yourself (2008 - present)

By this time, V. Martin had shipped to Fort Rucker, AL for Army flight training. Litwin and V. Martin had always been the writing team for the band. This, as well as the introduction of 2 new members caused a change in the writing structure for the new album Arm Yourself.

In March of 2008, Litwin and Downing flew to Fort Rucker, AL for a week to work on the tracks for the new album. However, like before, most of the tracks were written collaboratively by sending parts back and forth over the internet to all the members. Frequently, Klavan and Litwin joined to write and record vocals for many of the tracks while Klavan tracked the remainder at home, sending the recorded tracks to the group for review. Upon V. Martin’s return from flight school the group finished their writing process and chose the songs for the album.

Over the months after reaching the Sellaband $50,000 target the group had begun talks with Sellaband for potential producers and studios. Initially an agreement was reached with Ron Saint Germain (311, Creed, Muse), and began sending tracks and comments back and forth[27]. Unfortunately due to contract issues the agreement fell through. Because of this and knowing the success of the recording and production process of the band's first album it was decided the group would self-produce the record and like The Crucial Line, would record the album at home before recording anything in the studio.

In October 2008 the band began the official tracking of Arm Yourself at “The Cutting Room” in NYC. This album was self-produced and mixed by Anthony "Rocky" Gallo. Tracking was completed in early December 2008 and mastered a week later by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk in New York, NY. Arm Yourself was released in January 2009.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

The Crucial Line 2006

Arm Yourself 2009

[edit] References

  1. ^ bandmix.com, "Showing previous band name in use". July 29th, 2005. Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i thelisteningsession.com, "Scans of Hicksville Illustrator article". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d e f thelisteningsession.com, "Scans of Pipe Dream, Binghamton University". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j thelisteningsession.com, "Scans of Press and Sun Good Times Entertainment Guide". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g thelisteningsession.com, "Scans of Syosset Jericho Tribune October 22nd, 2004.". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  6. ^ a b c d e f thelisteningsession.com, "Scans of Inside Connection article". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  7. ^ a b c thelisteningsession.com, "Scans of Newsday Long Island". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  8. ^ top40-charts.com, "General background information from 2005". July 29th, 2005. Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.
  9. ^ a b thelisteningsession.com, "Scans of Syosset Jericho Tribune October 15th, 2004". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  10. ^ thelisteningsession.com, "Press clipping showing the band as the support act for" Incubus. Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  11. ^ a b c thelisteningsession.com, "Screen shot from TheMusicAppraisal.net". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  12. ^ thelisteningsession.com, "Scans of Good Times Entertainment Guide". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  13. ^ a b c d Tunelabmusic.com, "Review of The Crucial Line". Contains other reference material. May 18th, 2008. Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.
  14. ^ a b c thelisteningsession.com, "Screen shot of 92.5 KGB-FM web page". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  15. ^ thelisteningsession.com, "Web site screen shot showing Gone To Earth as a supporting act of Trapt". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  16. ^ thelisteningsession.com, "Scans of Pipe Dream, Binghamton University". Shows Rieger had applied to go to Law School. Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  17. ^ myspace.com, "Showing name change to BulletProof Messenger". Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.
  18. ^ cdbaby.com, "Shows The Crucial Line is an enhanced CD". Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.
  19. ^ Sellaband, "See Signed up date in Artist Summary". Retrieved on January 12th, 2009.
  20. ^ Sellaband, "Tribune Edition 28". First week at number 1 on the charts. March 27th, 2007. Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.
  21. ^ Sellaband, "Tribune Edition 29". Second week at number 1 on the charts. April 3rd, 2007. Retrieved on January 1, 2009.
  22. ^ Sellaband, "Tribune Edition 30". Third week at number 1 on the charts. April 10th, 2007. Retrieved on January 1, 2009.
  23. ^ Sellaband, "Tribune Edition 34". May 5th, 2007. Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.
  24. ^ Sellaband, "Tribune Edition 37". May 29th, 2007. Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.
  25. ^ Sellaband, "BPM reach 50k". Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.
  26. ^ Sellaband, "BulletProof Messenger page". Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.
  27. ^ Sellaband, "Ron Saint Germain to produce". Retrieved on January 11th, 2009.

[edit] See also

Tunelab http://tunelab.com/2009/07/22/bulletproof-messenger-new-york-ny/

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BulletProof_Messenger"