PLAY> is a band born of necessity. An acrobatic melding of disparate influences that has only one goal: to rock as hard as humanly possible. There is no attempt to trendset or adopt a genre, we just do whatever the fuck feels right and try to do it as best as we can. The first time PLAY> took the stage it was the October of 1996. We were a ratty little power-trio who got to share the stage at the old Satyricon with On a Llama, which was a big deal back then. We ripped up Portland venues for the next few months and then the inevitable occurred. Our bassist was an amazing talent, but he was also an amazing asshole. We broke up the band because neither Connor or I could fucking confront him and fire him because he was just crazy enough to scare us. The two us did a number of shows as an acoustic duo (named ..Idiots.., wonder what went wrong there!), which gave Connor a chance to perform his first batch of self penned tunes. After that we drifted apart.
Connor hit the open road and I rotted in a bad relationship. Late in 1999 we both decided that we..d had enough and rolled down to New Orleans to restart the band with a new name and a new division of labor .. we would co-front and get a rhythm section. For a town with a rich musical history we didn..t find many good players. Then tragedy struck and I returned to my hometown when I found out my mom had died. After a period of healing and doing a shitload of cocaine I came to my senses and moved back to Portland, where Connor had a new band up and running. We had made an album in 2000 under the name dissident 27. It was a studio project I had concocted with my longtime musical counter part Kevin Gamble (bass). At this point I was content to make albums and support them with just me and an acoustic guitar.
Then fate intervened again. After getting back to PDX I started doing open mics all over town. Connor brought his guitarist down to see a set and they decided that we should all join forces and create that co-fronted band that we had started in New Orleans. Connor would drum and sing and I would do my usual. It was a mistake from the start. We used my studio project CD as our marketing tool because we were all poor, so dissident 27 was our defacto name. The lead guitarist was phenomenal but he was also a dick and hogged the stage live, turning both our songs into excuses for guitar solos. It was 2002 and we had a lot of shows booked. To pull it off I hired a shitty bassist, he was more of a prop than a player and we hit the scene. Looking back I guess we were not a bad band, we just weren..t that good. We got a lot of great feedback about Connor..s drumming and my headbanging excess, but the band itself never gelled. As I began to realize what was happening I started my usual routine: fire the dead weight. Bob the bassist was first. We carried on with me on bass and vocals. Then Josh the guitar guy was next, he fucked with Connor and we got rid of him. We still had gigs . . . it was late in 2002 and we played our best show ever at the Ash Street as a two piece. Everyone who saw that set remembered it and that was the starting point for everything to come.
By this point we abandoned Connor..s tunes because I..m not a good enough guitarist to play his stuff. We started 2003 with a bassist and went back to the old power-trio format. We had been asked to play a show at the old Mount Tabor venue and it was headlining gig on a good night, so we took it. Unfortunately we did not take the stage until after 1:00 and the place was fucking empty. After six songs and a brief onstage argument I turned to Connor and said, ..We..re done... A year and a half into it I said fuck it. I was sick of personnel problems and it stopped being fun. The only positive thing that happened was the return to the name PLAY> which we decided right before that last set.
Connor and I parted ways remaining friends. He started a new band, Swingin Amiss, which has become perhaps the best Americana band in Portland. I decided to hang up the whole frontman thing and joined Captain Rock as their bassist. Connor..s band progressed and began releasing CDs. I was gigging all over the place and meeting shitloads of people up and down the West Coast. In early 2004 Captain Rock played its last official show at Conan..s (now the Hawthorne Theater.) Beth Kelly and I decided to resurrect PLAY> because she loved the songs and wanted to become a drummer. After a few weeks of jamming Jay Caruso of Susie Blue fame joined as our bassist. It was so fucking good! We composed three part harmonies and Jay helped tighten up my songs and take them in new directions.
We started gigging as PLAY> in March of 2004. Things were going great until we played a shitty gig at Conan..s opening for the Wanteds. That show resulted in one of my hardest decisions ever .. I fired Beth, who was a great friend and a person who helped me tremendously. Jay and I hired a new drummer and started getting down to business. We had recording, gigging and marketing all figured out and we went back out in early 2005 to do shows. Then that drummer ruined two shows in a row. The only great show during that incarnation was at the White Eagle in April. So I fired him and then my personal life took a U-turn and Jay and I stopped jamming. By fall of 2005 I was over it and made a solo acoustic album and did some low-key shows to support it. Then, after a night of beers with Connor, he said he wouldn..t mind hanging out and playing some drums. So, every Saturday morning for three months we jammed on my new setlist and prepared to record. Playing live wasn..t really discussed much and we just had a good time. Then we started having a REALLY FUCKING GOOD TIME! We had harmonies, we got tight playing to just each other without any interference. Early 2006 we started laying drum tracks and a friend of Connor..s asked if he could jam with us. Colin is a great guitarist, but I said no because I didn..t know him and didn..t want some egomaniacle idiot fucking up the music with endless solos. Connor promised that Colin wasn..t like that and that I should at least jam once to see what it was like. I agreed, and besides, my guitar parts are one dimensional, maybe lead could be cool . . . And it fucking was. Colin has added a new dimension to the music that has never existed before and that brings us to today, We are ready to do shows and have an EP ready to release. So load up the balls and roll out the cannon . . . we..re coming to get YOU!!!
So here we are today. The line-up is complete and we are hard at work on the first full length professionally recorded album. Brenden is our new bassist and we are all in it for the long haul this time and I would like to thank everyone who has been out to the shows to support us and the amazing bands we've shared the stage with so far. The best is yet to come . . . Ciao.
And now for 2007. We did a handful of great shows last year, the best being at the Tonic and up in Seattle at the Comet where they went apeshit for us. We completed tracking in December and the mixing is all done for the album. XO publicity is doing our promotion and the album is unlike anything I have ever been a part of. We spent almost all of last year on it and it is a source of pride for everyone involved. Connor was done early, but came in and added the killer back ups and aditional percussion and glock that makes it great. Colin, Colin, Colin, Colin. His parts are mini symphonies set to my basic progressions and makes the music truly sing and fly. Brenden, he fucking blew my mind. Only 20, he played amazingly and will be a huge factor in future compositions. Just check out "chunk" and you know how talented he is. We are already writing for the next album because we know this one will need an extraordinary effort to follow it. We will see you soon. Ciao.