Growing up in Kansas City, MO isn't the easiest break for a group of fame seeking musicians. Sure, local attribution can be great, but as far as the national level goes, major record deals are left up to the coasts, and the occasional industrial center like Chicago, Detroit, or Denver.. All I can say is that our success is still a feeling within our bones. This "no coast" christian punk/rock/alternative band believes that God has some kind of plan for us as long as we stay together, take it easy, & keep it real.
Sept. 7 1999, my first day of school, and i noticed that Justin was in my American Literature class. Our teacher had the class fill out info cards, and in the "additional info" section i mentioned that i was a singer for a band seeking a drummer, and ironicly enough Justin mentioned that he was a drummer. So the next day, in the middle of class, Mrs. Johnston pointed at me and said "You said you needed a drummer", then pointed at Justin quite enthusiasticly and said "he's a drummer". Our first practice consisted of me, Justin, and Justin's friend Aaron. Aaron was a great guitar player, but with a strong desire to play Ozzie Osbourne and old school Metallica. I'll just let you guess how that worked out....
A few weeks later i went on a hayride with my friend Jerron and his youth group. Josh was there too, and during the hayride the 3 of us got the rest of the group hyped up with some of our favorite songs("She Likes Me for Me", various Blink-182 songs, and a few FIF songs) that we sung a cappella. I'd met Josh before and knew he was a guitar player, so after seeing the sparks between our music abilities i told him i could use a lead guitar. "I'm your man" he said.
The next obstacle that came along was our extremely long list of promising band names.. Just imagine how hard it would be to write a list that contains over 50 names, and choose which one you want to be called for all eternity. We decided to make the choosing of our name that of a democratic style. We asked people to put a chekc beside their 3 favorite names on our list.. After being narrowed down, the 3 favorites were: A)"5buck3" B)"Dumbstruck" and C)"Hello Marcus". Choosing between those three names was so hard we just decided to pick: D)"All (of) The Above.
After our long list of names came our quest to find the predestined bass player of our dreams. Allen South was the first to come to us, so he was booked to play for us at our concert in my basement on NYE. Unfortunately, he didn't catch on too well to our songs, so he helped out with the Blink-182 songs we covered, and when we needed an improvisionist for our own songs i called on my good friend and next-door-neighbor, Andy Carle. After the concert, we began our search again... Making a demo tape was a definate need, but we still didn't have a bass, so Josh's stepsister's fiance's friend, James, played for us when we made the demo. Finally, after the demo, Josh got us together with a bass player that he had in mind from the beginning, BJ Ray. We left the "being part of our band" decision up to him, and he decided to join.
So we come together now in order to praise God, and hopefully to reach others that are led astray. Equipped with passion & a good sense of humor as well as some musical talent, we lift our gifts up and humble ourselves in front of the One who lets us keep them. Our music is hard to define by a genre, i just like to call it "no class"(as in 'no classfication') 'cause we cover a lot of different styles. Thank you for being interested enough to reach this point. This short autobiography has been a pleasure-....-Marc
