Event Description : In May 2004, Brad Stewart shed significant light on the formation of the band during an interview with Metal-Rules.com: The band started with Brent Smith, our lead singer. He had a development deal with a different band on Atlantic and the label decided to move forward with Brent and not with the rest of his band. They allowed him to write with other people, develop his songwriting craft, and find the musicians that he wanted to work with. This led him to Jacksonville where he met Brad, the bass player, through a mutual friend of Brent’s A&R guy, local Jacksonville producer Pete Thornton. The two hit it off and guitarist Jasin Todd would join the band next.Jasin was in another band and wanted to concentrate on his guitar playing and didn’t want to sing and play any more in his other band. Jasin’s fiancé owned the studio where Brad and Brent were making the demos and Jasin got the chance to play with us. We just fit together. His attitude, style, and personality were exactly what we were looking for. Barry was our lucky #7 drummer. The 7th drummer we tried out. He blew us away. He was confident, powerful and had mad chops. We finally had a working band. We continued to make demos in Jacksonville and Orlando and Atlantic gave the green light to record our record.
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