From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

theSTART
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genre(s)	Rock
Years active	1998–present
Associated acts	Human Waste Project Snot
Website	ThisIsTheStart.com
Members
Aimee Echo Jamie Miller Erick Sanger Ed Davis

theSTART is an American punk/synth rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1998. Their current lineup includes Aimee Echo, Jamie Miller, Erick Sanger and Ed Davis. They have played with major bands such as Weezer, AFI, Goldfinger, Alkaline Trio, The Used, The Offspring, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Berlin, Bow Wow Wow, Garbage, Incubus, Head Automatica, and Team Sleep.

Contents 1 History 2 Band members 3 Discography 4 External links

Aimee Echo and Jamie Miller met in the late 1990s while touring with their former bands, Human Waste Project and Snot. They formed Hero in the fall of 1998 with Aimee on vocals, Jamie on bass/synthesizer, Scott Ellis on drums, and Mike Smith on guitar. Within only two weeks of writing songs, their first show was on September 9, 1998 at The Dragonfly. They played numerous gigs throughout Los Angeles, including opening for Orgy. In 1999, they recorded their first demo. It featured "Gorgeous," "Hang On Me," "Flying Machine," and "Be Mine." "Gorgeous" and "Hang On Me" would later be re-recorded for their debut album.

In July of 1999, Hero were signed to 143 Records/Atlantic Records and recorded their debut album named "Circles." The band was forced to change their name, as "Hero" was found to be already taken. At the suggestion of Aimee's mother, they changed it to theSTART. The name would soon prove prophetic, as they would be one of the first bands of the new wave revival. Mike Smith left in October of 2000 so Jamie Miller switched to guitar and Jeff Jaeger was brought in as the new bassist. They eventually signed with The Label, a sub-label of Geffen Records and finally released the album (renamed "Shakedown!") in 2001.

After touring with Weezer and Incubus for the rest of the year, theSTART returned home only to find that The Label was shutting down. Not willing to give up, Aimee and Jamie decided to buy their own touring van and do everything themselves. Scott Ellis instantly left the band, so Brian Ferraro joined as the new drummer. In 2002, they recorded and released "The 1234 EP" independently. Only 500 copies were made and the band sold it at their shows and online.

The summer of 2002 proved to be successful for theSTART as they went on their first headlining tour with Scarling. and played a portion of the Warped Tour. They gathered up $800 to record "theSTART EP" (unofficially called "The Death Via Satellite EP"). It was released by August with the help of Smallstone Records and Newblack Records. With little to no press at all, the band sold thousands of the EP on tour and on their website. Later that year, theSTART went on their first UK tour with Sparta and Strung Out.

In January 2003, AFI invited theSTART to open up for them. Jeff Jaeger left the band in February and they brought in Sarah Saturday to play bass. theSTART continued to jump on tours, including Vaux, The Used and Coheed and Cambria. In May, Sarah and Brian were fired from the band because of conflicts. Having had a tour with Alkaline Trio still planned in June, theSTART borrowed friends Todd O'Keefe and Justin Rocherolle from The Green And Yellow TV to fill in.

Erick Sanger met theSTART when his previous band, Kissing Chaos, had played a show with them in Texas. He told Aimee he loved theSTART and would like to be in the band if they ever needed him. Bringing along friend Billy Brimblecom, Jr. to play drums, the lineup was finalized in July 2003. That summer they opened tours for Ozma, Onelinedrawing, and Taproot.

Nitro Records had been watching theSTART since they played with AFI. theSTART were signed in October 2003 and the Death Via Satellite EP was re-released with new artwork. They then joined the first Girlz Garage tour along with Lennon Murphy, Brassy and Lillix.

theSTART began to record their second full-length album Initiation in February 2004. In March, they embarked on another UK tour, this time with The Offspring. They continued to tour with The Offspring for North America, opening beside The (International) Noise Conspiracy and Auf Der Maur. They embarked on a co-headlining tour with The AKAs throughout July.

On August 24, Initiation was released on Nitro Records. Unfortunately it seems with good must come bad, as drummer Billy Brimblecom, Jr. announced the same day that he would be leaving the band. TheSTART took a month off then resumed headlining tours with new drummer Frank Zummo. For a few shows, Adrian Young of No Doubt filled in for drums.

In February 2005, Goldfinger asked theSTART to be on their animal rights tour, as both bands have vegetarian and vegan members. In the next few months, theSTART had another co-headlining tour, this time with Showbread.

In July, they were very excited to begin a tour with Head Automatica but less than halfway through it, Daryl Palumbo (Head Automatica singer) got sick and was hopitalized. The rest of the tour was cancelled. So theSTART jumped on the Team Sleep tour for the rest of the month. Frank Zummo had to leave the band and Ed Davis was brought in on drums. In August, Garbage invited theSTART to be the only opener on their last North American tour.

March of 2006 had theSTART joining The Birthday Massacre for a month long tour. They also were invited to open for such bands as Rancid and The Living End later in the year. Nitro Records was beginning to let many bands go from the label and theSTART was once again dropped. Though on Halloween 2006, they announced their signing with Metropolis Records. The new record Ciao, Baby will be released in June 2007.

• Aimee Echo (ex Human Waste Project) - vocals
• Jamie Miller - guitar, synthesizer
• Erick Sanger - bass, keyboards
• Ed Davis - drums
• Eno - world's fastest dog

• Hero Demo (1999)
• Circles (2000), never released
• Shakedown! (July 2001), The Label/Geffen Records
• The 1234 EP (April 2002), independently released
• theSTART EP (June 2002), Smallstone Records
• Death Via Satellite EP (December 2003), Nitro Records
• Initiation (August 2004), Nitro Records
• Ciao, Baby (projected June 2007), Metropolis Records

• Official band website
• Official Myspace profile
• Band's entry on Nitro Records
• her-song.net (large fansite)