Artist description AYA was a pop-punk band out of the Chicagoland area. The songs here represent a nearly complete list of all recordings. They catalogue the best of AYA from begining to end, in chronolical order.

Music Style Melodic Punk

Musical Influences The Chicago punk scene from 1995-1998 - the best ever.

Artist History For those who care: AYA was formed around 1994 by Oliver Deighton (guitar), Adam Wolinsky (bass), Tony Tintari (drums), and Chris Messer (live guitar, vocals). Adam and Oliver were neighbors and friends, Adam found Tony because a girl in Adam's geometry class was dating Tony, and he found Chris by putting up a flyer in the infamous, but now defunct Homewood Record Swap. Chris was from Joliet, while the rest were from the south suburbs. Nobody, but Chris, had been playing their instruments for more than a year. However, Chris was a prolific songwriter, so there was more than enough material to work with from the beginning. The band soon recorded a demo tape called Mr. Puddle in a friend's basement. That was the only recording that was graced by Adam. After a creative disagreement between Adam and the rest of the band, AYA sought a new bass player. Joe Oldaker was first choice, but he was a guitar player and had not played much bass. He agreed to join and it was good. In 1995 the band set up studio time at Sonic Iguana. In one afternoon AYA and Johnny One Note (Joe's other band) recorded and mixed a split 7" called Try Some Today. At that session AYA also recorded one of their earliest songs, 12 Hour Julie, in the hopes that it would be included on an upcoming Chicago punk compilation put out by Underdog Records. On May 19th, 1995 AYA won a Battle of the Bands at a church in Homewood, IL. God only knows why. The prize was a few hours studio time in a professional studio on Michigan Avenue called the Playroom. They recorded and mixed 12 songs in as many hours. It was like a professionally recorded Mr. Puddle. Not that good, but really not all that bad. Hear for yourself. In the mean time, Try Some Today sold relatively well, and 12 Hour Julie was chosen to be included on the Underdog compilation. That prompted the band to set up studio time with the highly touted Chuck Uchida of Attica Studios in Chicago. During that session they re-recorded 12 Hour Julie and recorded some new material as well. Some strange stroke of luck fell on AYA and Underdog decided to release an AYA 7". They again went to Chuck Uchida and recorded 4 of their best songs. Around the time right after this recording AYA decided that Chris should not play guitar at shows, and instead dedicate himself to crazed antics on stage. They snagged the 15-year-old Jeff Pacosha and it was good. The band was beginning to tire of its poppy ways and changed direction. They began working on songs with more and varied emotion. This is evidenced by an unreleased recording at Atlas studio, Jeff's first recording with AYA. Soon after this recording it was decided that Chris needed to leave the band. The reasons for this are no ones business but AYA's. Just know that they are good reasons, and if you knew Chris at this time you know why he was asked to leave. With the loss of AYA's singer and songwriter the band was not discouraged, but instead was more ready than ever to take the scene by storm. The energy flowed and five solid songs were written, with Oliver and Jeff on Vocals. But the writing process was slower than before, and uncertainty was in the air. The five songs were recorded again with Chuck Uchida and they are songs that the remaining members are most proud of. The sound is completely different than anything prior, but it offers much more in substance and quality. Without warning Tony quit shortly after the recording and the rest of the group disbanded. With only one original member the band would never have been the same, it was time to move on.

Group Members Oliver Deighton, guitars, vocals. Chris Messer, vocals. Joe Oldaker, Bass, vocals. Jeff Pacosha, guitars, vocals. Tony Tintari, Drums, vocals. Adam Wolinski, bass.

Location Chicago, Illinois - USA

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