Music Style Keyboard heavy power-pop

Musical Influences Hippos, Weezer, They Might Be Giants

Similar Artists New Found Glory, All-American Rejects, The Cars

Artist History Who’s in the band and where are they from? The Army of Freshmen is Chris Jay (vocals), Aaron Goldberg (guitars/vocals), Owen Bucey (keyboards/vocals), Dan Clark (keyboards), One’ Nielsen (bass) and Mike Rini (drums). The band hails from Ventura, California, the middle child town between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. How'd the band start? The band started when a New Jersey teenager (Chris Jay) fresh from graduation drove cross-country by himself in a mini van with the intentions of starting a band in California. After sitting in a one-bedroom apartment for a year and writing over 500 songs, he eventually made some friends. With new-found allies and way too many songs, he formed The Army of Freshmen! How long has the band been around? The band played their first show on October 17th, 1997 which makes them 4 years old! Wanna know something even more impressive? The band members are only in their early 20s! What kind of music do they play? Do they sound like anybody? Nobody likes to be pigeonholed, but if you need to call it something go with "keyboard-heavy power-pop." Quite frankly, they don’t sound like anybody but if you can imagine big guitars and drums (Weezer), catchy keyboard lines (The Cars), great harmonies (The Beach Boys) and interesting, intelligent lyrics (They Might Be Giants) you’ll start to get an idea of what The Army of Freshmen sound like. Who have they played with? The Army of Freshmen have played and made friends with… Sum 41, They Might Be Giants, Reel Big Fish, The Aquabats, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Fenix TX, Fountains of Wayne, Homegrown, The Specials, Sugarcult, Nerf Herder, The Impossibles, No Motiv, Midtown, and many more including dates on the 2000 and 2001 Warped Tours! Do they have a record out? The Army of Freshmen's first full length CD (self-titled) was released May, 29th 2001 on Blue Hand Records. It was recorded October to December 2000 in Santa Barbara, CA. and was produced by '70s rock legend Jay Ferguson (Spirit, Jo Jo Gunne). The record has sound scanned over 5,000 copies so far simply through word of mouth and serious touring. What do you mean serious touring? This past summer The Army of Freshmen headlined Ernie Ball’s Moto Music Madness Tour. The national tour found the band playing 49 dates in over 25 states along with 8 dates on the Warped Tour (San Diego, Ventura, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Kentucky, Philadelphia, New York). The band surprised everybody at The Warped Tour when they drew hundreds of kids to the side stage they appeared on despite never having played in those cities before. How'd they do that? Is there something special about their live show? This is how one writer put it "Unparalleled energy. It's like watching a hardcore band play pop songs." Need more? Well after every show the band is close to puking and sore for a day or two. The kids love it though and the band always sticks around to meet, sign autographs and talk with fans. Far from being pretentious wannabe rock stars, the band maintains their own website, answers all fan mail personally, runs their own street team (The Bomb Squad) and handles their own booking. So how big is their fanbase? They have a mailing list of over 5,000 people, their website averages over 1,500 hits a week, they've played in over 30 states and they’ve appeared on a syndicated TV show in Japan. All of which is pretty unheard of for a band with only one record on a small independent label let alone no booking agent. You can consider it a testament to the band's remarkable hard work and unwavering determination. So what's the band up to right now? With the momentum made this summer The Army of Freshmen have produced another track with Jay Ferguson. As for the future lead singer Chris Jay insists, "Our plan is pretty simple. We want to stay best friends, write great songs, and tour as much as humanly possible."

Albums The Army of Freshmen

Location Ventura, CA - USA

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