Music Style Pop/Rock

Artist History ========================================================= What do you get when you combine a high school dropout and a successful college educated engineer? The answer is Spencer Hooks...well eventually, anyway. "I'll admit that initially we were a strange pair," recalls lead vocalist Kelly Wilbur as he reflects back on his six-year history with collaborator, Vivek Maddala. "Vivek was in San Francisco, entertaining guests at wine tasting parties while I was here in Indianapolis just trying to get my 1982 Camaro to run. Now the shoe is on the other foot." The reference is to Vivek's recent abandonment of his six-figure-a-year professional career to pursue music full time and Kelly's coincidental cum laude college graduation and placement at a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical firm. However, none of Spencer Hooks' fans seem to notice the oddity of a molecular biologist and an electrical engineer joining forces to create the infectious grooves that are now capturing the attention of major record company executives. ========================================================= What began in 1996 as a random long distance phone conversation would end up as a transfer of audio files across the internet between recording studios on opposite sides of the country. Email programs have ultimately melded together Maddala's vintage jazz/funk influences and Wilbur's cutting edge pop/rock sensibilities. "With the advancement of internet communications, the distance isn't an issue," maintains Vivek as he relaxes in his California studio, taking a break from mixing the 22 vocal tracks of "I Want," Spencer Hooks' new groove. Those tracks were recorded only hours previously in an Indiana studio by the other half of the duo. ========================================================= "It gives us space to do our own things," Kelly explains. "Vivek creates the instrumental landscapes while I concentrate on the vocal arrangements." Maddala certainly has the experience to produce the intricate symphonic and rhythmic backdrops of Spencer Hooks. As the Grand Prize winner in the national Young Film Composers Competition in 2000, he has scored several films including three major Turner/Warner Bros. releases. "The best I ended up with was Employee of the Month at Pizza Hut!" quips Kelly. ========================================================= Now the two work together, albeit physically far apart as Spencer Hooks. "It has been a long road to get our system of writing and recording up and running" Vivek concludes, " but now we're forging new paths, fusing different musical forms into novel combinations no one has heard before. We're making musical history."

Group Members Kelly Wilbur (Vocals) & Vivek Maddala (Keyboards, Guitars, Bass, Drums)

Location Hollywood, California - USA

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