Crossbreed (band)

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Background information
Origin	Clearwater, Florida, USA
Genre(s)	Industrial Heavy metal
Years active	1996 – Present
Label(s)	Artemis Records
Website	www.crossbreed.com
Members
James Rietz Chris Nemzek "Roach" Corey "Floyd" Ian Hall Dan Fox ST1TCH (live)
Former members
Jason Tropf Charlie Parker Travis Simpkins Phil "Flip" Marquardt Bishop Dan "DJ" Izzo Chris Morris Travis Inskeep

Crossbreed is a 6 member industrial metal, shock rock band from Clearwater, Florida. Their sounds have been compared to Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, and Ministry. They're best known for their stage performances, which include black lights,"glow in the dark" makeup, Sparks using bench grinders and dynamic high energy movements. They were signed with Artemis Records.

1 History
2 Members
- 2.1 Current Members
- 2.2 Previous Members
3 Discography
4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Early Years

Crossbreed was formed in 1996 as a 4-man band consisting of James Rietz, Chris Nemzek, Charlie Parker & Travis Simpkins. A year later they added keyboardist Jason Troph who left in 1998 to front the Orlando-based band Irrational. He was replaced by Phil "Flip" Marquardt. Their self-produced album .01 was released in 1998 with only 1000 copies made. In 1999, Dan "DJ" Izzo joined the band as their DJ/2nd Keyboardist. It was at this time that they began developing their stage show using Black Lights which helped bring them to the attention of the music industry.

[edit] 2000-2005

On April 29, 2000 the band played Tampa's 98Rock's Radio Festival, Livestock where they met the girls from the band Kittie. They gave a copy of their 3-Track demo to one of the girls who proceeded to give it to the A & R Rep for their label Artemis. They were signed to Artemis by the end of the year and their Debut Album, Synthetic Division was released nationally on May 8, 2001. Their first single Underlined debuted on MTV2 & MTVX. The video for that song was nominated for a Billboard Award. In the Summer of 2001 they toured the U.S. & Canada with the European band, Rammstein and did a short run with Static-X.
In what would be a sign of the future, bassist Charlie Parker left the band after a show on April 20, 2002. Crossbreed then parted ways with their label in 2003 and shortly after a show on May 2, 2004, bassist Bishop, keyboardist "Flip", and drummer Simpkins left the band to pursue other career choices. Later that year Izzo would also leave the band. James Rietz & Chris Nemzek chose to continue and re-formed with new members.

[edit] 2005 - Present

With a new line-up, and after a few changes of members, and teaming up with Bill Aucoin, former manager of KISS, Crossbreed spent time writing new material and doing shows in Florida, including opening for Orgy, Mushroomhead & Mindless Self Indulgence. On July 25, 2005 they released their self-produced EP New Slave Nation and toured the Midwest with Mushroomhead & Dope on the Music for Freedom Tour. Since that time they have toured with Mushroomhead again, Deadstar Assembly and alone throughout the Eastern U.S. building up their fan base with Street Teams throughout the U.S. & several other countries. Also in September 2005, they increased their visibility by going online with their merchandise sales using their official website for that purpose. [1]
They are now hard at work on their new full-length CD which is expected to be released nationally in the Summer of 2007.

[edit] Members

[edit] Current Members

Vocals - James Rietz
Guitar and Programming - Chris Nemzek "Roach"
Bass - Corey "Floyd" (Captain Caveman)
Drums - Dan Fox
Keyboards and Programming - Ian Hall (Yu-Gi-Oh)

[edit] Previous Members

Bass - Charlie Parker : 1996 - 2002
Bass - Bishop : 2002 - 2004
Drums - Travis Simpkins : 1996 - 2004
Drums - Chris Morris : 2004 - 2006
Keyboards - Phil "Flip" Marquardt : 1998 - 2004
Keyboards - Travis Inskeep : 2004 - 2006
Keyboards - Jason Tropf - 1997 - 1998, 2004
Keyboards - Dan "DJ" Izzo - 1999 - 2004