Saosin

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Background information
Origin Newport Beach, California, USA
Genre(s) Alternative rock
(newer material)
Post-hardcore
(older material)
Years active 2003–present
Label(s) Capitol
Website http://www.saosin.com/
Members
Cove Reber
Beau Burchell
Justin Shekoski
Chris Sorenson
Alex Rodriguez
Former members
Anthony Green
Zach Kennedy
Pat McGrath
Danny King

Saosin is a rock band from Newport Beach, California. They originally formed during the Summer of 2003 and partly consist of former members of the band Open Hand.

Contents

[edit] History

Saosin started off as the brainchild of two musicians, Justin Shekoski, a former guitarist in As Hope Dies and Beau Burchell. They planned to be called "The Gift", but there was another band already named that. They recorded an instrumental demo, with Justin and Beau, and MIDI drums. The first song on this demo was called No Angel and had Beau Burchell on vocals. They were trying to find a vocalist and they asked Keith Goodwin from the band Days Away. He said, "I know this guy Anthony". They sent him 2 instrumentals and he recorded vocals over them. The two songs became known as Seven Years and Translating the Name, the first two tracks on the Translating the Name EP. Anthony flew in from Philadelphia and stayed for five days, and recorded the vocals to the EP in about 4 nights.

Translating the Name, was an instant success, especially through online sources. The band was actually approached by numerous record companies before playing their first show due to the soaring popularity of the EP. However, the band's vocalist Anthony Green left after the release of their first EP and later formed the band Circa Survive. Anthony was very homesick and said he was missing his family. He says he felt bad and kind of like a dick for leaving his friends in a tough situation without a singer, but he "would have gone crazy had he stayed any longer". A public, nationwide audition then took place. Beau Burchell has stated in interviews that, "The main things that we are looking for now, is someone that does not do drugs, someone who can actually sing live, and someone who is good looking and fun to get along with. Oh, and they have to have a really dry sense of humor, because the rest of us do." [1] After the public audition process and several guest vocalists on demos, Cove Reber, previously the vocalist of the band Mormon In The Middle and Stamp Out Detroit, was announced as their new permanent lead singer.

When Cove sent in his demo tape, which was an acoustic demo with "Mookie's Last Christmas" (this demo has leaked to the internet) and is widely speculated to have included a few songs from Translating the Name, possibly including Seven Years, 3rd Measurement in C and maybe another song. When Beau first heard the demo, he thought it was Anthony being a dick. He said he wanted someone like Anthony but "not to bring in someone that sounded like Creed.". According to Beau "Gabe from Midtown tried to sing a couple songs. Jason Gleason was asked to come out and do it, but he had his own thing going on." Beau said "I would put them in the studio and pull up the ProTools session of Translating the Name, and would mute all of Anthony’s vocals and just let the guys sing. And dudes would come in and sound like total Spinal Tap, just so bad. So then I would have to spend about two hours trying to find a nice way to get the guy to just leave, so you would basically sit there and waste your night.". Even through all of this Saosin said they would have went on with Beau, Justin and Chris all doing vocals because they were not going to give up.

Bassist Zach Kennedy also parted from the band early on, leaving over personal issues and to focus on his art career. He went on to play bass in Ashlee Simpson's band, but left her band in 2005. He was replaced with Chris Sorenson.

Drummer Pat McGrath was brought in to do drumming for the Translating the Name EP. Saosin had been trying hard to get Alex to join the band, but he was in Open Hand, and was touring with them. They picked up McGrath who was an studio drummer. According to Burchell, the Translating the Name EP was 3/4 of McGrath's ability. "There were certain passages where we were like, Dude, play something else no one is going to be able to play. And he would do it, and we were shitting ourselves. He was there doing the most insane rolls, all while doing stick twirls, all like it was nothing, and we were shitting our pants." When Beau met Pat, they handed him the Open Hand CD, and told him that was the drummer they wanted to have in the band. So Beau asked Pat if he could to stylize the drumming to make it sound like Alex’s sort of style. Even though McGrath never played a single show with the band, they had some fun times together and get along well. McGrath also still enjoys Saosin's music.

During 2005, the band toured the United States and became part of the Warped Tour. A video to the song "Bury Your Head" recorded during their tours has also been shown on Fuse. The band is currently signed to Capitol Records, and released their full-length debut on September 26, 2006 which sold over 35,000 copies in its first week. The record saw a change to a softer tone as the band tried to distance themselves from other artists of the same genre.[2] They were formerly on their own indie record label Death Do Us Part where they released their first EP.

Recently Saosin toured on international Taste of Chaos tour, and toured the US with Bleeding Through and Senses Fail. They just started their stint on the 2007 Taste of Chaos tour, headlined by The Used featuring bands such as 30 Seconds to Mars and Vaeda.

Moreover, Saosin are scheduled to perform for the first time in Indonesia on May 20th 2007, The concert was promoted by Java Musikindo.

In a recent interview posted on their website, bassist Chris and vocalist Cove said that they have begun writing their new record while touring with the taste of chaos.

In a recent article on ultimate-guitar.com there next single will be "Your Not Alone" and will be filming the video clip after The Taste Of Chaos tour.

[edit] Origin of name

Saosin in 2003 with former vocalist Anthony Green (far left) and drummer Danny King (far right)
Saosin in 2003 with former vocalist Anthony Green (far left) and drummer Danny King (far right)

The way to pronounce Saosin has been a topic of intense debate among fans. Despite Anthony Green's explanation that it came from the Chinese proverb meaning "small heart" and that he, the one responsible for the name choice, pronounced it "say-ocean"[1], the current members of the band primarily pronounce it "Say-Oh-Sin",[3] meaning either pronunciation is widely considered acceptable.

The pronunciation, although an improper one, of SAY-OH-SIN is in the Chinese dialect Mandarin and not Cantonese as many may believe. The Pinyin for "Saosin" is "xiao xin", and translates literally into "small heart" in Mandarin. It simply means "watch out", "caution", or "be careful". The pronunciation phonetically is "shyao sheen". If "xiao xin" were to be pronounced in Cantonese it would be phonetically pronounced "see-yu sum". Though it may be pronounced "SAY-OH-SIN", many who understand Mandarin or Cantonese would not understand it.

In an interview with AbsolutePunk.net, Saosin bassist Chris stated that the term meant "love with caution" or "be careful". Anthony says. "Saosin... it was our singer's idea. Saosin, it's this Chinese proverb, which means... like... keep your heart small, because nothing is forever. You know. Don't let yourself get attached to something, because that thing's gonna be gone eventually."

[edit] Members

[edit] Former and temporary members

  • Anthony Green - Lead Vocalist (currently in Circa Survive)
  • Zach Kennedy - Bass Guitar (went on to play in Ashlee Simpson's band)
  • Philip Sneed - Lead Vocalist (fill-in during 10th Warped Tour)
  • Pat McGrath - Drums (played only on Translating the Name EP) (currently in a Metallica tribute band called Creeping Death)
  • Danny King - Drums (played between McGrath and Alex Rodriguez's tenures. Was rumored to be a future permanent member of Saosin before Alex joined.) (currently in Spell Toronto and fills in on drums for Fenix Tx)

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Album Cover Date of Release Title Label US Billboard Peak
June 17, 2003 Translating the Name Death Do Us Part
September 6, 2005 Saosin EP Capitol
September 26, 2006 Saosin Capitol #22

[edit] Singles

Cover Year Title Chart positions Album
US Modern Rock
2003 "Seven Years" Translating the Name
2003 "3rd Measurement in C" Translating the Name
2005 "Bury Your Head" Saosin EP
2006 "Voices" #25 Saosin
2007 "You're Not Alone" Saosin

[edit] Demos

Saosin has released many instrumental and individual demos, but no official demo tapes. A detailed list can be found here.

[edit] Compilation tracks

[edit] Unreleased tracks

  • "I Can Tell There Was An Accident Here (Demo)" with Anthony Green on Vocals
  • "I've Become What I've Always Hated" with Anthony Green on Vocals
  • "Uphill Battle" with Cove Reber on Vocals

[edit] Music videos

[edit] Trivia

  • Beau Burchell, Zach Kennedy and Alex Rodriguez are all former members of the band Open Hand.
  • Pat McGrath, the drummer on Translating the Name was a former drum tech for Slayer
  • "Mookie's Last Christmas" is a fan favorite written by Anthony Green about Justin Shekoski's father, even though Mookie is the name of Anthony's dog.
  • While on tour with Story of the Year, Saosin was playing two shows in one night and Justin's father came to both of them. On the way back to the airport, Justin's half brother and his father had a car crash. Justin's (who lives in Maryland) half brother survived, but his father died at the scene. Justin ended up finishing the tour which lasted two more weeks.
  • Saosin has had somewhat of a feud with labelmates on Capitol Records, From First to Last. This started when Alex Rodriguez (their drummer) said "From First to Last. We f**king hate that band, and you can print that, they're on our label. I think they're so clichéd." Justin also said "From First to Last is the kind of band that is going to be here today, gone tomorrow."[citation needed]
  • Cove Reber was always a fan of Saosin, but he never got to see them in concert. In school he was singing "Seven Years" and a friend told him, "You know the guy quit?" Cove said that he had to use the bathroom and left school to run home (he lived next to his school). He checked online and sure enough, Anthony Green had quit the band ("Like six months before I read this," says Cove). After listening to Cove's demo, the band members called him back and said, "Is that really you?" According to Cove, "He called me and he was like, 'We thought it was Anthony playing a joke on us! We just got off the phone with Anthony.' He called Anthony saying like, 'Why do you have to be such a prick sending us a demo?'"[4]
  • Many songs on the first full length album are remastered, rewritten or changed musically from leaked demos, compilations and the Saosin EP.
  • Before Anthony Green auditioned for Saosin, Jamison Covington of JamisonParker auditioned for the lead singer role in Saosin.
  • "Show Me Your Bootyhole", "Rap Party", "Crap Rap" are all B2C songs, not Saosin songs. Members of the band, (Beau Burchell, Chris Sorenson) and some of the members of Take The Crown contributed to the songs, hence the name B2C (two Beaus and one Chris).
  • Their song "Collapse" appeared in the video game, Burnout Dominator.
  • The song "Plays Pretty for Baby", which is commonly thought to be a Saosin song, is actualy by the band Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer, which Anthony Green used to do lead vocals for. It can be found on Zolof's self-titled CD.
  • When performing on Sessions@AOL Saosin covered Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time. [5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gwathney, Jeff. "Saosin: Beau Burchell Interview (April '04)", Breaking Custom, 2004-06-22. Retrieved on 2006-08-16.
  2. ^ Diplock, Simon. "Saosin sauce (Cover Reber interview) (January '07)", New Noise, 2007-01-19. Retrieved on 2007-01-22.
  3. ^ Henderson, Steve (2006-08-13). Interview: Saosin. Absolutepunk.net. Retrieved on 2006-12-07.
  4. ^ Saosin's Cove Reber: 'These Are My Own Songs Now'. Ultimate-Guitar.Com (2006-10-17). Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
  5. ^ Saosin Covers "Time After Time" on AOL Sessions. music.aol.com (2006-10-31). Retrieved on 2006-10-12.

[edit] External links

Saosin
Cove Reber | Beau Burchell | Justin Shekoski | Chris Sorenson | Alex Rodriguez
Anthony Green | Zach Kennedy | Pat McGrath | Danny King
Discography
EPs: Translating the Name EP | Saosin EP
Albums: Saosin
Singles
Seven Years | 3rd Measurement in C | Bury Your Head | Voices | You're Not Alone
Label(s)
Death Do Us Part | Capitol Records |
Related articles
Circa Survive | Open Hand
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