This Is Me Smiling

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This Is Me Smiling
(left to right) Dan Duszynski, Matt Schuessler, Adam Kaltenhauser and Sheldon Miller
Background information
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genre(s)	Alternative Powerpop Pop punk
Years active	2004-Present
Label(s)	The Vinyl Summer One Haven Music Red Label Columbia Records
Associated acts	Retro Morning Bumpus Dig For Fire Crazy For Jane
Website	Official Website This Is Me Smiling on MySpace
Members
Dan Duszynski Adam Kaltenhauser Sheldon Miller Matt Schuessler
Former members
Sean O'Keefe

This Is Me Smiling is an American pop-punk and powerpop band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 2004.

Contents 1 History 1.1 The Beginning 1.2 Record Deal 1.3 Second Album 2 Band Members 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 3.2 Compilations 4 External links 5 References

[edit] History

[edit] The Beginning

In 1998, while Duszynski and Schuessler were freshmen at Benet Academy in Lisle, Illinois, and Miller was a freshman at Plainfield High School in Plainfield, Illinois, the three friends formed a punk band called Retro Morning. The band released a Split EP with The Red Hot Valentines and had a track included on a Smoking Popes tribute album, both on Mike Felumlee's Double Zero Records. The band attracted a devoted, local Chicago following, but disbanded after its three core members graduated from high school.

The three friends came together as This Is Me Smiling in 2004 as another four piece powerpop outfit with Adam Kaltenhauser (formerly of Bumpus and Dig For Fire) on drums, bonded by their love of Ben Folds and The Beatles. The band’s quirky pop was embraced by the local punk scene, where TIMS formed relationships with similar local artists like The Academy Is…

[edit] Record Deal

This Is Me Smiling’s first big break came when their “Mixin’ Up Adjectives” was included on Epitaph’s cult series Punk-O-Rama 10 in the summer of 2005. In September, the band released their self-titled debut on indie label Vinyl Summer. The album caught the ear of executives at Columbia Records, who signed the act to imprint OneHaven, which re-released their debut in March 2007.^[1]

This Is Me Smiling has toured with many big names including Motion City Soundtrack, Jack's Mannequin, All American Rejects, Panic at the Disco, Bayside, Hey Mercedes, OK Go, and The Hush Sound.^[2]

[edit] Second Album

Currently, the band is working on a new album for release in early 2008. They spent time during the summer of 2007 working on new songs in Austin, Texas. The band has been dropped by Columbia Records, but plan on releasing another album anyways. On November 16, it was announced on their MySpace blog that the band had chosen the songs for the record and would begin recording in January, 2008, with hopes of finishing by the end of February. They also posted a demo for a song from the new record: "Andy Apathy".

As planned, the band relocated in early January to record their album at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. They also planned to document the recording process through a blog and posting pictures and videos. After about a month the band reported that they had left Pachyderm, citing their dissatisfaction with what they had recorded. They planned to continue working on their new record after solidifying their new plans.

In the meantime, the band posted videos of Duszynski performing two new songs, "Only Uphill" and "I'm Losing It Here", on their YouTube channel. According to their MySpace blog, the album was beginning to come together slowly and they were to continue to post videos of songs and recording sessions on YouTube. Later, however, the band announced that the sessions for the new album had fallen into chaos and would not continue until the band could decide if they could continue to work together.

[edit] Band Members

• Dan Duszynski – Vocals, Guitar
• Adam Kaltenhauser – Drums
• Sheldon Miller – Keyboards, Vocals
• Matt Schuessler – Bass

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Title	Release date	Label
This Is Me Smiling	September 20, 2005	The Vinyl Summer

[edit] Compilations

Title	Release date	Label	Song
Punk-O-Rama Vol. 10	June 7, 2005	Epitaph	"Mixin' Up Adjectives"
Aware Compilation 11	2005	Aware	"Prettier"
Under The Radar Vol. 1	April 4, 2006	Cancer Records	"Quit Turning Me Down"

[edit] External links

• The Vinyl Summer Website
• This Is Me Smiling on All Music Guide
• This Is Me Smiling's SPIN Magazine Artist of the Day article with interview and video of a new song live at SXSW

[edit] References