Lo-Pro is an American five-piece hard rock band. They released one eponymous album in 2003. Since then, Lo-Pro has placed many new songs on their Myspace and is set to release the Letting Go EP in September 2009.
Biography
Formation (2002)
Consisting mostly of rock veterans, Lo-Pro's talent background includes: Pete Murray and Neil Godfrey (formerly of Ultraspank); Tommy Stewart (original drummer of Godsmack); and Jonathan Fahnestock (formerly of both Amen and Snot).
In an interview, Neil Godfrey spoke of the ending of Ultraspank and the beginnings of Lo-Pro:
"Ultraspank's demise was mostly due to the fact that we worked so hard to get where we were. We were in debt to the label and they weren?t promoting us, so we had fulfilled our 2 album deal and we asked to be let go. People in the band had to get jobs and go about their lives."
"So I think about 2 or 3 weeks went by and I'd been playing my guitar. I called up Pete and said I had some ideas to lay down. The Spank guys were all going in different directions. With the pressures of the industry gone and the freedom to do anything I wanted, we started writing songs. The result was so refreshing in the fact that we could record ourselves and make these great sounding recordings we could listen to..."
After almost burning out due to efforts with Ultraspank, Pete Murray and Neil Godfrey decided instead to get back into music together, resulting in the birth of Lo-Pro. They began recording a number of demos together in Pete's bedroom. Three songs have surfaced from these "home demo" sessions: "Thread", "Ignition", and "Wheels". "Thread" is similar to what would end up being on their album, except with different guitar work in the chorus and more programming in it. "Ignition" on the other hand, is entirely different from its album counter-part, only sharing a line of lyrics ("I'll say goodbye to the bright side"). Unlike the first two demos, "Wheels" was not reworked and was decidedly left off the album altogether.
At that point a year had gone by and we had a bunch of songs recorded. The other guys were doing new gigs and such. Pete and I were still holed up in his studio keeping lo-profile we had leaked our music out to connections in the business and we got the call from Aaron Lewis. He got the ball rolling for us, connecting us with his friend Pete Ricci. He also pointed us in the direction of Gayle (management) who connected us with Tommy Stewart. I just happened to be partying upstairs in the Roxy in Hollywood one night and ran into Fahnestock. These guys are all amazing people and seasoned vets of the road.
Debut album (2003-2004)
Getting Aaron Lewis to hear the demos, they became signed to 413 Records, his vanity imprint through Geffen. By 2003, Lo-Pro was in studio with producer Don Gilmore, also producer for Pearl Jam and Linkin Park. After a few months of work, their eponymous album was released on August 26, 2003. One single was released, "Sunday", which gained significant airplay. Pete Murray said of the single:
"It's definitely not about watching football or going to church. It's really about how I've never had anything to look forward to on Sunday. I never liked going to school or going to a job, and when Sunday comes, you just know things are gonna hit the ringer the following day."
Plans of a second single existed, and bassist Jonathan Fahnestock even asked the internet community to vote on their choice on it, but it never surfaced.
The band toured extensively alongside Staind, of which Aaron Lewis was the lead singer of, and Three Days Grace.
Additionally, on April 24 2004, they released a 3 track acoustic EP exclusively through Napster, containing acoustic takes of "Sunday", "Ignition", and "Not Me".
Finishing their tours in support of the album through 2004, the band would later be dropped by 413 records.
Post-debut (2005-present)
Not having been heard from as a group for some time after this, the group was perceived as disbanded until the summer of 2005, when they released the track "Ingenious" on their MySpace. New songs have been occasionally made available for streaming on their various Myspace accounts (listed below), coming and going as time progresses.
In Summer 2006, the band found some success in winning at least 4 rounds of radio vote-off contests on "93X CAGE MATCH" (broadcast by 93X KXXR Minneapolis/St. Paul), beating bigger name bands such as Stone Sour and Shinedown. While great exposure for the band, it was not enough for them to get signed.
Starting up another Myspace in the spring of 2007, they featured various acoustic songs, both studio and live, that they've been playing and working on. An acoustic tour with Staind's Aaron Lewis was announced later on. Between songs during a performance at the Mohegan Sun, Pete Murray said:
"We're on night five on this video extravaganza, its good stuff... We put out an record a couple years back on Aaron's label and now we're working on a new one. I think were going to do this DVD thing first, cause' its basically done."
A full video can be found on the synclive website which includes new tracks found nowhere else. It confirmed a DVD was very possible for the upcoming release, although no announcements have been made on their websites since. Rumors have surfaced of complications in releasing the DVD.
In a February 2008 interview, Pete spoke some of Lo-Pro's future:
We really want to release something but we're the most prolific we've ever been so we've been recording like crazy. It's hard to stop. We've got a couple of rock records almost ready and we're almost done with our acoustic record, we promise.
You're definitely going to hear a raw version of Lo-Pro which was always our intention. I love our first record but, holy crap, it was over-produced. We don't nit pick as much anymore, we move on. The acoustic album will be a first as well.
We're lagging but we're really hoping the get this acoustic record out first in the spring* with a rock record right behind it.
(*It is important to note that, this was made in February 2008, so clearly the "spring plans" fell through.)
Currently, Lo-Pro is continuing to look for "the right label" to release their second album. While occasionally slipping into periods of public inactivity, they continue to trickle new songs in for streaming through their Myspace accounts. They are assuring fans that their 2nd CD will indeed be released. At one point, they even said that they have worked on over 26 songs for the new release. It is unknown which or how many would be on this second CD upon its release.
May 5, 2009, Lo-Pro announced that they will be playing their first "live rock show in too long" on May 27, and that they have plans to start releasing new music starting in June 2009. (The extent of this music, whether it be an album or a song or two, is still unknown.) On July 3, 2009, the new track 'Alive', and new versions of "Texas" and "Breathe" were posted on their main myspace, in addition to merging in songs from their acoustic myspace. Artwork has also been shown with some of the songs with the title 'Letting Go' on the artwork, possibly being the artwork and name of the new album. (A variation of the name "Letting Go" or "Let It Go" had been rumored for years.)
New tracks "Breathe", "Alive", and "Texas" were available to download on Staind's website since July 4, 2009.
Lo-Pro are scheduled play on select dates of the Stimulate This Tour,starting July 14, with Staind, Shinedown, Chevelle, and Halestorm this summer. They will also be playing certain dates opening for Staind and Creed. A new EP was available for purchase during the concerts. The EP sold on the tour has the following tracks: "Texas", "Hang On", "Alive", "Today", "Breathe" and "Letting Go". It will be released digitally in September.
Unreleased Tracks for possible future releases
- Studio Recordings
Ingenious - (2005)
Blame Me - (2006)
This is Not Goodbye (Acoustic) - (2007)
Consider This (Acoustic Filter Cover) - (2007)
Clean the Slate (Acoustic) - (2007)
You Lie - (2007)*
This Way (Acoustic) - (2008)
Get Out of My Way - (2008)
Drive (The Cars cover)* - (2008)
A * denotes it appeared on lead singer Pete Murray's Myspace
- Live recordings
All I Have (Acoustic) - (2008)
- Non-recorded live tracks
Pushed Aside - (Confirmed by band's set-list)
Song appearances
The song "Ignition" was featured in the 2004 PC game The Ultimate Dodge Garage
The demo version of the song "Texas" was featured briefly in the Scrubs episode "My Bad Too" in 2008.
Band members
Current:
Pete Murray: vocals, programming
Jerry Oliviera: bass (2009-Present)
Neil Godfrey: guitar
Pete Ricci: guitar
Tommy Stewart: drums
Past
John Fahnestock: bass (2003-2008)
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Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo-Pro
Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo-Pro
