It started with a driving need to play music.

Six guys raised in the suburbs of Ottawa, Ontario shared that overwhelming need to play music, and to create music -- music that filled in the glaring holes they saw in the music scene. It was this need that brought them together, first as friends and then as The Fully Down. The band gave their need form, harnessed it, put it in motion, and soon The Fully Down exploded into live venues with an intensely energetic show that exploited the band's three-guitar attack to shock even complacent crowds into full alert status. And as the crowds reacted, and grew, and as they began to hear the kids sing their lyrics back to them, They realized they could do it. They could play the music they wanted to write with out compromise and kids would still move.

The boys in the Fully Down give full homage to their sources of inspiration. They were influenced by 80s metal bands like Iron Maiden, and fed on roots from Strung Out, Thrice and The Police. But from the start they pushed themselves to reach beyond, to become more than just a "three-guitar gimmick". That motivation allowed them to graduate from a pop-punk band with harmonized guitars to a rock band that uses a more technical and musically well-rounded approach to the modern pock rock outfit. Fronted by the harmonized leads inspired by metals greats, backed by a rhythm section that believes more in grooves than chugs, laced with melodies that remind you more of Tony Sly than the Cookie Monster, The Fully Down channels all styles to create THEIR style and to deny anyone the right to tie them down to just one scene.

The band's first release "No Fate,But What We Make For Ourselves", came out in June 2004 on local indie label Pop Culture Records. Recorded by Dean Hadji at Addictive Sound Studios "No Fate" received positive reviews that credited the band with a fresh approach to punk rock. But a few reviewers seemed just not able to get it, and complained that the band showed too much influence from too many different styles. The boys reflected on this and didn't give a fuck what the critics thought, good or bad. "No Fate" sold an impressive amount of albums for an indie band whose only distro was through touring city to city. For TFD it was less about selling the record, but more about showing kids what a rock show is really about.

And so, in search of New Ears, the guys embarked on their first tour. It took three weeks in a Van Destined For Destruction, countless bottles of motor oil, and sleepless nights as they traveled from city to city, before the boys reflected on the pros and cons of touring. Touring is a tough business, they came to see, and one that would take a toll on their relationships at home, their bank accounts, and their livers. Regardless of the strain it was taking on their lives back home they realized it was touring that would feed their passion for music. Thanks to the help of the 2004 Vans Warped Tour they had found New Ears for which they had an international fan base now. So their conclusion was straightforward -- This was the only possible option for their lives.

The boys became determined to stay on the road as long as possible. They booked date after date and kept touring until, very early one morning outside of Toronto, The Van Destined for Destruction met its destiny. After a brief memorial service and a few loan negotiations, The Fully Down christened The New Van, and kept touring.

Through the chaos of playing over a100 DIY booked shows in a year they had, of course, been writing. More mature and experienced now than when they recorded "No Fate", they took this new stuff to Addictive Studios in November 2004 and put strong demands on themselves. Kris Parks remembers the goal the band set: "We wanted kick the shit out of our last record. I mean this isn't World Beats Of Africa, but we feel that we've brought more to the table than just a dry cut punk rock album." Dicky Latour puts it this way: "We want to set a new standard for ourselves. We wanted to make an album that was more of a representation of us. And we wanted to write a record that we wanted to listen to."

The songs they'd written felt right, but to make music out of them meant The Fully Down needed to re-tool a bit. The boys spent weeks weeding through different guitars, amps, and drum kits to find thicker and deeper tones. They pulled these together and then set themselves an added goal: With this new record they would not only push themselves as writers and musicians, they would challenge themselves as producers. Each band member identified bits and pieces of their favorite albums to put in front of the group for discussion, dissection, and to set the stage for their own growth in the production side of the business. They were working, once again, with co-producer/engineer Dean Hadji, a talented taskmaster who made sure everybody focussed until the final take was flawless.

After a few months of studio work the boys found themselves craving the energy that only touring can provide. In June of 2005, they hit the road for a two month coast-to-coast tour. As they hit dates on Warped Tour 2005 it became clear that their consistent commitment to touring had paid off. Their fan base, judging by the size of their draw, had doubled. The Fully Down Returned in August, duly energized by the success of tour and ready to finish the album.

The new CD, "Don?t Get lost in a Movement", is a plea for people to open their minds - whether it's musically, politically, or socially. Stay open to experience, to people, to who you are, and express it all as it comes to you, in the way that belongs to you. This is the attitude, after all, that brought these six guy together and keeps them together, on tour and in the studio and in their day-to-day lives. If there is a Fully Down philosophy, this is it: Never frame yourself into one kind of mindset or define yourself by association with a cause, a medium, a scene or a genre. As Alex Newman puts it: "Its not about loving a scene or a genre, its about loving music as a whole, its about loving art, its about understanding everything around you."

With the album complete, The Fully Down shopped it around and found a natural home with Fearless Records. Fearless has given the band the support of a family with the professionalism of a successful, tuned-in label. With the album in good hands and scheduled for a winter release, the boys they are ready to go back to what they love the most -- touring. It's still the driving need to play music that keeps them going.

"If we can pull this shit off, we can stay young forever?" George Hadji ...click for less ...click for more