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• PA S NOT ALONE MAKING THEIR OWN SUCCESS |
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Saturday, September 30, 2006 |
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Printed in MERGE Digital Magazine - Allentown, PA)
They're getting big in Philly and in Europe, and working on everywhere in between - they're Not Alone.
Katie Strzeszewski
Special to MergeDigital
If you know a local band can get far without a major-label contract, you are Not Alone. The Gilbertsville-Perkasie band (Not Alone) has brought their talent, strong work ethic and humility together to take them further than the average local band - and even further than some signed bands.
"Eric [Schock], the lead guitarist, and I started the band about three years ago," said lead singer Tyler Schock. "We got some new members in the last couple of months, and we finally found the group of people who are willing to make the sacrifices to make [success] happen."
That group of people, which includes drummer Steve Zegray, guitarist/vocalist Rob Fisher, and bassist/vocalist Dave Arellano, takes on an extensive musician's workload. Write, practice, play is the constant routine for this band, but it's more than just getting new songs and booking regular gigs. The band goes out of its way to search for other opportunities to get their music out there and promote themselves. This year, Not Alone was a finalist in WZZO's Battle of the Backyard Bands competition and a semifinalist in the Zippo Hot Tour competition, plus they landed a spot headlining the first night of the Dewey Beach Music Conference.
The Zippo and Dewey Beach events have moved Not Alone up to status of national act, but why settle for the U.S. when there's a world of music lovers out there? Tyler says the band has crossed over into Europe as well: "There's a satellite radio in the UK called Pulse Rated…. They came across one of our tracks and we started a relationship with them; we keep feeding them tracks and we're getting great response overseas. Every time they spin us, we get e-mails."
The band members admit that kind of success doesn't come overnight or without a little help. "We have an incredible team of people who we work with to make this band happen and have helped us to accomplish the things we have so far," said Tyler. "Our management, Impact Artists Promotions, is awesome. They do all our promotions and marketing and provide a lot of the opportunities we come across." With some recording happening as well, the band also credits their producer, David Ivory.
Of course, the band also credits their fans for a large amount of their success as well. "Our fans are awesome. We have people out there spreading the word for us. The people in the UK are digging our songs and it's very refreshing and encouraging for us to know that people that far away are pushing for us," Tyler said. "We have the most loyal fans."
So with all that Not Alone has accomplished in the last year, what's left for the group to accomplish? "We're very hands-on; we try to get out hands into everything possible," explains Tyler. "You have to keep moving up in the industry, develop a strong foundation for ourselves and catch some attention from labels."
And once the band earns some label recognition, they may have the opportunity to do something else they look forward to: playing a show for their fans in England. "We would love to jump over the Atlantic to do a show."
In the meantime, though, Not Alone is grateful for what they've got. "[Music is] what we want to do with our lives. We just want to travel and spread our music all over the world," Tyler said. "We want to make awesome music that we love that hopefully other people will love as well. We're out there having a great time and baby-stepping our way up and enjoying every minute of it." |
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