The roots of thehungr began in 1998 as nothing more than a Youth Group worship band for Hamburg Assembly of God, a suburb of Buffalo NY. At that time, the line-up was Joe Miller (guitar), Tom Cocklin (bass) and Bill Sawyer (drums). Most early pratices were litterally 3 guys learning how to play their instruments.....but we were willing, and that is all God asked.thehungr actually came into existance about a year later when the band was asked to play a local event called Youth United....upon asked what our name was, Joe responded, "....uh, I have no idea......how about,...."thehungr" and the rest was, as they say, history.The original lineup of the band was Joe Miller, Tom Cocklin, Karl Maciag (lead guitar) and Adam Draudt (drums). That lineup last a short time and then Karl left for school and the revolving door of guitar players began. Names like Scott Jakowski and Ryan Webster came in and out. There was this 16 year old, very persistant kid named Brandon Passer that bugged Joe for about year for an audition, as he KNEW we were looking for a guitar player. Finally, the band let him audition and he was really good! Brandon hung around long enough that we finally made him the FULL TIME guitar player.thehungr played hundreds of shows all over the place up to this point and then got serious when a record label came calling. Even though the label wasnt as serious about it as the band was, we were bound and determined to hit the road.Due to commitments, Adam Draudt had to step down and we found Rich Covell from Lockport to be our new drummer.....and we practiced and practiced and practiced and then hit the road. We played all over the place to crowds as small as 10 people and as large as 3000.In 2005, the afore mentioned label helped us make our first real studio project called "The Rose". 7 weeks in the studio later and the band hit the road again. Unfotunately, while on the road, bassist Tom Cocklin had to step aside 6 years with Joe, and we fortunately found Justin Parsons to take his place.The final version of thehungr was formed and we hit the road and played our little fannies off. We moved about 2000 CD's in about a year and had over 400 people at our CD release party. We had the awesome privelage to shoot an actual DVD and as Bon Jovi said, "we've seen a million faces, and ROCKED them all!"Not sure at this point where thehungr lies in God's grand scheme of things, but one thing is for sure, we are so proud of the adventures, the relationships, the opportunities, the lives we've touched, and the fun we had. thehungr today is stronger than ever.....today, we are a family. A band of brothers that would go to the end of the world for each other.We will forever be, "broken, willing vessels"
"Something Corporate" (The Rose 2005) Words and music by Joe Miller and Tom Cocklin. Video produced and edited by Karrie Broger.
