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"Look with your heart, not with your eyes, the Absence of Color." These are the words that cutto the heart of this supremely talented group. With a knack for incorporating everything frompop and R&B to blues, gospel and reggae into their distinctive sound, AOC are adamant to defystereotypes. "It's not about color, it's about the music," says the guitarist Stephan "PfunPfun" Perry. "If you take color out, then all you have left is the music." In reality,something without color is recognized as drab and dull, so don't let the name of this groupfool you. AOC are anything but bland.
Fronted by the Jackson twins, Scharod "Danger" and Scharodrick "Preach" as well as Terrence"Toyy" Murphy, the AOC sound is at once contemporary and reminiscent of their musical roots.The Jackson twins bring to the table a strong tradition of gospel music foundations with deep,strong voices honed over many years of performing in church. Toyy, grounded in gospeltraditions as well, provides smooth soul vocals along with the best of contemporary pop and HipHop. Meanwhile, Pfun Pfun delivers consistent rhythm guitar, lead and backing vocal support,and stunning Hendrix-like solos, and Nate "Almighty" Johnson serves as the group's musicalfoundation, holding it all together on keyboards and rapping occasionally.
Formed in Atlanta, Georgia, AOC's musical career has evolved into a global sound from severalyears of touring in Europe and Asia. Performing in night clubs, crooning other artist's songsnight after night was an "eye-opening and beneficial experience" for the group. Since theirfirst stint in Japan in 1992, AOC has continued to take advantage of their continuous travelopportunities by building a loyal fan base in these countries. Ten years on the road has alsogiven them the chance to hone their live performance skills. "It is very important to performas often as possible," says Toyy. "There are alot of artists out there that don't have enoughperformance experience or are not comfortable on stage."
The experience has clearly paid off, as the group easily effuses a comfortable rapport withaudiences. AOC's performances include high-energy dance routines, which are furtherelectrifying due to the natural synergy between the twins. "On stage our personalities are thesame," says Preach, born three minutes after Danger. "We don't have to communicate and we endup doing the same thing."
True to their name, they don't plan to limit themselves to any one style. "We've been doingthis for so long and have traveled so many places," says Danger. Our goal is to translatethose experiences in our music, which we hope will be something unique that the whole world canshare."
