Sev started in 1995-1996 when guitarist Max wanted to create a band that was different than the locals in the DC area. He found bassist Will from his immediate band that both were unahppy with. Will introduced high school friend drummer Dennis to the project. Phil was in a band that he was unhappy with and soon joined in and Danny auditioned with Stand Straight which became our fist complete song as Sev.
Sev quickly gained the attention of the local scene, In the year 2000, decided to hit New York City. In NY the band got noticed by Farmclub rep Marcie Jacobson. Farmclub was a musicians dream.
Farmclub was owned by head of Interscope (Jimmy Iovine) and head of Geffen (Doug Morris). It was a website / TV show / record label. in that order too. Bands would upload tracks, get voted on, get enough votes perform on the show, and if you impressed them enough they'd signed you. Sev was the first band to get signed through the website and TV show.
When the WWF changed networks, Farmclubs core audience went with it. Farmclub fell through. So when it came to dividing up the Farmclub bands we got pushed on to Geffen who didn't want us from the beginging.
2 years later, Geffen released "All These Dreams" in June 2002. The album was ready to record in 2000, but got pushed to late 2001. Afterwards, Geffen had no other plans for the band and stopped all communication.
In July 2002 Pepsi launched a new soft drink called Pepsi Blue. They wanted bands from the Universal label (Geffen). Pepsi picked out Sev's "Same Old Song" to represent their new product.
The concept was to record a music video and a commercial using the same footage and with hopes that Pepsi Blue would be seen in both commerical and music video. Since the future at the label was bleak, Sev saw this as the only way to get at least a music video from Pepsi (which the label did not want to fund) and some exposure. Promotion is key in the entertainment industry!
Another perk was going to Italy to record the video. Sev spent 5 days enjoying the sites and foods of Rome. Let's not forget that time that our Tour Manager, Todd, smashed a metal coin bank from a street vendor because it depicted the Twin Towers with a plane going in to it with Bin Laden pointing up. We caught that on tape somewhere. Need to find that and post it.
The band is now 3 years after the CD release of "All These Dreams". We have shared the stage with many great bands of all different genres. Locals to Nationals.
