Suicide While Driving
The Beginning...
In the summer of 2001, Jessica and Jason who had been acquaintances for a couple years (and had actually dated for a short time years earlier) sat at a table at the Java Hut in Worcester, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and chatting about music. Somehow, although they had known each other for years, Jason had not known that Jessica played guitar and sang. He asked her if she would be into jamming with him sometime. Jessica agreed just to see how it would turn out. She was skeptical at first because their musical influences were very different. They each brought original songs to the practice and (to Jessica's surprise) liked each other's material so much that they decided to form a band that night.
Jason originally played bass on the songs, but after about six months decided to switch to guitar to help build "the wall of sound" that they would eventually become known for. Jason asked his friend Dan, a DJ at Club Hell in Providence if he would try out for them on bass. Dan agreed and after their first practice together, he joined the band.
As for drums, they tried out a couple of drummers but couldn't find one that fit their style. Jason also played drums and thought the easiest and best solution would be to record the drum tracks himself in CoolEdit Pro. Synthetic drums and keyboards were also added to the backing tracks. Jason later invested in a Tascam DAT to play the backing tracks at live shows. They nicknamed the DAT "Taz" and jokingly referred to it as their drummer.
The Name:
The band originally began as The Sonicary, the name of a pet project Jason had been working on when Jessica first started practicing with him. Jessica wanted a new name for the band, but for a while they were nameless.
After playing a surrealist writing game where one blindly draws words written on pieces of paper out of a box, Jessica created a story made up of the random words. Upon reciting the story which she memorized to several people, they stopped her at the phrase made up of the words "suicide" and "while driving" and said, "that would be a great band name." She brought the idea to Jason and Dan and it was decided that it was the name for the band: Suicide While Driving. Finally with a name and Taz in tow as their drummer, Suicide While Driving began playing out in Worcester, MA in June 2002.
The Sound:
Suicide While Driving's sound would best be described as experimental or electronic rock. The experimental sound of SWD is the product of a diverse mix of influences brought together by three members with very different musical backgrounds: from Pixies and Jesus and Mary Chain (Jason) to Nirvana and the Toadies (Jessica) to Sisters of Mercy and Joy Division (Dan). This is not the pure pop sound of Depeche Mode or New Order (while it does pay homage to both). Nor is it the nihilistic warfare of Skinny Puppy or Ministry (though industrial touches of both bear a mark on the music). Jessica joked that if their music was "electronic rock", it was she who brought the "rock" and Jason and Dan who brought the "electronic" element.
In their heyday, SWD played Worcester, Boston, Providence, and Northampton, including a battle of the bands in Northampton and Wormfest 2002 in Worcester. With a virtual studio set up in Jason's basement where they practiced, it was easy to record a demo. Suicide While Driving's "2002 Demo" was released in early summer 2002 from Jason's Electric Street Studios. SWD received two Wormtown Sound Awards for Best Experimental Act for 2002 and 2003. They also received notoriety when featured in an article by the Boston Globe on the Club Scene in Massachusetts.
The Prealbum:
In late 2003 to early 2004, Jason, Jessica, and Dan again went into the studio at Electric Street in preparation of recording a full length album. They decided to first record a "scratch track" for each song. Since the Studio was where they practiced, the recording that was created was basically a live recording of one practice of running through the material. All the vocals and instruments were recorded on a single track for each song. This was called the "prealbum", meant to later be used to add tracks over or as a basis for critiquing the songs to re-record them later with separate tracks.
Sadly, the "prealbum" was the predecessor to the album that never was. That, several various mixes of the "2002 Demo", and a couple recordings from live shows are the only recorded material that exists of Suicide While Driving. The "prealbum" in all its rawness and inability to be mixed (for lack of separate tracks), has a unique, unpolished, though flawed quality, but is undoubtedly the best representation of the essence of Suicide While Driving.
The End:
One night in February 2004 (a short time after recording the "prealbum") Jessica, Jason, and Dan went out for a drink for Dan's birthday after practice. In a discussion of future plans for the band, Jessica voiced her uncertainty about remaining with the project. Her other project band The Kids at the Back of the Bus had stayed a side project for over a year due to lack of time to devote to it. Jessica made the long considered decision to leave Suicide While Driving to further concentrate on The Kids which was grunge rock, more her style of music, and vastly different from SWD. After her departure, Jason and Dan made an attempt at continuing as a two piece. They played several shows still under the name Suicide While Driving, but called it quits after just a few months. Dan later admitted that when Jessica left, the best part of the band left with her.
This page is presented to you here (by Jessica) as a history of the band, may its music live on.
