Lo-Pro

Lo-Pro is an American five-piece hard rock band. They released one eponymous album in 2003. Since then, Lo-Pro has placed many new songs on their Myspace and sold the Letting Go EP starting July 14th, 2009 during the shows they played on the Stimulate This tour. The EP will be released digitally on October 21st 2009, and the band is currently working on a second LP tentatively titled "The Beautfiful Sound of Revenge" in February 2010. ^[1]

Biography

Formation (2002)

Consisting mostly of rock veterans, Lo-Pro's talent background includes: Pete Murray and Neil Godfrey (formerly of Ultraspank); Tommy Stewart (original drummer of Godsmack); and Jonathan Fahnestock (formerly of both Amen and Snot).

In an interview, Neil Godfrey spoke of the ending of Ultraspank and the beginnings of Lo-Pro:

"Ultraspank's demise was mostly due to the fact that we worked so hard to get where we were. We were in debt to the label and they weren´t promoting us, so we had fulfilled our 2 album deal and we asked to be let go. People in the band had to get jobs and go about their lives."

"So I think about 2 or 3 weeks went by and I'd been playing my guitar. I called up Pete and said I had some ideas to lay down. The Spank guys were all going in different directions. With the pressures of the industry gone and the freedom to do anything I wanted, we started writing songs. The result was so refreshing in the fact that we could record ourselves and make these great sounding recordings we could listen to..."^[2]

After almost burning out due to efforts with Ultraspank, Pete Murray and Neil Godfrey decided instead to get back into music together, resulting in the birth of Lo-Pro. They began recording a number of demos together in Pete's bedroom. Three songs have surfaced from these "home demo" sessions: "Thread", "Ignition", and "Wheels". "Thread" is similar to what would end up being on their album, except with different guitar work in the chorus and more programming in it. "Ignition" on the other hand, is entirely different from its album counter-part, only sharing a line of lyrics ("I'll say goodbye to the bright side"). Unlike the first two demos, "Wheels" was not reworked and was decidedly left off the album altogether.

At that point a year had gone by and we had a bunch of songs recorded. The other guys were doing new gigs and such. Pete and I were still holed up in his studio keeping lo-profile we had leaked our music out to connections in the business and we got the call from Aaron Lewis. He got the ball rolling for us, connecting us with his friend Pete Ricci. He also pointed us in the direction of Gayle (management) who connected us with Tommy Stewart. I just happened to be partying upstairs in the Roxy in Hollywood one night and ran into Fahnestock. These guys are all amazing people and seasoned vets of the road. ^[2]

Debut album (2003-2004)

Getting Aaron Lewis to hear the demos, they became signed to 413 Records, his vanity imprint through Geffen. By 2003, Lo-Pro was in studio with producer Don Gilmore, also producer for Pearl Jam and Linkin Park. After a few months of work, their eponymous album was released on August 26, 2003. One single was released, "Sunday", which gained significant airplay. Pete Murray said of the single:

"It's definitely not about watching football or going to church. It's really about how I've never had anything to look forward to on Sunday. I never liked going to school or going to a job, and when Sunday comes, you just know things are gonna hit the ringer the following day."

Plans of a second single existed, and bassist Jonathan Fahnestock even asked the internet community to vote on their choice on it, but it never surfaced. ^[3]

The band toured extensively alongside Staind, of which Aaron Lewis was the lead singer of, and Three Days Grace.

Additionally, on April 24 2004, they released a 3 track acoustic EP exclusively through Napster, containing acoustic takes of "Sunday", "Ignition", and "Not Me".

Finishing their tours in support of the album through 2004, the band would later be dropped by Geffen Records.

Post-debut (2005-2008)

Not having been heard from as a group for some time after this, the group was perceived as disbanded until the summer of 2005, when they released the track "Ingenious" on their MySpace. New songs have been occasionally made available for streaming on their various Myspace accounts (listed below), coming and going as time progresses.

In Summer 2006, the band found some success in winning at least 4 rounds of radio vote-off contests on "93X CAGE MATCH" (broadcast by 93X KXXR Minneapolis/St. Paul), beating bigger name bands such as Stone Sour and Shinedown. While great exposure for the band, it was not enough for them to get signed.

Starting up another Myspace in the spring of 2007[1], they featured various acoustic songs, both studio and live, that they've been playing and working on. An acoustic tour with Staind's Aaron Lewis was announced later on. Between songs during a performance at the Mohegan Sun, Pete Murray said:

"We're on night five on this video extravaganza, its good stuff... We put out an record a couple years back on Aaron's label and now we're working on a new one. I think were going to do this DVD thing first, cause' its basically done."

A full video can be found on the synclive website[2] which includes new tracks found nowhere else. It confirmed a DVD was very possible for the upcoming release, although no announcements have been made on their websites since. Rumors have surfaced of complications in releasing the DVD.

In a February 2008 interview, Pete spoke some of Lo-Pro's future:

We really want to release something but we're the most prolific we've ever been so we've been recording like crazy. It's hard to stop. We've got a couple of rock records almost ready and we're almost done with our acoustic record, we promise.

You're definitely going to hear a raw version of Lo-Pro which was always our intention. I love our first record but, holy crap, it was over-produced. We don't nit pick as much anymore, we move on. The acoustic album will be a first as well.

We're lagging but we're really hoping the get this acoustic record out first in the spring* with a rock record right behind it.

(*It is important to note that, this was made in February 2008, so clearly the "spring plans" fell through.)

Throughout this timeframe, Lo-Pro continued to look for "the right label" to officially release future music. While occasionally slipping into periods of public inactivity, they continued to trickle new songs in for streaming through their Myspace accounts. They assured fans that future music would indeed be released. At one point, they even said that they have worked on over 26 songs in contention for a new release. However, tt is still unknown which or how many of these songs would actually see release.

Letting Go EP and The Beautiful Sound of Revenge (2009-2010)

On May 5, 2009, Lo-Pro announced that they would be playing their first "live rock show in too long" on May 27, and that they have plans to start releasing new music starting in June 2009. ^[4] On July 3, 2009, the new track 'Alive', and new versions of "Texas" and "Breathe" were posted on their main myspace, in addition to adding some songs from their acoustic myspace. Artwork was also shown with some of the songs with the title 'Letting Go' on the artwork. These songs and the corresponding artwork ended up being for a new EP titled "Letting Go". (A variation of the name "Letting Go" or "Let It Go" had been rumored as a title for music release for years.)

The above tracks "Breathe", "Alive", and "Texas" were available to download on Staind's website [3] on July 4, 2009.

Lo-Pro played on select dates of the Stimulate This Tour starting July 14, with Staind, Shinedown, Chevelle, and Halestorm on Summer 2009. They also be played certain dates opening for Staind and Creed. The "Letting Go EP" was available for purchase during the concerts. ^[5] It contained the following tracks: "Texas", "Hang On", "Alive", "Today", "Breathe" and "Letting Go". It was reported to be released digitally in September 2009,^[6] but was pushed back to October 21st, 2009.

According to bandmembers Twitter accounts, they are currently finishing up a second full-length cd for release in early February. It was revealed to be named The Beautiful Sound of Revenge. ^[7] However, the tracklisting, and if it will share any tracks with the recent Letting Go EP, is still currently unknown. It was later announced via Pete Murray's Twitter that "Alive" was kept off the I-Tunes version of the "Letting Go EP" because it was to be included on "The Beautiful Sound of Revenge". It is the only confirmed song for the album so far.

Unreleased Tracks for possible future releases

- Studio Recordings

1. Ingenious - (2005)
2. Blame Me - (2006)
3. This is Not Goodbye (Acoustic) - (2007)
4. Consider This (Acoustic Filter Cover) - (2007)
5. Clean the Slate (Acoustic) - (2007)
6. You Lie - (2007)*
7. This Way (Acoustic) - (2008)
8. Get Out of My Way - (2008)
9. Drive (The Cars cover)* - (2008)

A * denotes it appeared on lead singer Pete Murray's Myspace

- Live recordings

1. All I Have (Acoustic) - (2008)

- Non-recorded live tracks

1. Pushed Aside - (Confirmed by band's set-list)

Song appearances

• The song "Ignition" was featured in the 2004 PC game The Ultimate Dodge Garage
• The demo version of the song "Texas" was featured briefly in the Scrubs episode "My Bad Too" in 2008.

Members

Current

• Pete Murray – vocals, programming (2002–present)
• Jerry Oliviera – bass (2009–present)
• Neil Godfrey – guitar (2002–present)
• Pete Ricci – guitar (2002–present)
• Tommy Stewart – drums (2002–present)

Former

• John Fahnestock – bass (2002–2008)

Discography

• Lo-Pro (2003)
• Letting Go EP (2009)
• The Beautiful Sound of Revenge (2010)^[8]

Side-projects

Various band members have been up to projects since the formation of Lo-Pro as well, especially during the time since parting ways with Geffen Records. They include:

• Pete Murray co-produced Ghost Machine's Self-titled debut, released in 2005. He also provided vocals on one track.
• Pete Murray formed a band named Chokt in 2006, featuring himself on vocals, and both Walter Flakus of Stabbing Westward, and John Stevens of Ghost Machine on guitar, bass, and electronics. (They use a drum machine.) They have not had any official releases, but much like the current state of Lo-Pro, they slowly leak various songs for streaming every couple of months or so. Tracks such as "Magazine" and "Train Home to Nothing" have a very similar sound to Lo-Pro. Their myspace is www.myspace.com/chokeoff.
• Pete Murray recorded vocals for a trance track in 2009 called "Release Me", which was put on N Pa's myspace page, and will be on his upcoming trance album. The song was written by Pete Murray and produced by N Pa.^[9] He and guitarist Neil Godfrey will be recording an acoustic version of "Release Me" with N Pa that will be released on N Pa's first EP "Release Me: The Remixes EP". The Remixes EP will feature 5 remixes, the original song, and the acoustic version with Neil and Pete. The EP is slated to be released sometime in February 2010.^[10]
• John Fahnestock plays bass for a band named "Noise Within". Starting in 2008 he is also participating in a Snot reunion (abeit with a new frontman.)
• Tommy Stewart has done some touring with Fuel. He also did some work with Rusty Wright Blues. Most recently, he has become the replacement drummer for the band Everclear.

References

External links

• Official Site
• Lo-Pro at MySpace
• Lo-Pro Acoustic at MySpace
• Facebook