The Academy Is... is an indie rock band based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. They were originally known as "The Academy", but added the "Is..." in 2004, to
avoid legal complications with other established bands already going under that name. They are signed to record label
Fueled by Ramen.
History
Frontman William Beckett and guitarist Michael Carden first came together in 2002, adding Adam T. Siska on bass, Adrian
LaTrace Jr as a second guitarist and drummer Mike DelPrincipe before heading into the studio and recorded their self-titled debut
EP, The Academy (2004), for the Chicago-based label LLR Recordings. LLR Recordings had released Beckett's solo project Remember Maine's debut album
The Last Place You Look in 2002. The ep was recorded in Villa Park, IL at
The Gallery of Carpet by Producer Brian Zieske. Pete
Wentz from Fall Out Boy heard it and was so impressed that he convinced his label,
Fueled by Ramen, to fly out and see them. The label immediately signed the band. Contrary to popular belief and what has been
said in the press, a good portion of the music written on the album has actually been done by LaTrace as he was the lead
guitarist and Carden was the rhythm guitarist at the time.
In 2004 the band headed to Florida to record their Fueled by Ramen debut Almost Here, produced by James Paul Wisner who's worked with Dashboard Confessional, Further Seems Forever, and
Underoath. After recording and a summer tour, the band underwent a lineup change. Tom Conrad, formerly of Chicago local band 504 Plan, replaced LaTrace as their second guitarist/backing
vocalist and Andy Mrotek replaced DelPrincipe as their drummer. Andy Mrotek and Thomas Conrad are listed in the liner notes, but
were added to the band after the recording of Almost Here to replace DelPrincipe and LaTrace, respectively. They hit the road
hard, touring with Fall Out Boy, Something
Corporate, Midtown, Matchbook Romance,
Motion City Soundtrack and Armor for
Sleep.
The album was released on February 8 2005. During the summer
of 2005, the band embarked on their first headlining tour alongside Plain White T's,
Days Away and June.
Members of The Academy Is... recently did a cameo appearance in Fall Out Boy's music
video for their single "A Little Less Sixteen Candles,
a Little More 'Touch Me'", as vampire enemies alongside members of the bands Panic!
at the Disco and Gym Class Heroes. William Beckett and Mike Carden played
vampire dandies, and Beckett was their leader. William also lent his voice to Fall Out Boy
on the song "Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year" on the album From Under The Cork
Tree.
William sings the chorus of Bring It (Snakes on a Plane), by Cobra Starship, for the
soundtrack of the movie Snakes on a Plane.
As of October 26, 2006, The Academy Is... had announced via the blog on their official website that Tom Conrad and the band
have parted ways. Although it provides no reason, Tom later made a post on his website Forevernever.net, of which he says that he
never "quit the band", which has led fans to speculation about Tom's departure. Michael
Guy Chislett joined the band to replace Tom on Guitar.
William Beckett singing in 2006.
While featured on the 2006 Warped Tour, they began the process of writing songs for their
second release. Once they finished up with the Warped Tour, they moved to finishing the writing process and eventually towards
stepping into the recording studio. They flew to Los Angeles to record their record with Butch
Walker. As of December 23, 2006, the band had
officially finished the recording process. The album, entitled Santi, was released
April 3 2007 on Fueled By Ramen.[1] The release of this album is listed on Blender's 25 reasons to love 2007. [2] On January 26, 2007 a sample of "LAX to O'Hare" was released on a link from their MySpace
account[1], LiveJournal
community[2], and website[3]. The song was streamed from their Absolute Punk
profile.[4]
Rolling Stone placed The Academy Is... as one of the top ten artists to
watch.[5]
The band was in the 2007 Honda Civic Tour, along with Fall Out Boy, [[+44 (band)|+44]], Cobra Starship, and
Paul Wall.
In August 2007, they toured Australia and Singapore with
Cobra Starship. [6]
The band began their Sleeping With Giants tour in Milwaukee on September 5, 2007 with support by The
Rocket Summer, Armor for Sleep and Sherwood. The tour ends on November 24, 2007 in Chicago. Andy Mrotek, better known in the band as The Butcher,
created the poster art for the fall tour.
TAI TV
TAI TV stands for The Academy Is... TV. It is a video podcast created by the band
The Academy Is.... The band made TAI TV so that the fans could become more involved with what
goes on backstage and in the tour bus, etc. TAI TV episodes are now available on the iTunes podcasts. New TAI TV can be seen
every Sunday night at 9/8c at The Academy Is website.
Discography
Albums
EPs
Singles
From Almost Here:
From Santi:
Non-album tracks
References
Fueled By Ramen - Bands -
The Academy Is.... Retrieved on August 3, 2005.
- ^ Billboard:
The Academy Is... Discography.
- ^ Errico, Mike. "25 Reasons to Love
'07", Blender Magazine Online, Jan/Feb 2007. Retrieved on 2006-02-09.
External links
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