| CONTRA |
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| INFO |
YEAR FORMED: 2004
HOMETOWN: Ventura, CA
MEMBERS:
Jake McCarthy (vocals),
Kevin Brooks (guitar),
Luke Matsuk (guitar),
John Cruz (drums)
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| BIOGRAPHY |
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It's been said that if something is worth doing, it's not going to be easy, Contra is no exception. Originating in the spring of 2004 as a way to get out Brutal, Heavy, Energetic music Contra grew into something much more than anyone could have imagined. I wanted to start a band, so I approached Doug and Albert, both of them had been in a band with me before called Within A Dream. We started messing around and we knew that we had something special, something that no one had ever done in our home town, and something that few had ever done abroad.
Once Doug and Albert were in place, I began looking for singers. I went into this whole thing knowing that I wanted two singers. I'm not exactly sure why, I think it was from watching bands like Until The End and Shockwave, I thought it would be the coolest thing ever to have two singers. I approached my long time friend Nick Carzis to sing for the group, he was totally down and super stoked, but he had never sang in a band before. The second guy I approached was Jake McCarty. I had met Jake from going to shows over the years, and Jake had a rep in his home town for having one of the most brutal voices around. Jake jumped on board immediately. After the two had joined we quickly picked up Richard Urbina on Bass, and Ryan Brock on Keyboards and Programming. I wanted to add electronic beats to our music cause I felt that it was something that nobody else was doing at the time, and I felt like it could really give us a push. After the first practice Doug and Albert both left the band due to scheduling conflicts. That's when Jake called in John Cruz, who he had played in his former band Athens with. I had pretty much had all the songs for the demo ready to go and just had to teach them to everyone else and get some lyrics laid down. We had only been a band for about 3 weeks before we had all the songs down, and we went into our friend Devon's house and recorded the tracks. Soon after the demo was complete, and after a few more practices with the band, we realized that we needed a second guitarist. So John called in his friend Bret DeBone who he had been playing in another band with to fill the void.
The first year we were around we played tons shows. We wanted to play anywhere at anytime, and with any one we could. It seemed like before us there had been a lack of brutal music coming out of home town, so it was a kind of a cool thing for us because it felt like we filled a niche. Within one year we completed two small west coast tours, a slew of local shows, and two self released demos. In that short time we also inked a deal with indie record label Corporate Punishment Records.
Our whole goal as a band was to have fun, make music, and get the most out of it that we possible could. But now as the band was becoming more serious some of us began pushing harder and harder to make the band succeed, while others were still just in it for the fun of it. Over time this created a rift in the band, and soon after Ryan Brock left the group. We wasted no time in picking up our long time friend Luke Matsuk formerly of the Linden Murder, to take over on programming and keyboard duties. We only played two shows with this line up before the band asked Richard Urbina to leave. When the band asked Richard to leave, Nick Carzis soon followed. So we were left with a huge decision, replace both members and trudge on as a 7-piece. Or we could move Luke Matsuk to bass and carry on as a 5-piece, so that's exactly what we did.
Now that we had our lineup complete we headed into Undercity Studios with Logan Mader (Machinehead/Soulfly) in May 2005 for our debut release on Corporate Punishment records. In the midst of recording, we ran into some financial issues with the label and we were unable to pay for the recording time. We were left stranded with basically no label support, no money of our own, a half finished record, and an upcoming midwest tour. We all felt at this point that we were pretty screwed and that we might just have to give up on the idea of putting this record out. Soon after we had left the studio the owner, Baron Bodnar (Yellowcard. Dredg. Bleed The Dream), got ahold of a rough mix of what we had completed so far. Baron had just started his own label, Mediaskare Records, and he knew that Contra had to be his second signing.
In June of 2005 Contra inked a deal with Mediaskare records, we completed the record. Our debut release "This Machine Kills" hits store August 30th, and will be celebrated by a full US tour, as well as two small west coast tours.
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