The History of Civilian Casualties!
Well this great, I get to write the history! You may want to get some snacks....I can wait
Oh your back? Great, now lets start at the very beginning. Well we all were just 4 kids lookin for something to do. Our original name as I remember, was Ronald Mcfondle And The Unhappy Meals but that didnt last too long. So then it became Ellemeno and this was before any of us played and before Alex was on the scene. But that didnt last too long. As time went on, Alex came up with Civilian Casualites and the name just stuck
So it happened like this, if memory serves the original line up was Max on guitar, Zach on drums, Alex on bass, and I was supposed to sing. Before any of us got together, I got a bass from my friend and so now Alex needed something. Also, I proved this wrong very quickly, I didnt think I would be able to play AND sing so I asked my buddy Connor Sullivan if we wanted to sing for us and he said yes.
January 25th 2003-I had just gotten home and I got a call from Zach and he says "come over, everyone is here" and off I went. When I got there, I found Zach Max and Alex all in the basement. Alex was just kinda hanging out and Max was playing his guitar while Zach was upstairs. Within 15 minutes we were just kinda playing stuff then Alex gets Max's guitar and out came Sleep Now In The Fire, Zach got the cd and there we were stumbling our way through it. And that was it, we were off and rolling.
January 26th 2003-Our VERY FIRST PRACTICE, Connor was there but we didnt have a mic yet so he just kinda sat around with us and and a few weeks back someone suggested that we play System Of A Down's Sugar so we did. After a few hours, we just kinda played Sleep Now In The Fire and Sugar's music. Not very fun.
Well time passed and we all got better and then Alex appeared on the scene, he had gotten himself a guitar so we now had 5 members and were ready to kick some ass. Again, more time passed and then we started playing Sugar, TNT, Deer Dance, Sweet Dreams and even for a few weeks Smells Like Teen Spirit. But then we got bored with covers, up steps Connor, he gets out lyrics and there they were, The Voices...our first song. It took us forever to write this song but we finished it.
February 7th 2003, we had the very first Voices and from then on, we knew we had something going for us because for just a bunch of kids starting out, the song wasnt that bad and is still played today. But slowly after time, people started coming to practice and not a whole lot really got done because we were always busy with something else besides our music. The months of February and March were hell for us because we would play for maybe 2 hours and that was it, nothing else would get done. This also was a very hard time for me so my mind wasnt always on playing or even being there. I at times was concidering quitting but I wasnt giving up on my love for music and bass that easy, we all come out stronger in the end, cept maybe Max, he's just kinda.....there. The one who just plays, the perfect band mate.
In March I belive was when we first made Pyrostar. Word has it, Connor was spending the night at Alex's and Alex was playing with his lighter, he lit it and Connor started writing, and there it was. Months passed and we just mostly played those along with some older covers we had. April was a great month for us, not only was 6 Speed written, but Rumproast was as well, one of my favorite songs today. Around May we made a tape and that could be considered a VERY EARLY Civilian Casualties demo.
In June, we wrote Blasphmey and our "ballad" Let Go. Then on June 25th 2003, we recorded our first demo CD which included Sugar, Sweet Dreams, Deer Dance, Superbeast, The Voices, Pyrostar, Blasphemey, 6 Speed and Let Go.
Slowly though we started going back downhill, Connor had started to miss practices and that left me on vocals(partly cause no one else would sing) and very very slowly, the vocals leaned more my way which at first I didnt want because I didnt really feel comfortable singing the songs that Connor had written. In July, we lost a piece of the puzzle. I was getting ready for practice and got an IM from Alex saying that Connor had quit the band. I myself was kinda left lost for words and plainly said "ok". So from that day forth I have been on vocals. Slowly though, I started distorting my voice, something Connor never had really done. And then while rewriting 6 Speed, I did something almost unheard of to us and made my voice deeper than I ever had and there was the growl first used in 6 Speed. In September 2003, we sat down and went over some things. We rewrote Blasphemy and to my suprise it came out really good.
October 17 2003- SOPHMORE NIGHT! This was our first "show" but I beg to differ....anyways, we played with Popularity Dropouts(now Subject To Change) and I wasnt sure about everyone else but I was fuckin nervous, it didnt show that much but at one point during Pyrostar my knee's were shaking. The only problem we had was I wasnt heard, we were too loud and I could barely hear myself but we all had fun playing in front of an audience. A few weeks after that, we all needed something to do. So what did we do? REWROTE Let Go, we made it from 5 minutes to 8 minutes of pure emotion and energy. So on we pressed, 4 kids with a love for music.
January 9th 2004- We recorded our CD, final versions of all songs on it and the newly written Instrumental. We recorded under Zen and Chad Records, as founded by Bryan Jones and Connor Sullivan. This was a big thing for us since we now had valid material to let people sample. So here we have been ever since, a few more songs have come into our playlist(Love Me Kill You, Stained Glass and Rain) but we still are working hard at them. So now you know Civilian Casualties, I thank you for your time. Rock On
