Octane History

The Story of Octane

Octane was form as the ashes of a band called Diesel in August 1998. Diesel was a cover band who's members where Jake Perryman (Bass), Mike McCully (Vocals), and Sean Butterfuss (Rythm guitar) from Ridway, Jonathan "Lumpy" Engel (Lead guitar) and Kris Havilnd (Vocals) from St. Marys, and Dave from Carr Kersey, PA.
When Lumpy, Dave, and Kris left Diesel in Decmeber of '98 to start Octane as a band that did more original stuff they had a tuff time working on new material. Then they found school chum Doug Moore to play bass and help write. Doug added a crazy flavor to the lineup. Together the 4 of them put on a hell of a show with both cover and original material. It was here that the songs "Resonace" and "Sex in my truck" originated. "Sex in my truck" was the warm up we used every practice to get things moving. "Resonace" was the baby of Lumpy, do to Physics class with Mr. Lallman. Anyway, Octane brought about a fan base of many classmates and freinds of the band.
After a long fight with Dave to practice with us Lumpy, Kris, and Doug went on a search for a new drummer in April '99. Who they found was the great Isaac Gerg. Isaac was the perfect fit to the hole left by Dave. With Isaac Octane went on to play the "Battle of the Bands" at the DuBois Mall in the June of '99. With Isaac behind the set, Kris as the frontman, and Lumpy and Doug laying the rythm foundation that dreams are made of, everyone who saw them at a party or a show thought that it was impossible for the quartet to have problems.
Then in October of '99, just weeks before recording of the original materials that included: "Resance",Unpure","Sex in my truck", and "Panic Attack", Doug was removed form the band. He was removed do to problems much like Dave's. He never showed up for practice. And when we scheduled time for recording he again didn't show up. What hurt the most was that as soon as he was kicked out, Octane found out that he had started a new band off to the side called Grandma's Favorites. With Doug out of the picture Kris, Lumpy, and Isaac finished the studio work and started the search for a new bass player.
About three weeks later at "wings" Lumpy with his lovely companion at the time, Mandi Gibson, spotted a familiar face in the room. It was Jake Perryman. Imidately Jake and Lumpy started making plans for practices but returned home to bad news. Isaac wanted out of the band. He explained that he had no time for his friends or family due to the band. So Jake, Lumpy, and Kris moved on. But Jake and Kris, needless to say, could not work together at the same time. Literally, either Kris wasn't there or Jake wasn't there. So Lumpy made the desion to leave Kris, though still remaining freinds, and still cowriting songs, left Kris behind and took on the responsibilities of singer himself. Even though Lumpy knew it hurt Kris, it was for the best of the band.
So searching for a new drummer, Doug calls Lumpy about checking out his new band. So Lumpy did and found that his old freind Mikie Harris was their drummer. So one night when Mikie and Lumpy were just sitting around, Mikie asked if he could drum for Octane. Lumpy called Jake and that was it. Mikie became the 3rd drummer for Octane. With a yet again new drummer now on board Octane set its sights on music from the heart and wrote such songs as "Used", "The Trees", "Ode to Macchi", and "Sunache". In the midst of all this great time of prosperity for the band Lumpy had written two songs with a girls he still swears is an angel in disguise, Heather "Rose" Dreier. "Broken Valentine" was the hight of Lumpy"s writing career. Later they wrote "Save Me" for a christian rock contest but lost to say the least.
With some sucess of fans, parties, and their songs being played by freinds everywhere, Octane played a show in DuBois, Pa. This show was to be the last show with drummer Mikie Harris. After the show do to lack of commitment, which the band beleives came from his new girlfreind Ashley, he was removed from the band. So the studio work came about and high school chum Bob Pontzer stepped in for the recordings of: "Used", "Sunache", "The Trees", "Ode to Macchi", and "Thank You". He also played at the release party. But since he did not have his heart set on being a full time drummer, Jake and Lumpy set out to find someone new.
A few days after the release party Jake called up Lumpy and said "I think I found someone". Squeegy Stixxx, childhood freind of Jake's, was asked to try out for the position. And fit he did. Squeegy fell right into the "hole" of drummer for Octane and all started falling into place.
After practicing for a few weeks the band played a few parties in the Dubois area along with a few hometown shows. People started really liking Octane and then all of a sudden out of no where school happened. Lumpy set off for Clarion University of Pa to study guitar. Times were hard on the boys but they strived on. Now with the mindset of recording and rerecording some songs the practices are even more intense as well as tighter every time.
This brings us to November 2000. Octane was getting ready adn booking a show for December when Lumpy got an email from Squeegy Stixxx saying he had found a rythm guitarist. Little did Squeegy know that Lumpy already knew Aaron "Zero" Cathers from the days with Doug still in the band. Aaron used to live near Kris when he was in the band and he and Lumpy got to hang for a bit then. Then all of a sudden Aaron dissapeared. Later he ran into him at a local video store but Octane was going through hard times so Lumpy said "not now". Anyway later that year Squeegy brought him to practice. Things went well and with the first few notes of "Sex in my truck" the final peice came together. Octane became a four peice once again. Metal at it's finest as they prepared for the show in Kersey in Janurary.
Well after a canceld band and having to pull a two hour set in Kersey the band did very well. The only one to get a encore call. With Heather, Christie, Doug, and even Kris coming up and doing songs with us the house loved us. After putting on a hell of a show the band partied at Squeegie's. That next week was a dark week for Octane. Aaron came to Lumpy's house one day and told him he was leaving the band for personal reasons. Nothing much was said. Jake, Lumpy, Doug, and Squeegie were again a four peice and told some people about the opening. Some names were passed but nothing happened yet as the band looks tward Indiana in the Spring.
Well after a few weeks Doug had to again been asked to leave. Though this time with alot of love and freindship still there. The band was back to being the three guys that blazed through the summer months. As the show in Janurary octane kinda exploded. In one week four shows where added. So now the band pracitces for these shows and gets ready for Indiana.
Well after playing a few shows and post-poning Indiana due to Jake's Grandpa's death the boys have booked more shows and wrote more tunes. An old freind of Lumpy's, Traivis Weidow, has also come in and helps roadie and stuff too. But then on a cold April afternoon Cyle Strahl (formerly of KINKED) tried out for rythm guitar. He not only impressed us but we also impressed him. So now the band heads out to start a new chapter in the book of Octane as they try to have fun, make music, and get laid. And so Octane enters a battle of the bands at Clarion University and ties for 4th. This was Cyles test run, and if every other show will be like that one then everything will be cool. The guys made alot of freinds that night. Govt. Cheese, DTA, Glue Monkey, and Alias Switch to name a few. They all had fun even though the judges were kinda asses. Octane went on first so therefore they got the "we go first that means our scores will suck" spot. Oh well, it's all good. After the show hot chicks talked to the band and Squeegie paid for dinner at Eat n Park.

Well after a long summer of shows fun and other things Squeegie decided to quit the band. Cyle said he wanted some time off so we said "OK." So how did this come about. Well we seamed to have pissed off a lot of places and it seems like it' going nowhere, but with time something should arise. If not then we will see what happens next year. So anyway the band is looking for a new drummer as we speak so who knows. So that is were we stand today in Octane history.

History written by Lumpy.

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