* En anglais uniquement
Although indie rock quartet
Solea's self-titled debut was not released until 2005, the impetus for the band stretched all the way back to a European tour in the summer of 1996 between a popular first-generation emo band,
Texas Is the Reason, and the long-running pop-punk act
Samiam. The primary singers and songwriters of each band,
Samiam's
Sergie Loobkoff and
Texas Is the Reason's
Garrett Klahn, bonded over the course of this extensive haul and began writing songs together on their shared tour bus, fleshing them out during sound checks. After the tour ended, the pair kept in touch, but their respective professional commitments kept the project from moving much past the idea stage. Even after
Texas Is the Reason split up in 1997,
Klahn went on to form a short-lived new band, the New Rising Sons, while
Loobkoff spent his spare time in his hobby band,
Knapsack. At loose ends in 2001,
Loobkoff and
Klahn found themselves without bands at the same time and formed
Solea, inexplicably named after a song by
Miles Davis. Complicated by the fact that
Loobkoff and drummer Johnny Cruz (also formerly of
Samiam) lived in Los Angeles and
Klahn and bassist Niko Georgiadis lived in Buffalo, NY,
Solea's first songs were written and demoed through the mail before being recorded at former
Pavement drummer
Gary Young's studio in Stockton, CA, in early 2002. Those songs, available through the band's website and on a self-released demo, led to a second EP, Even Stranger, in 2003. During a volatile tour promoting Even Stranger, Georgiadis and Cruz left the band, replaced by bassist
Joseph Orlando and drummer
Scott McPherson (formerly of
Sense Field). This lineup of the band wrote and recorded their self-titled full-length debut, released in Japan in early 2004 and in the United States on the Textbook Music label in October 2005.
Solea's second album, Finally We Are Nowhere, was scheduled for release in December 2006, following
Loobkoff's temporary diversion with a reunited
Samiam. ~ Stewart Mason