Driven by their love for music and each other, 5o4plan hailed from the Windy City as one of several upcoming bands in creating a stir for something new in Chicago. 5o4plan began in the fall of 1999 with the intentions of impressing friends who lived on the block. With everything, things grow and sometimes tend to grow apart. And after minor changes in 2000, Tom Conrad, Adam Anderson, Mikey Russell, and Nick Scimeca made up what 5o4plan was known as today. After continuous growth of brother like friendship, they constantly grew together and individually, with our lives and our music.
In January of 2002, after building a small following of fans in Chicago by playing handfuls of local shows, 5o4plan debuted with their 1st 9-Song LP release, entitled Treehouse Talk, on LLR (Little League Recordings) out of Chicago, as their first serious step into the music world. Production included engineer and producer Dan Wleklinski, ex. guitarist for 88 Fingers Louie and Rise Against, at Sonic Iguana and Bombshelter Studios.
And while half of its member's were still in high school, (Mikey and Nick reigned from J.B. Conant High School) they still shared such big and small stages around Chicago (The Metro, Fireside Bowl, Knights of Columbus, Klub Phenomenon) and the U.S. During this time they shared the stage with other great Chicagoan artists such as Knockout, Fall Out Boy, Rise Against, Allister, Showoff, August Premier, The Academy (Is...) and also others like the Eyeliners, Big Wig, the Reunion Show, Buck O' Nine, and Motion City Soundtrack. They even had several dates in 2001 and 2002 on the Vans Warped Tour on the Drive Thru Records, Build-It, and Ernie Ball Stage.
Then in late 2002, 5o4plan hit the studio's again, but this time with Sean O'Keefe as their producer. They began to put songs down at Smart Studios in Madison, Wi and Gravity Studios in Chicago. With all of their songs written, in early 2003, they began recording for their new EP. After they finished recording they waited patiently for the much waited release. But when everything was looking good for the four Chicago boys, news broke when bassist Adam Anderson left the band for schooling reasons. The lose of Anderson was big, but got band friend Jon Walker to fill in at bass. While getting their band chemistry down, 5o4plan toured and finally self-released their new 6-Song EP "Minutia." It was a huge hit to the Chicago scene. "Minutia" combined powerful melodies with raw emotion to deliver a well-rounded, heart-felt recording. It was a perfect follow-up to the band's first release "Treehouse Talk."
But even after it's great response with "Minutia" the 5o4 struggled to keep the band together after much inter-band turmoil. And after much long debate, in early 2004, 5o4plan decided to split up and go on in seperate ways in the music world.
So now after 5o4plan has gone so far, touring the nation twice, traveling on the Vans Warped Tour for two years in a row, and playing so many sold-out shows at the Metro, they leave with the great memories of something that that was so special.
Band's Break-Up Statement:
To begin this with anything but straight-forwardness would just be extra bandages on a well cared for wound. As much as this is a shock for all of you, believe us, we feel the same. 5o4PLAN has always been something incredibly sincere and important to the way we lived the last four years of our lives. We are sure many of you can confine in the fact that 5o4PLAN has curved us to be who we are today.
Many of the feelings of questioning 5o4PLAN's future began with Adam leaving the band back in May of 2003. Adam parting from the band to pursue school and a life outside the band, hit the remaining of us hard.
When Jon joined, we knew from the beginning he would not be the solution to Adam's departure, yet we hoped just the opposite since he fit perfectly in our jigsaw puzzle of a band. This only led to Nick questioning his future in music. Touring was never something Nick, Adam, Jon or Mike truly enjoyed or wanted, which opened new thinking to where 5o4PLAN was headed.
We have always been a band of performance other than recording. It seemed like no matter what we did or tried, 5o4PLAN struggled in some way or another, though it was the hard times that brought 5o4PLAN closer together.
We swear on these words; "we only lasted as long as we did because of you".
If we were to continue, it would be for the wrong reasons. To pursue on a false front would only hurt much harder at a future breaking point in the band.
We have always had a convincing and passionate live performance and for us to mislead you in any sort of false way would only be something we would regret doing. Regret is the worst feeling in life.
It feels more right to end 5o4PLAN on a high note than just to fade these feelings away. The decision to end this part of our lives was a hundred percent mutual. It feels as if it is our time. 5o4PLAN is looking at this as a bittersweet decision rather than a negative one. The four of us are still very close. We will never forget how much we accomplished, being the inexperienced, young men we are. We thank all of you for this.
As for the future of us individually, Nick is pursuing his creative interest in design (infectkids.com) and experimenting in a musical solo-project; Jon will be starting classes in film soon; Mike will continue his future endeavors in music; Adam will be finishing his Associates Degree this fall; Tom will continue his passion for art and music with new a project as well as school. We promise you, you will hear from some of us soon, if not all.
We are having a last show. We will post info as soon as we get it.
To have some sort of creation, there needs to be destruction, but no matter what we write, it would never cure how deeply sorry we are.
Thank You
Nick, Tom, Mike, Jon and Adam
5o4plan
Where are they now?
___ Mikey Russell - he is currently the head man in the Chicago Indie/Progressive band Wax on Radio (Downtown Records)
___ Tom Conrad - he played lead guitar in the Chicago Indie/Rock band, The Academy Is...(Fueled By Ramen), but has now quit the band because of musical differences. He now has taken full interest in his new band Empires and also his photography.
___ Nicholas Scimeca - he is a web/art designer for his many sites. He also has a side project, with Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, called Tequila Mockingbird.
hi, guys!!! thank you for the add!!! i'm really happy!! i'm so sad that you play together nomore... however, you're great, and i love your music! big kiss from Italy!! Orsetta P.S. sorry for my bad english, i'm trying to improve... ;)
So, some random person contacted me on livejournal about a rough mix of a cd by you guys and when I was like, "um, what?", they found it somewhere else and e-mailed it to me. So like, does a rough mix with no vocals exist? Or did some ass send me a virus? lol I haven't opened it yet cause I'm a little worried it would crash my computer.
Online Now!
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