backandtotheleft formed in 2001 after the ill-fated "God Hates Us" tour for Noxious Emotion and Assemblage 23. All 3 members of battl were the live musicians for Noxious Emotion. Darren joined Noxious in 1996, Megan in 1997, and r. wilhelm in 1999, after the departure of vocalist Shane Benson. In 2000, the three got together and decided that eventually, they would write music together. In 2001, that idea became a reality.
A 4-song demo was produced in spring of 2003, and taken on the Assemblage 23 Defiance tour, which Megan was booking, driving, and managing. It was given out to several DJs along the way, and some of them actually played it. The demo was sent to several record labels, and rejected by pretty much all of them. In late 2003, after some debate, it was determined that the full-length would be produced by Assemblage 23 frontman Tom Shear. In the spring of 2004, Shear decided to release the CD on his DIY label, 23db. With very little advertising, and a lot of word of mouth, the CD sold out of the original 23db pressing. backandtotheleft were picked up by Metropolis after it was discovered how well the CD did on it's own merit. They re-released it in late 2005, with an extra song, the Surefooted mix of "Misstep" by Assemblage 23.
All 3 members of backandtotheleft have been very active in the gothic-industrial music scene over the past decade and further, being live members and/or active writers and contributors to: And Christ Wept, Static Engine, Written In Ashes, Nocturne(PDX), Omnibox, Tau Factor, Noxious Emotion, Sumerland, Fockewolf, Sentenced to Life, and (very) little-known noise collage band Agitprop.
AS OF THE LATE WINTER 2006, Miller has retired for personal reasons, and has been succeeded by Brandon Jerwa, also from Seattle electronic band SD6. Brandon's past experience has been over 10 years in the making, starting out with Kansas City band Relay. He formed Omnibox upon moving to Central Washington, which also featured Megan at one point, and after that band folded, he started up SD6 with Jessica Blackshear and Nicole Edmonds, which, as of May 2006, also features Megan on drums in the live lineup. He and Edmonds also make up the current lineup for the electronic instrumental band Hybernaut.
AS OF LATER IN 2006: This band is defunct. We still check the page from time to time, but there will be no further material written by backandtotheleft. Robert is going to medical school, Brandon continues his work as a comics and graphic novel author, and Megan has a proper day job and spends free time on the baseball blogosphere, specifically in regards to the Seattle Mariners.
It has been a long time, but I like to visit all my MySpace friends at the beginning of the year and say Hi. (I try to in any case.) I'll be taking some of my students to Seattle in March. I'm really looking forward to it, even though it's all work and no play for this dull boy...
![cB[cycloneb]](http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/78/s_3d973e80a7b6a3db351a5e93657967eb.jpg)
