This Bio was written by our friend Corey Forster
For Your Safety was an underground band of growing popularity in the local scene in Long Island, New York. The last lineup of the band before the breakup went as follows:
Lee Kessler (Guitar, Vocals)
Lee Kreindel (Bass)
Ben Silverberg (Guitar Backup Vocals)
Dan Carey (Drums)
When the band first started, in the fall/winter of 2002, their name was One Second Till Tomorrow and the original lineup was as follows:
Lee Kessler (Guitar, Vocals)
Lee Kreindel (Bass)
Justin Medwed (Drums)
With this lineup, the band had only one show, but they released a small, two-track EP with one hidden track. The first track was an original song with lyrics involving fermented situations within a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. The second track was a cover of the song Swing, Swing by The All-American Rejects. Finally, the hidden track on the album was an instrumental cover of Hava-Nagela (a customary tune at all Jewish affairs). The cost of this EP was $2.00. It sold around ten copies.
Despite this success, as time went on, the band became more serious, and realized that a change was required. They began to hold practice every week in Lee Kesslers basement and changed their name to One Way Ticket. However, Kessler had to balance the rhythm guitar part, the lead guitar part, and all the vocals. Thus, a new addition to the band was needed. The band searched for a couple of weeks for a new member, and finally found that their good friend Michael Morgan was willing to assume the responsibility of rhythm/lead guitarist and the backup vocalist to Lee Kessler.
With Morgans entry to the band came great change. There was a massive turnaround in the way the band worked. For starters, practice was religiously held every Friday night. Secondly, the number of songs the band produced was subject to a dramatic increase, including a dark-sounding instrumental introduction, which the band opened with at several shows. The tone of the bands music also changed; the lyrics became deeper and more emotional, and a wide array of harmonics and other unique musical methods were introduced to the songs structures.
However, Morgan did not only influence their music; he sparked a name change as well. Many names were toyed with, including The Amber Alert, A Fathers Yesterday, and A Mothers Tomorrow, but finally the name For Your Safety was agreed upon. It was through this addition that the FYS began its rise to local band stardom.
The new lineup went as follows:
Lee Kessler (Guitar, Vocals)
Michael Morgan (Guitar, Vocals)
Lee Kreindel (Bass)
Justin Medwed (Drums)
This arrangement of the band was only temporary. Michael Morgan soon left the band after only a few months and FYS was left with only three members once again. Now that many of their titles included a second guitar part, a fourth member was still needed. The band turned once again to their friends, which is when Ben Silverberg joined. Silverbergs musical skills were not aligned with Morgans at his start in the band, but his PR experience helped the band become more known throughout Long Island, so it is safe to say, Ben was an asset to the band from the start.
Over time, Silverberg became more skilled at guitar with the help of Lee Kessler, and even began harmonizing some vocal parts of FYS songs. Silverberg, similar to Morgan (though not nearly to the same extent), was relatively well known amongst some key figures in the Long Island music scene. This aided the band in receiving permission to play in several high profile concerts with some big names. After Silverbergs introduction to the band, FYS played along side of other groups such as The Rocket Summer, Umbrellas, Plain White Tees, and even Cartel.
By the summer of 2005, the band was forced to find a new drummer, since Justin Medwed began to attend The Ohio State University. This was a devastating loss, since he was an original member and his improvisational skills were unmatchable. However, the three remaining members (Kessler, Kreindel, and Silverberg) knew that they wanted to keep going as a band. Therefore, they began to search, as usual within their network of friends. Several people tried out for the band, all seemingly fit for the job, but they finally decided on their friend Lucas. Lucas wasnt even officially in the band for a month, when he decided to pursue his other musical project rather than For Your Safety.
The band was rendered without a drummer once again, and the search continued. This time, they extended their invitation to drummers all across Long Island. This yielded tremendous success with the location of Dan Carey. Carey, though much older than the other members of the band, was extremely dedicated to achieving success. He induced a second renaissance of the band (assuming that Michael Morgan sparked the first one). Carey revolutionized the drum progressions of FYS making many of the beats faster paced, with almost a dance-type of sound.
For Your Safety continued growing in popularity, issuing shirts and a new EP that contained four tracks:
1. 6:00 (2:57)
2. All These Nights (2:20)
3. J-Med is For Lovers (3:35)
4. Long Drive Home (2:49)
Over time, conflict within the band began to arise due to issues within the members social lives. This led to the downfall of the popularity and ultimately, the success of the band. The biggest sign of FYS demise was the loss of the Battle of the Bands at their high school. The members egos were becoming larger and larger, leading them to boast and brag about how easy it was going to be for them to win the competition. This angered the other bands and the judges in the contest and may have been the reason for their losing.
With egos still huge, Kessler, Silverberg, and Carey began blaming Kreindel, the bassist, for their loss at the Battle of the Bands. After two months of debating the semantics, Lee Kreindel was finally kicked out of For Your Safety on impulse when Lee Kessler became angry with him. The band was unable to find a replacement that was willing to deal with any of the remaining members, so they were left without a bassist. Many regard the kicking out of Lee Kreindel as FYS biggest mistake. After a short while, the remaining three members lost touch and For Your Safety came to an end after four years. For Your Safety will be remembered for their hits Long Drive Home and All These Nights.
FYS 2003-2006Bands We've Had The Honor Playing With: The Audition, Brandtson, Cartel, Daphne Loves Derby, Dropping Daylight, Madison, Permanent Me, Plain White T's, The Rocket Summer, Sherwood, Small Towns Burn Alittle Slower, Spitalfield, Steel Train, Sullivan, This Providence, Umbrellas, and many more.
