Formed in 1999 in Churchville, PA outside Philadelphia, The Starting Line, Ken Vasoli (vocals, bass), Matt Watts (guitar), Tom Gyskiewicz (drums), Mike Golla (guitar), Brian Schmutz (keyboards), have been revered for their invigorating blend of punk-pop, indie rock and emo earnestness which garnered the group accolades throughout their career.
The Starting Line’s 2002 debut album Say It Like You Mean It earned the group a 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart, sold over 300,000 copies on the indie label Drive-Thru and spawned a surprise hit with “The Best Of Me,” a pop-punk anthem that was embraced by MTV.
After making a solid name for themselves and building their impressive fan-base through relentless touring, the group collectively decided to make the jump to major label Geffen Records for their next full-length Based On A True Story released May 10, 2005. Despite a strong debut at 18 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, headlining the Vans Warped Tour that summer and going to on perform the biggest headlining shows of their career, the band begged Geffen to be released from their contract when the label chose not to service their anthemic first single “Bedroom Talk” to commercial radio.
The Starting Line subsequently signed to Virgin after then president Jason Flom caught one of their live shows and was stunned at the sight of 10,000 kids singing along with the band. The band teamed with Grammy-winning producer Howard Benson to record Direction (Virgin) which was released July 31, 2007. Due to the merger of EMI (Virgin) and Terra Firma, The Starting Line was cast into a nearly identical situation as the aforementioned with Geffen Records. On March 5, 2008, after eight years, the group announced they would take an indefinite hiatus to pursue other projects.
On November 10, 2009, The Starting Line will release their first-ever live concert CD, film and documentary DVD titled "Somebody's Gonna Miss Us" via Image Entertainment on a 2-disc set. Through intimate and honest interviews with the band, friends and family fans will get a glimpse into the inner workings of the group and a career that spanned nearly a decade, five releases, and thousands of shows.
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