Sev (band)

Sev
Origin Fairfax Virginia, United States
Genres Alternative rock
Nu metal
Rap rock
Rap metal
Alternative metal
Years active 1995–2006, 2019 (one-off show)
Labels Universal
Geffen Records
Website http://www.sevmusic.com

Sev was a rock band from the Northern Virginia area who appeared in a national advertising campaign for Pepsi Blue. Sev also appeared on the website come-alive show Farmclub and performed at HFStival, the summer festival in the Washington D.C. area that typically sets off the summer concert season.

Biography

The Washington D.C. area band Sev first performed together live on October 31, 1995. The formation happened earlier that summer when guitarist Max Alley asked bassist Will Mazur, who was in another band at the time with him, to start a new project. Will brought in his high school friend Dennis Fay as the band's drummer. Singer/rapper Phil Clayman was the next to join, followed by vocalist/guitarist Danny Schools.

Rise

Sev gained the attention of the Mid-Atlantic Music Scene. Winning the "Big Break" contest hosted by at-the-time local alternative rock radio station 99.1 WHFS, Sev opened the 1999 HFStival with their performance on the Main Stage. In 2000, Sev started a campaign to be noticed by major labels in New York City.

One of the labels to take notice was Farmclub, represented by Marcie Jacobson. Farmclub was a website-TV show-record label venture headed by Interscope (Jimmy Iovine) and the head of Geffen (Doug Morris). Bands were asked to upload tracks which would then be voted on. Bands getting enough votes could perform on the show in an effort to get signed to the Farmclub label. Sev uploaded their music and their fans responded, leading Sev to be the first band to be signed through the website and TV show.

On the show, Sev performed the songs "Stand Straight" and "Same Old Song". "Stand Straight" became Sev's first national single on Farmclub compilations, but not as an official single from the band. Sev immediately went into the studio in 2000 to capitalize on their sudden success.

Label controversy

The show Farmclub aired on the USA Network on Monday nights after WWF Monday Night RAW. However, when RAW moved to TNN in late 2000, Farmclub's core audience went with it. Farmclub lost their core audience and the venture crumbled. This led to Sev being pushed on to the Geffen label. Geffen, not having an interest in the band, took two years to release All These Dreams. Once the album came out in 2002, Geffen announced it had no other plans for the band and stopped all communication.

In July 2002, Pepsi launched a new soft drink named Pepsi Blue and wanted a song from a Universal Music Group artist, of which Geffen belongs to, to help advertise the product. Pepsi picked out Sev's "Same Old Song" to represent their new product. The concept was to record a music video and a commercial using the same footage and with hopes that Pepsi Blue would be seen in both the commercial and music video. Since their future with Geffen was bleak, Sev used this opportunity to gain exposure and have their first music video financed for them. "Same Old Song" would eventually chart, peaking at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart.[1]

A few songs from All These Dreams appeared on the extreme stunt DVD series by Adrenaline Crew.

Final years

A follow-up album was in the works but never came to be. Some of the songs from this era can be downloaded for free at the band's website.[2] The band experienced several lineup changes and then eventually became inactive in 2006.[3]

Members

Original members

  • Max Alley – Guitars
  • Danny Schools – Vocals, Guitars
  • Phil Clayman – Vocals
  • Will Mazur – Bass
  • Dennis Fay – Drums

Later members

  • Matt Hughes – Drums
  • Jeremiah Fowler - 2nd Guitar
  • Matt Waller – Bass
  • Chris Mullen – Bass
  • Bill Ledbetter – Drums
  • Tim Pryor – Bass

Discography

Albums

All These Dreams CD / LP (Geffen, 2002)

  1. All These Dreams
  2. Same Old Song
  3. Menace To Society
  4. When
  5. All Right By Me
  6. Stand Straight
  7. 24/7/365
  8. Front Of The Line
  9. What You Got For Me
  10. Lust
  11. Player
  12. Twisted

Back Rider CD / LP (1998)

  1. Techno
  2. 24-7
  3. Higher
  4. Advance
  5. Who's Got The Mic?
  6. Crashing
  7. Jump (Remix)
  8. Gotta (Remix)
  9. Buy It (Remix)
  10. Bonus Track (#68)
  11. Bonus Track (#69)

Sunflower CD / LP (1996)

  1. Drop
  2. Stand
  3. Gotta
  4. When
  5. Jump
  6. Drinking
  7. Buy It
  8. Hip Hop Habeeb (bonus track)

Singles

  • Same Old Song (2002)

References

  1. ↑ Charts, Billboard.com
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-07-14. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
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