Macedonia's Fun Fest was the first gig ever played by Handle in Longwood Park off of R82 and was recorded on JJ's brother's 4-track if anyone actually ends up interesting in hearing it. Other than that, birthday parties and summer parties were the only gigs played by Handle in phase 1. During this phase Handle remained without a band name at all until the week before the Fun Fest gig. Over 50 names were considered and written a Piece of paper. Names most seriously considered were "Milk Makes Mucous" and "Versant" as well as "Wax Tadpoles".. Thank God Handle was picked!! For no particular reason Handle was the name chosen. All the band members agreed on it though pretty easily.

Phase 2 (1995-96)

Also a big big change in phase 2 was a new member added into the band. They had long searched for a bass player that would have more time than JJ and so one was found. Scott trained his sister, Jill Pugh, over about a six month period and then she was ready. Borrowing her friend, Mark's, equipment she began playing with Handle and it was eventually decided she should stay. Scott was writing most of the new material at this point and found it easy to show Jill the basslines because they lived in the same home. Jill has been bass player for Handle ever since. Shows became a little more serious, though Handle spent months in the garage of Chris's home during this phase. Handle graduated from its one gig the summer before and played the Talent Show and then the Battle of the Bands at Nordonia High School, where all the members attended school. Also, graduation parties were added to Handle's agenda including one that paid out $100. This was the highest paying gig in phase 2. Handle played over 14 originals and some covers when phase 3 occured

Phase 3 (1996-97)

Scott, Jill and Chris often had friends over band practice nights to hang out or listen to the music. For awhile, two girls would often show up, one being Rachel Just and another being some black girl, Arwyn Hopkins. They would chastise Handle to play "Don't Look Away" and "Hedgehog" fairly often. Then one day in mid autumn, Handle was taking a break from its originals and decided to do an improvisation of the song "Yellow Ledbetter" by Pearl Jam. Scott's throat was worn already and he hardly sang the song at all. Arwyn for some reason or another began singing the song and to everyone's surprise she sang it ~beautifully~ and ~perfectly~. It was an incredible likeness to Eddie Vedder even. It was within the next couple days Arwyn was asked to take over for Handle as lead vocalist ...she accepted... and Scott happily went back to concentrating on guitar riffs. It was at this time Handle took a turn. Arwyn added a new element to Handle that wasn't there before and gave them an opportunity to go more hip hop. Handle took that trip without even realizing they were taking it..
Cover songs were learned initially including:
"Hail Hail" - Pearl Jam
"Snakecharmer" - Rage Against the Machine
"Down" - 311

Not long after originals arrived such as:
"Stick It"
"Latte' Lingo"
"Straightedger's Ball"

This brought Handle to a whole new level. The hip hop rock was the most exciting thing they had experienced. The first gig with Arwyn was at the Talent Show once again for Nordonia High School but soon after Handle played its first official or "real" gig at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights. Peabody's was next and of course parties and highschool shows continued. At one of the Peabody's Battle of the Bands Handle had the extreme pleasure of meeting a band called Sift from Youngstown, who later became very good friends of Handle and hooked them up with several shows in the Youngstown area. They still help out to this day! Other bands met during this time were Uncle No, who were also from Macedonia and played the Nordonia shows as well, and Hot Property, a swing/ska band from Bedford. A punk band called Eustress that was supposed to play the Battle of the Bands asked the members of Handle to help form a ska band with them. All members except Arwyn participated in what came to be Act Up! Gino Salinski and Nick Crabtree sang for the band and they played covers of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Skank'n Pickle and Mustard Plug. The band obliterated after the Battle of the Bands, however, because of the ties Handle had formed with Eustress, Scott was then asked to be a second guitarist in the band. Scott had no objections to this. Not only that, but by participating in Eustress, Handle was then asked to move into a storage unit in Brecksville that Eustress was renting out and by sharing the spot with another band the costs were cut significantly. Also, Eustress had a PA that they used and Handle was allowed access to this as well. It was an ideal situation for Handle.
More originals were written in the months with Eustress such as:
"Five"
"Squirrel"
"Dawn"
"Nameless"

And though it was an ideal situation it did come to an end. Eustress's singer Matt, moved to Cincinnati, OH where he had found a new job and this put a damper on the plans of Eustress and they broke up for a short time. During this time, they decided to transfer over the practice spot into Scott's name. However, the break up did not last long, and Eustress got back on their feet and came back to the practice spot. Scott had no problem with Eustress paying the rent through them. He didn't realize two of the members would fuck him out of $150.00 but thats another story in itself. The point of what happened though, was that Handle ended up alone in renting the spot again. And Scott's second guitarist duties with Eustress ended as well.

Worth mentioning is Scratchy, or Jason Schaedlich, who made his entrance into Handle about midway through Phase 3. He opened up Handle to a heavier side of hip hop with covers like "Engine #9" and "Head Up" by the Deftones. During all this craziness, problems occured within the band as well. Arwyn, after over a year of being the front of Handle, started falling behind. She would miss practices on a regular basis and the development of new songs were being hindered. Arwyn was having problems with relationships and family as well as jobs she was working and was having difficulty keeping Handle a priority. Scratchy was considered for lead singer, but it was decided that could not work as he was dating Jill at the time. Sadly, Handle had to let Arwyn go until she could situate herself. The demo was recorded shortly before this turn of events.

Phase 4 (1996-97)

This is by far the roughest phase Handle has had. More fighting and bullshit came out of this phase than anything, but it was necessary in order for Handle to get their shit together. Suffering the loss of Arwyn, Handle was now in need for a vocalist and was forced to turn down the shows offered by Sift and others during the phase. An ad was placed in Scene Magazine of Cleveland in hope that a good vocalist would respond. Many did, but one caught their attention. Tom Bacorn from Akron called in response to the ad. He was the only one that actually seemed to understand what Handle was about. He came to a single practice and that was good enough for them to see they wouldn't find anyone better. Tom's style differed much from Arwyn's, but was high quality. Handle, actually called Haywyre during their time with Tom, began their extensive work with Tom of writing and covering all new songs with him which took months.
Such songs as:
"Seven Year Itch"
"Never Again"
"Like I Care" - Helmet
came out of it when not long after, another turn of events took place. Chris was at his new home in Akron, when a visitor came to his surprise. Arwyn! Arwyn wanted back in. She had settled down in Akron as well with plans to get married and she now had a steady job. She said that she had 3 separate dreams about singing with Handle again. This same day, without knowing this, Scott had called Arwyns old number in hope to ask her to join Tom as frontman. The old number was out of service and the new one... disconnected... Needless to say, Arwyns dreams became a reality and she was reinitiated into Handle. Tom did not know how to feel about this because he felt that with Arwyn, Handle was complete without him, but these types of issues are current. As of now, Tom and Arwyn are both in effect and have joined each other in songs such as:
"Tranquility Bay" - written by Tom
"Big Fun" - written by Arwyn

Also, during phase 4, Handle moved out of the practice spot in Brecksville shortly after Eustress took off and resided in the house owned by Melemie Music Media Network. This is Handle's current referral service and providers. Melomie has worked with Handle for a few months now and has been very helpful.