Bios
Gordon Vaughn
Andrew Shives
Chris Harris
Trevor Kustiak
Shane Hills
About Cool For August:
Expansive, encompassing, enveloping - the sound of Cool for August is a 360 degree experience, a full sonic immersion and the closest thing to a totally-involving encounter you're likely to hear this side of the millennium.
With music launched from such diverse stylistic sites as early David Bowie and Roxy Music, The Who and Joy Division, Peter Gabriel and U2, Cool for August retools the concept of big, bold and audacious rock and roll. It's a strategy that pays off in spectacular fashion on Grand World, their potent and compelling debut album for Warner Bros. Records. With a sheaf of original material penned and performed by the band, Grand World is dedicated to a single, simple proposition: real music, played with passion, can change the way we hear the world.
Cool for August has been about mapping that reality from the very beginning, back in the summer of 1993, when the disparate elements that comprise the group's lineup first came together in Los Angeles. It was there that vocalist Gordon Vaughn had been working for a few years with various local groups. He joined forces with two young Canadian expatriates, Trevor Kustiak from Saskatoon and Vancouver's Shane Hill, who, together with Shane's brother Shad, had been playing on the burgeoning British Columbia music scene for several years in various combinations before relocating to Southern California. The fledgling musicians immediately discovered common ground and shared inspiration in music that pushed the expressive envelope to the point of no return. The group members immediately moved in together and began a relentless regimen of writing and rehearsing.
A missing creative element was provided with the recruitment of bassist Andrew Shives, who had recently migrated from his native Maryland, where he had served time in a number of local groups before seeking his musical fortunes in Los Angeles. The group's lineup complete, Cool for August assembled their first demo tape by November of their first year together, and the result attracted the attention of Ross Schwartz, manager for a number of cutting-edge bands, including The American Music Club. He and the group immediately got involved in plotting the next move, which included a select series of live gigs as well as continued writing and recording. By the summer of 1994, Cool for August were ready for their first industry showcase. But despite the interest generated from their performance, the group set aside recording and publishing offers in order to polish and hone their sound. During this time, they barely kept body and soul together. Andrew worked as a janitor and the other members (who couldn't work because of their Canadian citizenship) intermittently sold their blood to pay the rent on their tiny, two-bedroom Hollywood apartment.
By early 1995, they completed their creative evolution. Ross contacted Warner Bros. Records A&R Vice President Geoffrey Weiss and invited him down to the recording studio where Cool for August were working on material. Because of Weiss's unfettered enthusiasm and the band's confidence in Warner Bros. Records tradition of artistic freedom, contracts were inked by that summer. At this point, the band made a decision to move from Los Angeles to someplace where they could give their full attention to translating their extraordinary music from the rehearsal hall to the studio.
The group settled on Atlanta, which provided a combination of both a supportive music scene and an environment isolated enough to allow them to get down to the serious business of recording an album.
Which left only the question of a producer remaining. In typical iconoclastic fashion, the group eschewed some of the bigger names who wanted to produce the group, deciding instead on an up-and-coming studio craftsman by the name of Matt Serletic, who identified completely with the group's artistic vision.
Work was begun in Atlanta in early 1996 and continued through the summer with a lengthy sojourn in Miami for recording. Enlisted for the sessions were a number of notable guest artists, including the string section of the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra, former American Music Club pedal steel guitarist Bruce Kaphan and frontman Mark Eitzel.
The result is an album that puts the power and potential of real rock and roll into a sweeping new perspective. Featuring such standout Cool for August originals as "Hey You," "Hope I'm Wrong," "New Song" and "Don't Want To Be Here," Grand World is an album that more than lives up to its billing, from a band which understands that, when it comes to music that makes a lasting impact, scale is everything.
Home