The Shys

Like a pair of black and white chuck taylors or a good leather jacket there are just some things that never go out of style, some things are just eternally cool. Among the many varations of modern artist vying to outdo each other with an array of gimmicks shtick and technologic smoke and mirrors The Shys bring a novel approach to the idea of being a band. Five young guys who play their instruments,write their own songs and look cool doing it. Its a simple pleasure,a classic pursuit, its as refreshing as pouring a cold beer and lighting a smoke or reverting back to watching the effortlessly cool Marlon Brando in "The Wild One". Its a breath of fresh air after the suffacation of glossy blockbuster pop culture or the stuffy self obssessed art school experiments. The Shys formula is not as complicated as it is classic. Lead vocalist and guitarist Kyle Krone (24) had two best friends, band mates Alex Kweskin (bass and vocals) and Chris Wulff (guitar), after the romance of their childhood dreams of becoming pro-baseball players and race car drivers wore off what was left was three kids who loved music and wanted to play make it together. From the summer of 1998 on the three inspreable best friends could almost always be found in the garage or home made studio stringing together song after song in place of the more common activites that occupied the time of most kids their age. In San Clemente California a town most famous for its legendary Surf spots and West Coast White House five members of The Shys were discovering bands and that would takes them far from their sleepy sea side community to 1960s Britian and New Yorks Lower East Side and Detroits Sixites soul and beyond. With the help of older siblings and music loving parents Krone discovered the Rolling Stones and The Beatles The Clash and The Stooges, and Kweskin discovered the soul of Motown and Southern Gospel. The muscial history lesson replaced the friends record collection as they dug deeper into the past and looked to the future with more perspective. The band almost immeditaley took on the punk ethos of a D.I.Y philosophy and all throughout high school Krone Kweskin and Wulff would book and promote out of town shows as far away as San Francisco and raise money to record the music they had written together. "They used school as a way of helping their band along, I remember them selling and giving away there demo cds durning breaks and passing out flyers during lunch and things like that. Everyone would go see them, they were like their own party" an old friend remebers. After high school the three did stints in numerous music projects almost always together and as the ever present pressure to join the real world loomed the three friends temporalry went their seperate ways after a year long stint in Los Angeles playing music . Kweskin enrolled in College at Cal State LA, Wulff traveled around Europe living in Spain and Krone stayed home and continued to write and record his own songs. In the fall of 2004 Krone perposed a very simple question to his best friend , "want to start a new band with me"? Kweskin oblidged and two were back in the garage with a handful of new songs and rejuvinated spirit. "We started off real simple, just a duo, it was as easy as it was fun, Alex on the drums myself on the guitar." Wulff was still in Europe at the time so the two got a friend to temporalry fill in on the bass. Before long the band had an EP out with local Indie Imprint Aeronaut Records and were playing packed residencies in Los Angeles east side Silverlake and Echo Park neighborhoods. Wulff returned home suprised at how fast the new group had taken off and weeks after his return he was asked to re-join the band. As the word continued to spread around Los Angeles the much talked about group soon caught the attention of the Major Lables and eventually signed a deal in late 2005 with Sire Records. Shortly after the band was in the studio recording their debut album "Astoria" (Released July 11th 2006). As the band felt most comfortabel performing live the approach to recording the album would be no differnt. The band played together live and recorded straight to tape and the album was finished in two weeks. Months after the album was completed The Shys began touring North America and the UK in support of bigger groups and quickly won over new fans with their high energy charismatic performances. As the bands fan base began to grow so did there knowledge of how their record label operated. Between tours the band began contrustion on a modest home studio to record demos for their second record. As the songs were developing it was clear the music would require additional members and the band called on two local friends Riley Stephenson ( Piano,Organ) would replace Alex on the key and he would move to the bass and Tony Cupito (Drums) would replace orginal drummer Mike Walker who left the band to presue a solo carrear and start a family. With the new members in place and the lineup complete the band began to shape new songs and ambituously push themselves into unfamilar territories while never loosing sight of the time honored musical traditions that initally inspired the group to play music. As their record label struggled with the harsh realities of the modern music business and left the group in limbo to focus on safer more established acts the band faught to be released from their contracts and return to the freedom of releasing records independantly with former home Aeronaut Records. In the winter of 2007 the band would finally part ways with Sire and be free to move ahead with their own vision. They hired old friend and tech savy engeneer Mark Rains to man the controlls of their sophmore album and the band opted to produced the album themselves. The album was recorded in week long periods throughout October and December of 2007. The shoe string budget saw the band sleeping on the studio floor and living off a diet of coffee cigarettes and the odd pizza. But the band insitis it was one of the most rewarding enjoyable experiences of their young carrear. The album was released in July of 2008 and met with glowing reviews from the critics and the fans alike. Often being reffered as an ambitious sophisticated and fascinating album, the polor oppisite of a sophmore slump. The group contiunes to win over new music lovers with their hybrid of classic cool (velvet underground, rolling stones, motown. the clash) and modern urgency (spoon, the strokes, cold war kids) which makes The Shys one of the most exciting young bands in America. Its the fine balance of a group studied in tradtion but looking to the future that make the song writing and delievery The Shys such an appealing one.