Biography

Squad Five-O released a debut on Tooth & Nail Records last year that raised the level for underground rock and roll bands. Full of fist-pumping gritty anthems, clanging and splintering guitars, and the incessant banging of a cowbell, it established the band as an-ahead-of-its-time return to "The Rock." In the words of CCM Magazine, the album put modern rock "closer to the heart of Squad Five-O's passion for radical faith in a dark world.

Founded by twin brothers Jeff (vocals) and John (bass) Forston several years ago, the band released several independent records before landing on T&N in 2000. Close friend and guitarist Adam Garbinski helped musically focus the T&N debut, which featured such anthems as "Renegade" and "They'll Never Take Me Alive."

Even though the band fells that thy accomplished a lot as a music group by playing slamming dates with MxPx and doing a successful tour with The Juliana Theory, they actually feel most proud of how their new album has turned out, partly due to the addition of guitarist Kris Klein and rummer Dave Petersen. "Having Kris and Dave in the band has really added a lot musically, and our live show has gotten better," Adam says.

Although Duane Baron (Alice Copper, Motley Crue) did an outstanding job on the first release, this time Squad chose to work with legendary hard music producer Barry Pointer at his studio in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Zao and The Juliana Theory created their finest work.

"Barry is real chill, laid back, and definitely knows his stuff," Adam explains. "He makes recording seem easier than it is because all the technical things you usually worry about he's already figured out for you, which allows you to concentrate a lot more on the actual song you're recording.

The concentration on delivering the best song is appropriate, for like the Clash's"London Calling" or the Rolling Stones' "Beggar's Banquet," on this album Squad has written a panoply of working class, afflatus-filled tracks.

"A lot of bands today just have no heart, they're selfish in content and attitude," Adam says. "When we say values, it's knowing that we're all in this together, and we need to realize that and consciously act that way. The romantic loner image is okay, but it's really by leaning on your friends and brothers and sisters that you'll be able to get by.

"When comparisons are made to our sound, it's obviously not going to sound like we're from 20 years ago or something," Adam asserts about the band's sonic direction. "That would b ridiculous. A good song is a good song whether it was now or 50 years ago. It's basically in attitude and songwriting that we could be compared to bands like The Ramones or the Stones. Otherwise, our sound is very now and could easily be heard on any commercial radio station. We're just a mix of all our influences. The new album is the first time we've really found our own identity."

The entire band shares in the songwriting. "Dave wrote four song or so, I wrote two, Jeff wrote three I think, and John wrote a couple," Adam says. "Kris is always on hand to write bridges and killer instrumental parts. Jeff, Dave and I all wrote lyrics for this album as well.

The album celebrates life as a spiritual event, and tries to encourage people "as much as we can. There's a lot of real hope on this album." Adam describes many specific song topics as "love gone wrong, love gone right, dancing, friends gone Hollywood, flying on planes, drug abuse, not running from your problems, wasting time, listening to the radio, driving in cars. There's a short acoustic track, and a six minute ballad."