Tuesday, November 25, 2008 @ Tuesday, November 25, 2008
a lil somethang bout them

i found this bio of Vanilla Sky, have you guys heard of it?
well some dont. they are the coolest&sexiest guys i've ever seen.LOL!
you will love it. so do check this out(:

Info:
Bio:
It all began in February 2002 when the four heroes of our story got together in Rome (Yes, that's Rome, Italy) with the shared dream of starting a special project. All four shared rich musical backgrounds stemming from their childhoods, along with bringing their own personal experiences from previous bands with them into this new project. Also linking them was their strong love for the new wave of Punk coming out of the United States. So in late 2002, with all four shoved into a garage in Rome, they set off in pursuit of making their dreams happen. They recorded their first demo without any outside help and created a sound whose quality spoke for itself. Shortly after shopping it around, Vanilla Sky began to play their first live shows. The five track demo entitled "Play It If You Can't Say It" sold out in less than two months, and people started to take notice...

The dream had begun, and the buzz about Vanilla Sky had been started! With so much noise surrounding these guys it wasn't long until they were noticed. The more experienced bands in the Italian Punk / Rock scene began inviting them on the road, giving them the opportunity to play throughout Italy. By now, more than just bands were taking notice - and they were approached by the emerging indie label Wynona Records (Genoa, Italy.) In January 2003 the guys signed their first record deal.

The four way split entitled "Too Loud For You" was released shortly thereafter, quickly followed by the five way split "The Rest Is History" which reached fans as far as Japan via the prominent indie label Ambience Records. (Japan?? Hello?! JAPAN! Pretty sweet for a bunch of guys from Rome!) Suddenly, the buzz wasn't just in Italy anymore. It was all across Europe, Japan, and even some of those American kids were joining in, just a little. Vanilla Sky was on its way!

Skip to the summer of 2003. With so much work happening in the studio, the guys hadn't had many opportunities to play live shows. So, with their instruments in hand and CDs and merchandise waiting to be sold, they shoved it all into their little two door cars (as amazingly impossible as that sounds) and hit the road. They played until they bled (quite literally) and after a considerable amount of time spent away from home, felt that they were ready. Their abilities had been honed to a place they'd never been before, and with that in mind they hit the studio.

Eight weeks later, they left, and "Waiting For Something" was born. Vanilla Sky had finally made their first album. Not just a demo, or a split CD, but a full length album. With it in hand, they hit the tour circuit again, playing all across Europe over a six week period with bands like Forty Winks (Italy), and The Break (New Jersey, USA.) The buzz had exploded into a full out roar, and the first time fans witnessing them play could do nothing but rant and rave about their stage show, music, and how great the guys were in general.

It's now 2004. No longer just the small Pop Punk band from Rome, Vanilla Sky embarked on a new European Tour with The Maxeen (Sideonedummy) to support the release of their album in Europe. The tour lasted a month and a half, and shortly thereafter, they were invited by The Ataris to open their highly successful Italian Tour.

However, before the dust had even settled on these two tours, Vanilla Sky was already hitting the road again, playing all across Europe (With the wonderful addition of a van to the Vanilla Sky family, which makes driving much easier!) The sales of their first album were going positively against everyone's expectations: 13,000 CDs sold after only three months!!!

From June to September 2004 the band played at several open air festivals across Europe as an end to the summer season. They shared the stage as co-headliner with Yellowcard and Flogging Molly at the Bologna Independent Days festival, right after Coheed and Cambria ended its set.

After merely one month, the rest of the band hit the road again throughout all of Italy. This three month Italian tour, which extended itself from the high north to the far south – including the islands (Sicily and Sardinia), increased the guys' fame in their homeland. With this increase, the demand of a reissue of the band's first demo which had long been sold out grew stronger. This led to the effective reissuing of the "Play it if You Can't Say it" EP by Wynona Records in December 2004 and released throughout Italy, Europe and Japan. The EP contains the five original tracks of the demo plus three previously unreleased songs.

In January 2005, the band went on a new tour of Germany where they also performed live on national TV for the first time. At the end of the same month, one of their biggest dreams had come true: Vanilla Sky's first Japanese tour – a dream barely achieved by other Italian bands. Conscious of the rarity of a similar occurrence, the band members didn't expect such a hearty and enthusiastic welcome from other people so far away. The shows were far more crowded than expected, so much that the label promised to book another Japanese tour.

Once back in Europe, having just barely had the time to show the relatives the impressive pictures taken in Tokyo, Vanilla Sky left Italy to star as headliners at the famous "Punk is Dead"-tour 2005 in Austria. Immediately afterwards, from March to May ‘05, another European tour passing through Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany followed. For the first time the band disembarked into the European homeland of rock: Great Britain.

On May 27th, the band's first full length CD was finally released in the USA, distributed by Capitol Records. During the summer the band performed again at several festivals throughout Europe, which included the "Rock in Idro" with NOFX, Good Charlotte, The Offspring, The Hives, My Chemical Romance, and many more. The growing fame of Vanilla Sky made it possible for the guys to play as an official support band at all the concerts of the Offspring's German tour.

With more than 25,000 copies sold of the debut album, over 5,000 copies sold of the EP reissue, and after having drawn the attention of many European and international personalities in the music business, Vanilla Sky entered the studio to start recording the pre-production of the newly awaited album. In the meantime, the legendary Mark Hoppus (former Blink182 bassist and later +44 leader) noticed the band, thanks to Atticus (the company owned by Blink182 members and sponsor of the best alternative bands all around the world, Vanilla Sky included.) He greatly appreciated the fresh new, still unreleased, sound of the band's new demos and decided to interview the Roman guys live on his personal web podcast (episode #12); along with playing the demo track, Nightmare, which he fell in love with.

After almost a year spent on pre-production writing, arranging and constantly changing the songs the quartet started in early 2006 to record the final version of the album. Unfortunately though, they had a very bad episode of luck and lost of all the recorded data. This forced the band to re-record again the whole full length right, before joining the now super appreciated Punk Is Dead Tour 2006 and gaining the chance to support +44 in their Italian show.

For the first time in Italy, the band launched a video podcast, complete with video episodes uploaded twice a month, regarding band's life, recording sessions and private contents. It is know as Vanilla Sky Television.

Friendship with European and overseas bands grew and Vanilla Sky became an international phenomenon. They received several offers from the biggest companies in the music business, with the band finally signing with the major label, Universal. The major debut's album was release on June 22, 2007.

This 15 track masterpiece entitled "Changes" contains a surprise- three songs in Italian, amid the rest of the album. What's found, is a mix of energic pop punk melted with modern emo and great power pop music. The opening track and first single "Break It Out" is a fresh, catchy song to dance to. The track pushed the band in the main magazines and tv channels of the continental market (i.e.: Rock Sound cover, MTv Italy TRL chart, etc.) allowing the band to promote the record through the video shoot in Las Vegas, USA.

After just a month, the group joined one of the biggest rock festivals in Europe: The Frequency Festival in Salzburg, Austria. It was complete with three days of live music and two stages, a sold out event with 40,000 people. The Roman quartet had the pleasure to perform in front of 12,000 people and share the stage with bands of the caliber of Beatsteaks, The Ark, Tool, Jimmy Eat World, Fall Out Boy, etc.

Towards the end of the summer, Vanilla Sky decided to have some extra fun recording. In their own practice room they recorded a cover of the famous hit "Umbrella" by Rihanna. The entire tune was rearranged with punk colors and rock sounds. A video parody of the same song was shot with a very low budget and is now all over Myspace and YouTube. The song is being played by the majority of large radio stations all over Italy and Europe. Kerrang has dedicated a ring tone to the cover. On YouTube, the video is in 1st place as the most played stream in Brasil and 64th all over the world. Additionally, MTV Pulse asked for and got one week exclusive of the video, with the song joining TRL one week later.

The band keeps touring, promoting the album internationally, and headlining a successfull tour in Austria. They've been receiving live requests for Germany, Switzerland, France, Greece, Spain, Slovenia, Holland, England and Japan.

There's no other group in the European scene with such a background, experience live, and recording that Vanilla Sky has. With two more singles ready to go, Vanilly Sky is becoming the daring leader of Europan alternative music.

by Jessica Meoni for Vanilla Sky

Vincenzo Mario Cristi – Vocals, guitars
Luca Alessandrelli – Drums, vocals
Francesco Sarsano – Bass, vocals
Daniele Brian Autore – Vocals, guitar