About New Years Day
New Years Day is an American rock band formed in Anaheim, California, in 2005. After building a reputation strictly through promotion on the social networking website MySpace, the band released its debut self-titled EP in 2006 and their first full-length album My Dear in 2007. Six years after their initial debut, Victim to Villain was finally released, followed by Malevolence in 2015. Malevolence peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest charting thus far.
New Years Day formed in 2005, after bassist Adam Lohrbach left the band Home Grown. Lohrbach carried over the many emotional elements present in Home Grown's final 2004 EP When It All Comes Down and cultivated it into new material for New Years Day. Meeting with lead vocalist Ashley "Ash" Costello and guitarist/keyboardist Keith Drover, the three friends wrote and rehearsed songs about their difficult and emotional relationship break-ups. Soon after, the group produced a two-song demo and invited a mutual friend of the group, Eric Seilo, to play bass during their 2005 tours. Ultimately, Seilo left New Years Day at the end of 2005 to pursue higher education. After acquiring former Wakefield guitarist Mike Schoolden and drummer Russell Dixon, the group decided to call themselves New Years Day.
The band built a surprisingly strong online presence through showcasing, promotion and posting songs on MySpace. New Years Day was featured on the MySpace Records, Volume 1 compilation CD and on the video game soundtrack for Saints Row. After considering an offer from Pete Wentz's Decaydance Records label, the band decided to sign with TVT Records instead and released their first self-titled EP in 2006. Originally referred to as Razor, the EP was primarily marketed as a digital release accessible through downloading services, although CD hard copies were also sold to fans at live shows. New Years Day performed at the South by Southwest music festival the following year.
By May 8, 2007, New Years Day released its debut album My Dear, which was self-financed, self-produced and recorded over an eight-month period by friend and producer Eugene Perreras. The album included collaborations with members of Reel Big Fish and Motion City Soundtrack. During this period of time, the band toured with fellow artists, The Fall of Troy, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Ozma and Hawthorne Heights. Guitarist Keith Drover left the band shortly after touring to move to Sweden. The band debuted the music video for the lead single "I Was Right", directed by Shane Drake. Notably, the video won the MTVU "Freshman Face" poll and was added to the channel's ongoing playlist.
In 2008, TVT went bankrupt and was forced to sell its recording assets to The Orchard. Consequently, My Dear lacked the proper promotion required to succeed and Schoolden and Lohrbach both left the band shortly thereafter. Despite the small setbacks, the remaining members continued writing new material. Around September 2009, New Years Day posted two brand new songs on MySpace. When asked about the upcoming EP, Costello remarked, "The EP is in its demo phase right now and we are still writing for it and recording it at the same time. The EP should be out in the spring of 2010."
On March 12, 2010, Alternative Press announced that New Years Day would be joining the 2010 Vans Warped Tour. On July 2, 2010, the band released its Japanese debut album, Headlines & Headstones under Spinning Inc. Headlines & Headstones included music from New Years Day, My Dear, new songs from their upcoming sophomore U.S. album and even a cover of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance.
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