NEW
YORK (Columbia Records) - This time last year,
Crossfade was best known
as a rock band from South Carolina. Now, one year, seven hundred
thousand album sales, two smash hit songs, 300 live shows, and ten
national TV appearances later, No 45 on the best selling albums chart,
they are the artist development story of the year!
"I was
completely blown away," says
Crossfade lead singer/guitarist Ed Sloan
of the phenomenal success of the band's first single "Cold." "We didn't
even hear it as a single at first, and now to keep hitting all these
milestones, it's amazing us."
One of those milestones for the
year's #1 most played rock song is charting for a record breaking 65
weeks in the top 10 on active rock radio, beating Three Day's Grace's
"(I Hate)
Everything About You." The airplay has carried the band's
self-titled debut album, released in April, 2004, to what is now
nearing platinum status.
"People say they rarely come across a
song they feel is talking about them, that they can take and mold it to
fit their life," says Sloan, trying to explain the lasting appeal of
"Cold." "We hang out after every show and every night I get at least
five stories � "Cold" made couples get back together, or one guy who
said he wrote in his will he wanted "Cold" played at his funeral. I get
all sorts of stories about the impact "Cold" has had. I don't know if
any song we do can ever be as monstrous as that one."
Yet the
year since Crossfade's debut was released has been a year of wonderful
surprises and steadily increasing momentum. Last month saw the release
of their popular debut as a Dual Disc that features live footage, a
lengthy and candid personal interview with the band as well as the
video for "Cold." The group is now releasing its third single "
Colors"
to follow "So Far Away."
"We had a hard time deciding whether
'So Far Away' or 'Colors' was going to be the second single," says
Sloan. "We decided to give them a taste of our heavier side before
getting back to the melodic side with 'Colors.' 'So Far Away' is
heavier and more angst-ridden but people who give us their opinions
tell us 'Colors' is their favourite song even above "'Cold.'"
Crossfade
hasn't had a free moment since leaving its home base to hit the road in
early 2004. The band � which also includes bassist Mitch James, drummer
James Branham and vocalist/turntablist/sampler Tony Byroads � started
touring, opening for
Smile Empty Soul,
Shinedown and Alter Bridge,
co-headlining the SnoCore Tour with Helmet and Chevelle, as well as
doing a series of radio festivals. Now the band is out on its first
headlining tour, selling out the 400-1500 capacity venues it played
last fall opening for other bands. They will co-headline with Seether
as the summer rolls on. See upcoming dates below.
"Now, every
kid there is singing along with every song, not just 'Cold'," says
Sloan. "It amazes me because we've worked for so long to get a song on
the radio. And they're not just singing along, but singing with
passion. To see the looks on their faces- some of them are even crying!"
Crossfade
inked its Columbia deal in 2003, after spending most of the previous
year holed up in Sloan's garage home studio, writing, recording and
producing what would become its debut release with few changes, other
than some post-production work by noted engineer/producer Randy Staub
(Metallica, P.O.D., Three
Doors Down).
"I wrote about 50 songs
and with these 10, we made a CD"
Sloan said. "We knew we were onto
something and we were just going to keep going with it. We had 2000 CDs
pressed and released it locally in October 2002. We set up all these
shows and were going to start promoting it when on October 10, Columbia
Records called and flew us up to showcase and wanted to sign us. We had
a grand plan but ten days later, Columbia Records changed all that."
Indeed they did.
Tour Dates
MAY
Headline Tour continues (No Address &April Sixth support)
Mon 5/2 Springfield, MO Rockwell
Tues 5/3 Lincoln, NE Royal Grove
Wed 5/4 Minneapolis, MN Quest Club
Thurs 5/5 Chicago, IL House of Blues
Fri 5/6 Louisville, KY Jillian's Pavilion
Sat 5/7 Traverse City, MI Streeters
Mon 5/9 Struthers, OH The Cellar
Wed 5/11 Ft. Wayne, IN Piere's
Thur 5/12 South Bend, IN Heartland
Fri 5/13 Detroit, MI Harpo's
Sat 5/14 Treasure Island, FL St Petersburg Pier
Mon 5/16 Columbus, OH Newport
Music Hall
Tues 5/17 Cincinnati, OH Bogart's
Thur 5/19 Cleveland, OH The Odeon
Fri 5/20 Philadelphia, PA The Trocadero
Sat 5/21 Worcester, MA The Palladium
Sun 5/22 New Haven, CT Toad's Place
Tues 5/24 Sayreville, NJ Starland Ballroom
Wed 5/25 Towson, MD Recher Theatre
Thur 5/26 Charlotte, NC Fastlane Speedstreet Festival
Fri 5/27 Asheville, NC
Orange Peel
Sat 5/28 Noblesville, IN Verizon Wireless (w/ 3
Doors Down,
Shinedown)
Sun 5/29 Flint, MI Machine Shop
JUNE
w/ Seether
Thur 6/2 Norfolk, VA Norva Theatre
Fri 6/3 Winston-Salem, NC Ziggy's
Music Park
Sat 6/4 N. Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues
Mon 6/6 Lake Buena Vista, FL House of Blues
Tues 6/7 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Revolution
Sat 6/11 Kansas City, MO
Liberty Memorial Park
Fri 6/17 Des Moines, IA Val Air Ballroom
Sat 6/18 Sauget, IL Pop's
JULY
Fri 7/1 Milwaukee, WI Milwaukee Summerfest
Sat 7/2 Muskegon, MI Muskegon Summer Celebration
Thur 7/14 Nashville, TN Dancin' In The District
Fri 7/15 Lansing, MI Adado Riverfront Park
AUGUST
Mon 8/1 Springfield, MO Ozark
Empire Fairgrounds
Thur 8/11 Sioux Falls, SD Sioux
Empire Fair
Sat 8/13 Billings, MT Montana Fair
Sat 8/20 Lousiville, KY Kentucky
State Fair
SEPTEMBER
Sat 9/24 Oklahoma City, OK Oklahoma
State Fair
