THE MAKING OF "HAYWIRE"
The fog hugging the stage is thick, the sound of a droning synthesizer fades in, and State of Being lead vocalist Christopher Foldi emerges -- drawing comparisons to a young Peter Murphy. A moment later, the band kicks in rocking like Smashing Pumpkins. The song is "Haywire," the title track from the new CD, and it sounds effortless -- but it wasn't easy to get to this point...
State of Being founder Christopher Foldi nearly disbanded the group in 2000. Between struggling to complete the previously released CD "Implosion" and the untimely departure of the band's drummer, the band's future was uncertain. Christopher elaborates, "We were going through a lot of frustrating changes: We spent months struggling to get arrangements together. Our drummer and bass player weren't getting along... It was like the band was going through adolescence."
As a diversion, Christopher concentrated on songs for possible future projects. Despite a tone of abandonment in these songs ("I Could end it all, I Could make it fall."), some of them would ultimately make their way back to SOB. The introverted "This Thing" and the up-tempo yet melancholy "Take Me Away" came from those songwriting sessions. In 2002, "Implosion" was finally released to mixed reviews. However the dark-rock bible Outburn Magazine gave it a 5-out-of-5 and praised it as "the band's best work yet." The CD was rounded out with a cool version of the track "Instinct" remixed by Andy Kubiszewski (Stabbing Westward, The The). Shortly thereafter, Kubiszewski suggested producing the band's next disc.
A year later when Kubiszewski joined the band Prick playing drums, Christopher found himself working as part of the crew. Inspired by the efficiency of working with Kubiszewski and the Prick line-up, Christopher resumed song writing with the help of long-time bandmates Shara Foldi (keyboards), Scott Foldi (guitar), and Rayanne Turek (bass guitar). Shara penned the lyrics to "Whitespace" during a return flight from a vacation, given the time to realize "what's important before it's in the past." The band compiled thirty songs, including ten Christopher had set aside for possible future projects, and sent them to Kubiszewski for feedback.
"Different approaches were tried for each song until we decided on the best one," Christopher elaborates. "I cut vocals with Andy for weeks on end until they were perfect... evenings, weekends, and even on lunch breaks from work. It seemed relentless at times, but through Andy's constant motivation, the band reached a whole new level of maturity." The title song "Haywire" (inspired by recent trends in chaos such as high school shootings, terrorism, and violent video games) and the soul-searching "Levity" came out of those first sessions, and were instant favorites of the band.
After recording seven tracks, Andy told the band to "go write some more songs," so they came back with seven more new demos. Of those they recorded three, including the infectious track "Overload," written as a rant about phone and email solicitors. "End of the World", a collaboration with Kubiszewski, answers some of the questions raised in "Haywire" with another question: "Would it be the end of the world if we could all agree?"
State of Being rounded out their line-up with Randy Blaire (formerly of the Chicago-based band Urn), whom they had met years ago when Randy played with Cleveland's, Queue Up. With their new drummer in place, the band set about writing three more songs that reflected the band's talent and captured their essence. "Losing It," "Beneath the Skin," and "Wondering" (with Shara on vocals) were all recorded, and the new CD was complete.
The band has been debuting the new material live to a most favorable response, and continues to headline regional nightclubs and colleges. A single featuring the tracks "Levity" and "Overload" has already garnered significant airplay from stations including WMMS, WBWC, WJCU, WOBC, and WDUBradio.com. The full-length "Haywire" CD will be released on June 19, 2004.