Crossfade Artistfacts

1999-present
Ed SloanVocals, guitar1999-present
Mitch JamesBass, vocals1999-present
Les HallGuitar, keyboard, vocals2006-present
Brian GeigerDrums1999-2004
Tony ByroadsTurntable, vocals1999-2005
James BranhamDrums2004-2008
Will HuntsDrums, percussion2009-2010
Mark CastilloDrums, percussion2010-2012
Crossfade formed in 1999 in Columbia, South Carolina. The band went through several names, including The Nothing and Sugardady Superstar, before deciding on Crossfade in 2002.
Crossfade released their self-titled debut album on April 13th, 2004 through Columbia Records. The profanities on the album are censored, but the band did not release an explicit version due to lack of funds.
In 2006, Crossfade released their second album, Falling Away. This record has shifted just over 200,000 copies to date - small in comparison to the band's platinum-selling debut. Poor sales lead to Columbia Records dropping Crossfade in 2008.
Front man, Ed Sloan, told Noisecreep how he struggled to get himself together after Crossfade were dropped by Columbia Records: "I remember the day the tour bus drove away and I was just sitting there and thinking to myself, 'I don't even have a place to live.' I mean, I had my studio and my cat, but that was it [laughs]. I had to get my life together and that was really hard for me to do." During this time, Sloan told Songfacts how he slipped into a depression and stopped writing music altogether: "I didn't know what we were going to do. So for like a year I didn't use music as my outlet. I just kind of stayed by myself and loathed my own misery. And that was the only year of my life that I've never written any music or listened to any music. I turned into something that I never knew I had the capacity to become." Sloan told Al.com that it was Crossfade's guitarist, Les Hall, who pulled him out of his depression: "Les came in, took me by the bootstraps and helped me to step forward. After a year of me self-medicating, he just said, 'We're going to write about this and make a third album,' which forced some of these songs that talk about the dark side of life."
After Ed Sloan recovered from his depression, Crossfade began work on their third album, We All Bleed. Sloan told us: "It took us three years to write the record, so we didn't have any timeline, we didn't have a label breathing down our backs…We took three years to write a record instead of 6 months, like most bands have to." After singing with Eleven Seven Music, Crossfade released We All Bleed on June 21, 2011. Sloan told us the album marks the band starting anew: "I already feel like we're just starting out again, we're starting out not at the bottom, because we've been a successful band before and I know we will be a very successful band coming here again soon. But we've got to work hard at it again, and it feels good to work hard at it again. So a lot of good things musically, career-wise and lyrically have come out of something that at first seemed devastating, to say the least."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

Louie LouieThe Kingsmen

"Louie Louie" was first recorded in 1955 by an R&B singer named Richard Berry, and his lyrics are easy to understand. When The Kingsmen recorded the hit version, their lyrics were indecipherable.

All Around The WorldLisa Stansfield

"All Around The World" by Lisa Stansfield has a sultry spoken intro inspired by Barry White. He was honored by the homage, and in 1992 joined Stansfield to record a duet version of the song.

Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)Edison Lighthouse

The love is growing in the '70s hit "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" because rosemary is the name of an herb.

Bangla DeshGeorge Harrison

George Harrison's 1971 song "Bangla Desh" was the first major charity single. It was part of a concert held to bring relief to the people of Bangladesh, who were fighting for independence and suffering from a famine.