Music
Press
“Chance, Chris & Dusty, just may be one of the coolest rock groups to come out of the Midwest in decades! They are talented beyond their years, engaging and very cool to work with in the studio.”
“AGATHY ROCKS!”
- Larry Brockway - Producer
“‘You Must Go,’ the song for which Agathy’s first music video is being completed, contains a catchy guitar riff that’s easy to imagine engrained in the minds of those masses the band’s members seek. In the right promotional hands, it seems Agathy could be on radio stations, or iPods, everywhere.” - Bruce Symes - Iola Register Reporter
“They (Agathy) trust their talents to take them far in the music industry, carried by a unique style of rock ’n’ roll marrying classic guitar and cutting-edge vocals.
Fun-to-watch entertainment. Simple-to-spot dreams. Impossible-to-avoid energy.”
- Bruce Symes - Iola Register Reporter
"Working with Agathy has redefined our collaborative experience. They are the must see band in Kansas" - SEK Magazine
Written by Eric Sonnakolb
Thursday, 31 January 2008
The Iola based rock band Agathy have been together since 2000 and are on the verge of taking their band to the next level.
"We have written over eighty songs throughout the years," said lead singer and guitar player Chance Luttrell. "So we are going to record a bunch of old stuff first then start on the new. We are real excited about the new material though because it’s a lot different than what we’ve been playing for the past seven years and that’s very exciting for us."
The band recently finished putting together their own recording studio and are working on putting together a new record.
"Right now, future plans are to get a lot of recording done," Luttrell said. "After that promote, promote, promote and get that music heard. We just want to have fun. We don’t want to get to caught up in ‘ten years from now.’"
Now as the bad continues to build their fan base and their catalogue of music, Agathy is keeping their goals reasonable.
"As artists we just want to be able to make a living writing and playing music," Luttrell said. "Not be rich and famous, but just to be able to pay the bills without having another job. We want to enjoy ourselves and have our music heard and appreciated."
While trends come again, Agathy prefers to do their own thing. With a mix of classic rock and a slight edge; Luttrell, bass player Chris Maddox and drummer Dustin Barker simply make music they enjoy playing.
"We don’t play the styles of music that are mainstream right now," Luttrell said. "We try to do our own thing and just have good songs."
Since first forming, Agathy has progressed into a tight unit.
"I think we’ve been able to stay together so long because we were all friends, graduated high school together, are the same age and we are more than just a band," Luttrell said. "I think you have to be like that to get through everything and last."
Luttrell’s father played guitar and got him started playing guitar in middle school.
"I asked Chris to come over and showed him a few things and he started playing bass," Luttrell said. "Chris heard Dusty played drums so he invited him over to jam and it’s been the three of us ever since."
"We’ve definitely grown as artist over the years," Luttrell said. "Becoming more interested in the business side of things by starting the label Pure Rock Records and just wanting to write better songs. It feels to us that each song we write is better than the last."
The band spent their first few years writing songs and playing few live shows.
"Our hometown of Iola has affected our music because it’s a small town of six thousand, where there was no place to play live," Luttrell said. "So we actually spent our first three or four years just writing songs and playing in Chance’s parents spare bedroom."
The band’s released a self titled EP in 2006 and it is a available the band’s Web site at http://www.agathy.com.
"Our Self-Titled EP was a cool experience. It started out by us going to talk to long-time producer Larry Brockway about recording an album with him. But after he heard our material he wanted to record just a few songs and send them to a connection he had. The connection was Gerd Muller, former A&R at EMI who had signed the Red Hot Chili Peppers and works with Queen, Abba, and many other bands. So we recorded the 5 songs and sent them to Gerd who liked them so much he decided to shop it to some major labels. So that was a big milestone for us having someone with that history like our songs enough to put his name on it."
Although the band has had some moderate success, the members of Agathy remain humble.
"We learned a long time ago not to have high expectations," Luttrell said. "No expectations, no disappointments. So we not sitting around waiting for some big record deal, we’re just doing what we want to do, and doing it our way."
Agathy will perform with Emporia’s Dead Idols and Take The Forgotten at the Wagon Wheel, 2909 W. 9th Ave. on Saturday at 10 p.m. - The Bulletin
Discography
Self Titled EP - 2006
The Room EP - 2005
Pure Rock and Roll Demo - 2004
Photos
Bio
At a time when there is nothing new in rock music Agathy has set themselves apart by being different. Some say they aren�t any style, others say they�re every style, and they say they�re straight forward rock and roll with no gimmicks. Their blend of classic guitar sounds reminiscent of The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and The Who with a more grunge vocal and youthful attitude has made an original sound unlike anyone else around. Formed in 2000 the band still had three years of high school left and being from a small town in southeast Kansas with no music scene their time was spent writing and rehearsing. This went on for over three years until the band was able to cut their first studio demo in 2004. The band won �Best Elevator Song in Rock� on garageband.com for the song �Never� off the 2004 demo and later that year broke the top 200 on garageband.com�s independent music charts with the basement recording of �Runnin� Along.� In 2005 the band released a self recorded EP �The Room� and began working with a national booking agency playing several shows throughout the Midwest. They were also able to share the stage with Grammy nominated pop punkers Bowling for Soup. Late in 2005 the band slipped there demo to long time producer Larry Brockway who, impressed by the bands songs, would go on to produce their next CD. With Larry�s connections the band was able to get their newly recorded songs to Gerd Muller, former A&R for EMI. Gerd was also impressed by the bands songs and agreed to send it to some of his contacts to create some industry awareness. These songs were released in June 2006 as a self titled EP which outsold their first EP in only two and a half months. To date the band has written over 60 original songs and is playing as many shows as possible, building their growing fan base as they go. In the fall of 2006 they completed three successful tours taking them to Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Colorado. In December 2006 Agathy shot a music video for they�re song �You Must Go� with SEK Magazine which was released in February 2007. Agathy spent most of 2007 playing local shows and writing new songs and in early 2008 they went in to the studio to record.
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