First Due

First Due was founded in September of 2008 completely by accident. Lead singer Troy Gronas took his guitar to
work to teach himself how to play. A few days’ later co-workers Matt Nowlan and Phil Ott brought their guitars in to
play along. In the days and weeks following they began to get together outside of work to play. Joined by Matt’s girlfriend
Sara Morris who played keyboard. One week after their first jam session yet another guitarist Josh Johnson who
worked with them part time joined in to share in the fun. After Josh’s first session with the group, he called Troy the following
day saying that he had a drummer. The drummer turned out to be long time friend of Troy’s, Jason Belton who
was working at American Township Fire Dept. The next week they all played together for the first time and the magic
began.

The guys (and girl) played together for several weeks with no intention of ever doing anything more than hang
out with good friends and play good music, but friends and family wanted more. After weeks of hounding, they finally
agreed to book a small show for friends and family on a weeknight at a local bar under the name First Due. The name
came from the members all being in Fire and EMS. To their surprise instead of 40 or 50 friends and family members they
brought in over 100 people and rocked the house. Within 48 hrs of the show they had booked 4 more performances including
the Cridersville Fire Jamboree, headlining Friday night with The Danger Brothers headlining Saturdays show.
In the summer of 2009 First Due kicked off their 2009 Smoke Showing Tour which was a huge success and they
continued to pick up the pace. After the official end of the tour, Matt and Sara left the band to plan their wedding. Matt
however has made several “Guest” appearances since then. Josh and his wife had a baby and sadly returned to their home
town in Arizona. Matt was replaced by the high energy and lightning fast fingers of Patric DeFinis. Josh was replaced by
Rick Robinson, nephew of Indoorfins drummer Dave Robinson and Sara was replaced on keys by Steve Nungester who
also plays drum and bass.
2010 has seen a few more upgrades in personnel and equipment. First Due welcomed blues guitarist Tyler Johnson and local legend, bassist, Greg Ryan to our band.

In the summer of 2010 First Due upgraded their sound system from a 4000watt JBL system to a 12000watt JBL Pro Series sound system. With this much power
First Due aims to hit the festival circuit in NorthWest Ohio and it looks to be a promising 2011!
We have seen a drastic increase in the number of shows we have booked in 2010 and by years end we will have
played nearly 40 dates this year. With some rearranging of our schedules and our ever climbing popularity those numbers
look to grow even more in 2011, as we are already starting to book next years schedule. One venue has gone as far as
booking us regularly 15 months in advance.