Years

Singer/songwriter Ron Louque has been in search of that elusive, perfect song since he was 15, when he shared a 6-track recorder and studio space with his father. Disillusioned with the grunge movement in the early 90s, he spent most of his high school days demoing progressive-rock masterpieces that mixed intricate time and chord changes, challenging riffs and thick vocal harmonies inspired by his lifelong love of The Beatles. During the mid-90s, popular music was definitely going through some big changes, with electronic music gaining momentum and artists like Garbage, Bjork, The Verve, and Radiohead coming to the forefront. "I began to change the way I approached songwriting." says Ron, "I suddenly realized that I didn't need a 6 minute song with a million parts to try and capture the mood I was going for. I started focusing on a simpler approach, a more directly emotive approach". And out of this direction, Years was born.

Ron's friend since childhood, Cam Arbogast would spend many of those long hours at the Louque household, laying down drum take after drum take and helping Ron write parts. The two were constantly in search of like-minded musicians but in Orange, VA this was a tall order. Ron and Cam carried on despite the frustration of not having a band and continued to record song after song, while auditioning people whenever the occasion arose.

In 1999, Brian Chenault formed the band Wisher with his long-time college friend Forrest. The two had recently moved back to Virginia after achieving moderate success with the band Bicycle, which was signed to Capricorn Records. Wisher spent the next few years building a fan base around Virginia and surrounding states and released their debut album in 2002, but personnel issues arose and Wisher disbanded in August of 2002. The bassist for Wisher, Brian Temples, was in no mood to sit around and mourn his band or let his bass strings rust and promptly started searching want ads for another project. The first ad he responded to was placed by Ron and Cam, who were going under the name Lure. "We met Brian to give him a disc of tunes to learn and I also asked him what the guitarist for Wisher was up to after the breakup" says Ron. Ron had seen Brian Chenault on guitar with Wisher at the UVA Battle of the Bands (which they won incidentally): "I knew right away seeing him play that he'd be perfect for my band but I didn't have the nerve to go up to him after the show. I saw him at an Indian restaurant later on and didn't have it in me to approach him about playing music then either". Everything in it's own time, right? Brian Temples burned a copy of the Lure demos, Brian fell in love with it, both Brians auditioned, all four guys hit it off and Lure was off and running.

After a handful of shows around Charlottesville, Brian Temples and the band parted ways, and in June of 2003 Lure decided to take a break from gigging and focus on making a record. Over the course of the next 9 months the band wrote and recorded 11 songs at home and their debut record was released in May of 2004 under the new name of Years. Produced, written, and recorded by the band and mixed by Tony Lopacinski (touring guitarist for Train) and Scott Rockenfield, the album is a marriage of the melodicism of The Beatles and Jellyfish, the brooding moments of bands like Coldplay or Kent, and the rock of STP. With new bassist Micah LeMon on board, look for extensive touring from Years in 2004 and beyond.