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A little note from Kenny about how and why he started his new band

Greetings listener,
My name is Kenneth Robert Vasoli, I was born on May 20th, 1984 and have lived happily in Horsham, Pennsylvania since that day. From the age of five I had developed a strong fascination and attraction to music. My first memories of appreciating the art were discovered along the three-hour mountainscaped car rides to visit my grandparents in Altoona. My father would ritually score the trip with the likes of Van Morrison and Credence Clearwater Revival. Initially motivated by waiting in the car for my brother to finish his piano lessons, I begged my mother to let me in on the action and so my musical education and exploration began.
After building a foundation from piano over four years, I had also built up a desire for more volume and the ultimate conquest… a rock and roll band! I started to learn bass guitar at the age of nine principally for two reasons; there were only four strings to learn (how hard could that be?), and there was a slim chance I could find another nine year old to fill the position of bass player in my predetermined rock band. After five more years of sifting through local players, drifting between garage bands and middle school talent shows, I had finally found an older group of three fellows that I shared influences (face to face, nofx, get up kids, etc) and a strong musical connection with. Shortly after we had started a band. This band would later come to be known as The Starting Line.
Over the next eight-some years The Starting Line will have signed contracts with four record labels, released three LPs, two EPs, played over 1500 shows touring across four continents, and sold nearly 700,000 records total. Some would say that I had it all making a very comfortable living as an active musician with this band, though this was not exactly the case from my perspective. Over the course of our career I began to feel increasingly pigeonholed by the melodic punk style of music that had earned us our recognition early on. As I grew older I found myself discovering new and interesting artists within an array of various genres that reinstated my excitement and passion for music. I became increasingly absorbed with the sounds of artists such as Drive Like Jehu, Battles, Animal Collective, Jaga Jazzist, James Brown and the all-formidable works of Radiohead. My fascination with these different styles quickly escalated into an obsession of sorts, I HAD to make a change.
In the winter of 2006 I created a music myspace profile under the moniker Person L, a name that had been fixed in my head for quite some time. The meaning behind the name is a combination of the word ‘personnel’ and a partial homage to one of my all-time favorite albums, Radiohead’s “Kid A”. I then began to manifest my overflowing inspirations into actual songs; the first of which I wrote while still on the road with TSL, titled “Storms”. Now I had my vessel for musical escape, I had material and creative vision; the only missing piece of this puzzle was a group of musicians.
At first, I was reluctant to start a band in the traditional sense. I was afraid placing members in permanent instrumental positions would limit the growth and progress of the music. So I approached the project as a collective collaboration that would include any and all musicians who’s style would complement the respective song. I searched for drummers first. My first choice was my long time best friend and jam-buddy, Ryan Zimmaro. When I returned home from tour he laid down a drum track to the acoustic recording of “Storms” and it was an instant fit. I then tracked down Brian Medlin, drummer of local hardcore dynamos, The Minor Times. Brian and I began to write together, right away there was sure-fire chemistry. Within the first day of practice we completed three compositions, “Help Yourself”, “Born in the Rainy Days of May”, and “Wooden Soldiers”.
Subsequent to the completion of six song arrangements between the two drummers, I booked some studio time in December 2006 at Trax East Studio in New Jersey to begin recording an album. I felt confident that I could fill in the other instruments by my own accord at home. This did however extend the length of the process a great deal, being a novice to producing and audio engineering. Over this period the tracklist grew to eight songs with the recutting of select intruments to “Storms” and the addition of the newest song on the record “Sunshine”. I also managed to draft the remaining positions of the band roster: Brian Schmutz on electric piano and second guitar, and Charles Schnieder on bass, both of whom made invaluable contributions to the recordings. In summer 2007 I was able to outsource a pedal steel part for the album opener, “Wooden Soldiers”, by my friend and esteemed colleague Casey Prestwood of Hot Rod Circuit. Nearly two years after inception, once all tracks were in place and mixed by good friend Jon Kaplan, Person L’s debut effort “Initial” would finally be complete. I could not be happier with how it has turned out.
Person L is now my bread and butter. The Starting Line has phased out for the time being and I have been able focus all my attention on making my passion project my full-time occupation. I am not nearly as financially sound as I have been with my former band, but the reward of following my heart is greater than I ever could have imagined! The L currently performs live as often as possible, gearing up for our first nationwide tour supporting Anthony Green. After the unfortunate withdrawal of keybordist Brian Schmutz, our current line up is as follows:

Kenneth Vasoli- Main Guitar and Vocal Ryan Zimmaro- Drums and Percussion Brian Medlin- Drums, Percussion and Backing Vocal Charles Schnieder- Bass and Backing Vocal Nathan Vaeth- Rhodes Piano and Second Guitar
I am presently reformed from my original stance, in the sense that I no longer want to rotate band members for stylistic purposes. These group of fellows are all in it for musical growth as well, so I shall be with them as long as they will with me…and so WE are Person L! Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,

Kenneth Robert Vasoli

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Island On TRL Tomorrow

Tomorrow, for the first time ever The Starting Line will have a video on TRL! Island will be a TRL first look and then will be up for voting for the TRL countdown. Before you scream sell out remember how many years TSL has been out there playing shows and putting out records without being on TRL.

Matt has posted another photo blog from Tour up on reccenter.com. Check it out to see how much fun we are having rocking out on this crazy tour!

Hope your all having a Happy Halloween

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