Wakefield's "Which Side Are You On?" is the sound of a band maturing, fast. Where some bands go on tour, this one went to school. Between hearing the Beatles inspired "C'mon Baby," which changes time signatures between the chorus and verses but still manages to be as hooky as a tackle box, or the smart riffs and layered harmonies of "Quietly Complaining," you'd be forgiven for wondering if this really is the same band that debuted with the buoyant pop-punk of American Made not long ago, in 2003.
Ryan Escolopio and J.D Tennyson, the band's singer and lead guitarist, first teamed up as high school freshman with the addition of Ryan's brother Aaron, former Good Charlotte drummer, and cousin Mike Schoolden on bass. After years of playing in cover bands and booking their own tours, they had a serious talk to discuss their goals.
The foursome eventually found their way to Arista, releasing American Made. But when an opportunity to start fresh presented itself, says JD, they were ready for a change: "We scratched what we knew and started over with everything. It just felt right for us." Wakefield now has a home at Jive Records
The evidence of Wakefield's medical journal-worthy growth spurt is 2005's Which Side Are You On? ." "C'mon Baby" takes a page from Sgt. Peppers' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and features the aforementioned time-signature shift: "The verse is somewhere around 142 bpm," Ryan says, "and the chorus maneuvers to completely different tempo - it was kind of a 'Let's see if we can do this' type thing." The song also drags 30 year-old power pop conventions into the 21st Century by dropping a jabbering rap in the middle.
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