Everyone starts a band in high school, plays gigs in the cafeteria and gets friends to listen to their demos in hopes of getting. But those opportunities are few and far between, and most of those bands usually dissolve by graduation. So when a high school band not only survive, but survive through their college years and beyond, you know they mean business.
"I always wanted to be a musician," says Christopher John, co-frontman of Vancouver's, Stabilo. "Back then, I didn't know how realistic it was, but I kinda figured I'd rather be a musician busking on the street than in construction, building greenhouses like I was back then."
"It was either a musician or a bank teller," Jesse Dryfhout, John's other half in the band, chiming in. "No contest."
The pair started working together in high school in 1995 after bonding over their shared love of Dave Matthews. John was drumming in a band called Molly, and once he started singing for the band instead, Dryfhout took a seat behind the drum kit. Dryfhout then started singing and playing guitar on his own, writing a few songs on the side.
"I brought the song 'Everybody' to the band, and they were like, 'Oh, well, we have to get a new drummer for the band now,'" recalls Dryfhout. Since then, fronting duties have been split between Dryfhout and John. Whoever writes it, sings it. The formula has worked ever since.
Eventually, the project morphed into its current concoction. They added drummer Nathan Wylie, the frontmen's mutual childhood friend, and bassist Karl Willaume, a university classmate, to the mix.
"We just couldn't decide on a name," says Dryfhout. "My sister was just like 'Why don't you call yourselves Stabilo?'" after the Stabilo Boss pen they were using to jot down possible band names. They later dropped Boss to make the name easier. "We probably dropped the wrong part," he jokes.
With the huge request and subsequent heavy radio rotation of "Everybody," the little-high-school-band-that-could started turning heads. The band were the only indie act nominated for the Canadian Radio Music Award for best new rock group in 2003. And although they lost to Theory Of A Deadman, they weren't entirely heartbroken.
"That was a little depressing, but life goes on," Dryfhout muses. John adds that they'd already been together for seven years at that point, not even really qualifying as a "new" band. "We're the old band that keeps getting new every year," Dryfhout jokes.
Marcy Playground's John Wozniak took notice of the band, and started helping them in more ways than one.
"Not only did he work on the record [2004's Cupid? EP] with us, but that was when we were just kinda getting started, and we weren't signed yet, and we didn't really know too much about the industry," says John. "He hooked us up with a lawyer, just gave us a lot of advice and helped guide us on our quest to rock stardom... which hasn't happened yet."
But they're working on it.
The band signed to EMI and enlisted the help of Brad Wood, known for his work with the Smashing Pumpkins, Sunny Day Real Estate and Liz Phair, to record their full-length album Happiness & Disaster.
The 13-song venture that is positive, yet melodramatic, happy, but dark, and explores '50s pop, '70s rock and everything in between along the way.
"I think it's very balanced," says Dryfhout, noting that it's a valid representation of the two songwriters and their different styles.
Their sound has come a long way since their high school days. "We're using a lot more instruments, and everyone has become better players, so you write better parts," says Dryfhout. "Not necessarily more intricate, but maybe smarter… and more melodic."
"When we first started out, we were Nirvana/Fugazi wannabes," says John.
"Pretty shitty," Dryfhout interjects.
John continues: "We evolved from grunge to what we are now."
And after all these years, Stabilo are finally being recognized as more than just a high school band. Their single "Flawed Design" made them fair competitors to Nickelback in the Can-radio world and they have opened for INXS on their Canadian tour dates.
"I think we're definitely a slow burning band," says John.
"And that we're ready to explode if nothing else happens," says Dryfhout. "Explode or fade away."