About The Chemistry

The Chemistry’s journey began in the Southern California town of Temecula with Justin and Jared, who’d been playing in bands together since they were 13. Not long after high school, Jared branched out and began managing bands as well. He was contacted by a concert promoter in Boise, Idaho, who wanted to put one of Jared’s management clients on a compilation he was releasing. The promoter was Thomas Scriven. "I kept in contact with him after that because he was really good at what he did," Jared says. "I thought he was a good guy and I knew he was going somewhere." When Thomas asked Jared if he’d come up to Boise for a while to help him with his label, Jared did not hesitate.

After Jared’s return to Temecula, Justin recalls, Jared reached out to him and said: "Let’s start something and really make it happen." After auditioning "tons of people" to join them, they recruited Danny Mitchell to front the band,  Thommy Hamilton on rhythm  guitar and Thomas Scriven, on lead guitar.

"When I first played with the band, I absolutely loved the music – I got hooked on it right away," says rhythm guitarist Tommy Hamilton. "It was pretty aggressive but it was beautiful … intricate … I just wanted to be part of it."

"We did start out with almost a hardcore edge," attests Justin, "but as we matured as songwriters and as people we realized that the songs that really moved us didn’t sound like that. When we backed off a little bit, that’s when the music began to breathe."

The Chemistry released their self-titled debut album October 29, 2007.

The song "Jones" captures in a concrete way Danny’s feelings of doubt and anxiety, the ever-present questioning if the road we’re on is the right one. "We really wanted to get signed," he recalls, "but when it became an actual possibility, we started wondering, what’s going to happen? Is this going to work out the way we want it to? We had to begin this process of letting go of some things, not compromising the music but acknowledging the sacrifices we were gonna have to make. Ultimately, this whole album is about pushing through uncertainty in all aspects of your life and sacrificing to achieve a goal. It’s about the process, the trials you go through, the different places you get stuck on the journey to your goal."

"Still Alive" is about being "true to your heart," Danny says, and in this case, true to the music. "There are all these pressures and conflicting advice about how you should sound and what your style should be and what kind of band you are." Says Jared: "Our songs are so diverse; our writing isn’t confined to a specific genre." Tommy ventures: "It’s easier to say what we’re not than what we are." "So," Danny continues, "we have to constantly protect the truth and meaning of what we’re doing – whatever it is – and not try to please anyone but ourselves."

"There’s a warmth and a light – it’s positive; we make music that helps you get through the day," says Thomas Scriven, lead guitarist for The Chemistry. Of course, that music also happens to charge out of the speakers with an insistence easily as motivational as the countless cups of coffee that help most of us through the day.