FREERIDER: HOW IT ALL BEGAN

So you may be wondering, how did FREERIDER come to be? According to The Rocker's words, this is the FREERIDER's beginnings.

"Some say there was a big explosion, the big bang theory. Some say that we evolved from monkeys. Neither theory is true. We actually came from Dunkin Donuts. It started like this. Todd was hanging flyers to promote a gig that was coming up in a small suburb in Massachusetts. I have to say that he seemed a bit lost, too. Who goes around hanging flyers for a 21+ gig in the burbs. It's all parents and children and high school football games and high school kids who have never been outside the town limits. I went into Dunkin Donuts that day for my usual "wicked huge" coffee before work at my guitar lesson teaching job in Chelmsford, MA.  Pretty much the suburbs still, but a music store is a plus. So anyways, I ran into Todd hanging flyers and I thought I'd help the guy out so I told him I'd hang some around the store if he wanted or I could direct him there if that was better. He said he wanted to check it out so I told him how to get there and I went on my way.  A few days later, I got a call from Todd who said he wasn't happy with his current guitar player and they were auditioning guitarists. So I bragged a little about Berklee this, chops that, songwriting blah blah blah, and I got an audition date out of the conversation. So we got together in Nashua, N.H. a couple miles over the Pepperell line. The drummer Jeremy, had a four track set up with a couple mics running into it and we jammed. I was right out of Berklee and definitely had the whole shred thing going on and I didn't really hold back in the audition. I think I might have scared them a little but I still had that "more is more" attitude and melted their faces. They let me go at the time. I think they felt my whole chops thing was a little too much for the band. A week later though, I got another call from Todd and it turned out that I got the gig. The band was called Mere Mortals at the time, which was a band name I really liked. It implies both modesty and a larger than life quality at the same time which I think is cool. "

FREERIDER , when they were Mere Mortals  at the WCGY radio station back in 1995 ( From left to right: Steve "THE ROCKER" Coyne, Todd Erickson, and Jeremy Waybright)

But how come Mere Mortals changed into FREERIDER?

"With Mere Mortals, we were playing playing a lot of gigs around Massachusetts and New Hampshire. We produced and recorded all our songs including the "soon to be hit song", I've Got a Nickel under the name Mere Mortals along with 11 more tracks, combining rock, and metal styles from the 70s through the 90s. However, at that time, we received a letter from a band with the same band name, Mere Mortals. Their attorney sent us a cease and desist order strongly urging us to stop using their band name, so we kept using the name Mere Mortals for a while longer on principle. Eventually we realized that the band wasn't really the name so much as it was the sound and the collaboration of its member, so we changed it to FREERIDER. The name FREERIDER is actually based on a character that we developed in the song "No Ride Denied" while the band was called Mere Mortals.  At this time, our album was almost complete and we titled it " No Ride Denied" to futher develop the character in the song of the same name. However, before we could release the album, we ran out of funds. In the mid 90's, we had played all over Boston and we felt that we had worn out our list of contacts and maybe it was time to take care of some other parts of our lives. Todd had been married for a while at that point and decided to start a family. Jeremy owned his own studio and decided to do some business as an engineer; and I had three years under my belt at Berklee College of Music, so I decided to go back to school, get my degree and my teaching credentials. At that point, nobody really considered getting back until Todd saw my profile at MySpace early this year. Also, while wandering around the possibilities at MySpace, Todd uploaded our songs from the No Ride Denied album on MySpace. His contacts love it, and from then on, it got raves and attention and until Todd submitted it to the 16th Billboard Songwriting Contest, which came out in the Top 100 worldwide.  From then on, we later realized, we've got to get back to business."

With business in mind, and a keen passion to deliver music that people will really love,FREERIDER is rolling up their sleeves to give the listeners and fans exactly what they want. Now , with the Rock Band 2 launching soon, they are now on their way to rock on onscreen.

Comments

[twitter.com/FREERIDERrock]

Thank you.

As I read this sitting in South Portland Maine with my cup of Dunkin' Donuts 16 years after meeting Jeremy, I can't believe the journey we've been on.

It's just the beginning...