Kurtis Parks, lead singer and pianist enthuses, “It's a really cool time to be playing... especially indie rock is getting big here in Nashville, so it's cool to be a part of that whole scene.” Kurtis began playing with Josh Kim on lead guitar, while they were attending Virginia Tech. Jordan Metzger, on bass, and Jason Jolly, on drums, joined them later.
Kurtis, the self proclaimed “passionate, goofy guy” who made the top 50 on American Idol in 2005, moved to Nashville soon after with Josh and formed The Season. “The only way we could afford to do it was to live in the same house. We ended up living with Kurt and his wife. I was on one floor on one end of the house, and they were upstairs, completely opposite corner, so we had our space, ” Josh explains.
“That was kind of weird, but it wasn't too bad, as you'd think it would be. The house was actually lined perfectly for it,” says Kurtis.
Josh adds, “I guess it's kind of like a family type of thing. We’ve known each other for so long. Basically we're like brothers. We love and hate each other like brothers. There's more love than hate.”
Josh, is described by Kurtis as, “The more level-headed of the group, he likes to look at the practicality of everything.. He’s also Korean, which spices things up a bit,” he says, laughing. He was also mp3.com’s most downloaded artist in the classical symphonies category.
Jordan, Kurtis says, “is the kid of the group, “He likes to read a lot, do a lot of studies, but he also likes to do video games all the time.”
Jason, the elder statesman of the group is “an 80's kid, so he's always got a Saint Elmo's Fire going or the 80's station on. He's pretty funny, everyday you're going to get something different from Jason. He's crazy.”
Jason has his own explanation of crazy, “The first show I ever played with these guys after I moved here, and we had rehearsed for about a week. I had to learn about fourteen or so songs. I was a little nervous, just because it was all new material to me and I hadn't really had a lot of time. The first show we played was an outdoor gig. It was kind of a festival thing going on in Bristol , Tennessee . I don't know exactly what happened, I just saw a drunk man in the street, to my left, and then, all of a sudden, these cops rushed him and tackled him. Threw him down in the middle of the street. Kind of made like a huge ordeal. It distracted everybody, especially us.” Drunken spectators play a part in too many of the bands’ gigs, “We've run into quite a few... there's always some drunk girl that wants to take the mike and sing some song on karaoke, who doesn’t realize there’s actually a band up there and it’s not karaoke night. It’s funny, but it gets old!”
The band has a serious side, which came to light during the tragedy at Virginia Tech on April 16th, 2007 when thirty-two students were killed. “Josh and I wrote a song together, since we were Virginia Tech alumni, we felt connected to the student body there, and wrote a song called Forever Changed.” The song was featured on CNN and the Fox early show. It got close to 100,000 plays on myspace and was being played on Top 40 radio stations across the country. When the band went back to perform it at their alma mater for a benefit, they were all touched by the emotional acceptance of the song, “The song had been out maybe a week and the place was packed, full along the wall, and all the students were singing the song. It's definitely a lot different than our normal stuff just because of the content it was written in, just for the moment that the song was written for. People from all over the world were hearing about the song. That's the biggest thing we've ever been associated with.”
While the band describes their music as “cutting edge, we do a lot of electronic sounds in the music, our electric guitar sounds aren't very traditional. We try to stay ahead of the curve, but, also, to have really catchy melodies and lyrics that everyone can relate to,” they also have a deeper side to them, “A lot of our songs have kind of spiritual undertones. All four of us are strong believing Christian guys, but we want to come across as accessible to everybody, despite what your religion is.. A lot of the songs just deal with topics of life that everybody goes through and just know that there's always a bigger plan and not just living in the moment, but trying to see life from a grand scale, you know?” says Kurtis, “Of course, I think every song writer would be lying if they didn't say they wrote about love, obviously, being guys, we love our girls,” says Kurtis, “there's a saying that Paul McCartney has, and he's probably my favorite song writer, he said, somebody asked him why do you write so many love songs and he said 'Well, if you can find a better subject, let me know.'”
| written by Debbie DuBois Miller
