Rival Sons is an American rock band from Long Beach, California. Formed in 2009, they have released five albums and one EP. They originate from the remnants of a previous band of guitarist Scott Holiday.[1] The band is known for extensive touring and their notable album release Pressure & Time. They are signed to Low Country Sound an imprint of Elektra run by Dave Cobb.[2][3]

Contents 1 Early history 2 Career 2009-2012 3 Career 2012-present 4 Creative process 5 Band members 5.1 Current members 5.2 Former members 5.3 Touring members 5.4 Timeline 6 Discography 6.1 Studio albums 6.2 EPs 6.3 Singles 7 References 8 External links Early history

Formation & early years 2004-2009

All current members originate from Long Beach. Prior to the formation of Rival Sons, Jay Buchanan recorded as a solo artist. He independently released All Understood in 2004 and True Love EP in 2006. Around this time, Scott Holiday was in the band Human Lab which he subsequently left.

In 2005, Holiday founded the band Black Summer Crush. In this band, Holiday was joined by Thomas Flowers of the band Oleander, J. Harley Gilmore, Weylon Krieger of Ashes II Ashes as well as Blu Cantrell who later left.

In mid 2006 Gilmore was replaced by Michael Miley, a professional studio musician and drummer. Miley had previously been in Veruca Salt and the Carson Daly TV show band.

In 2006 Holiday and Buchanan while searching on MySpace, met each other. In addition, Michael Miley had previously worked with Jay on projects. This led to their eventual formation.

Rival Sons was the first rock band Jay had performed with so he initially was skeptical and made it a side project.

Yet Jay was impressed by the reaction and success the new band received with their debut self-released album Before the Fire (2009) and committed full-time. Jack Rivera of the Huffington Post declared them “A rock band to watch.” in November, 2009.[4] The band, following up with this new found acclaim, then was invited to perform as a supporting act for AC/DC, Alice Cooper and Kid Rock shows.[5] During this time, Rival Sons also performed on the race track during a televised show of The Indianapolis 500.[6]

Career 2009-2012

Pressure & Time album 2009-2012

After the successful release of Before the Fire, the band recorded a self-titled EP (independently released) in 2010, which caught the attention of Earache Records founder Digby Pearson and the band was subsequently offered a record deal in November, 2010. This signing immediately lead to the band recording their notable album Pressure & Time on the Earache label in early 2011.

Their self-titled EP was re-released digitally by Earache Records in February, 2011, from which their debut European single, “Torture” was taken.[7]

In March, 2011 a string of shows at Canadian Music Week, SXSW and the House of Blues were announced.[8]

Rival Sons played at the Gene Simmons' “Aces & Angels” Super Bowl party February 2, 2011[9] before making their European debut appearance at Camden Barfly on February 12, 2011 for the HMV Next Big Thing. The band Vintage Trouble supported their act and the show sold out in advance,[10] which started a nearly unbroken string of European sell-out shows.[11]

Rival Sons released their second LP album in June, 2011 called Pressure & Time, which reached number one on Amazon's Hard Rock best sellers and nineteen on the Billboard Hot 100.[12][13]

Storm Thorgerson who had worked with bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Genesis, created the cover art for the album voluntarily.[14][15] Storm liked Rival Sons, saying about the cover art;

"I don't think you can be certain what's going on here. To me it's a picture about fear or concern. Here's someone about to descend and doesn't know what they'll face, or where this might lead. So, in his mind he's imagining the action. That's what you see, into his mind, as he focuses on what's about to happen.

When he gets to the bottom of the stairs, where does he go? Turn left, right or straight ahead, anything's possible. And I hope this cover will have fans of the band intrigued for a long while. To me, the cover should be part of the album, and not just packaging.”

- Storm Thorgerson (2011)

Rival Sons played a string of Canadian dates in May 2011, as well as SXSW, Hangout festival and The Viper Room, before returning to Europe to play a series of European festivals such as Azkena, Sonisphere, Rock Werchter, Main Square, Putte Parken, and Bospop in July 2011. Then the band joined Judas Priest, Queensrÿche and Lady Starlight on tour in the UK.[16]

Rival Sons track “Torture”, was featured in the movie Real Steel in October 2011[17] and the band supported Evanescence by personal request of Amy Lee in the USA in October, 2011, who they would play with again in January, 2012.[18] While Rival Sons continued to extensively tour, in 2012 they were featured on the Harald Schmidt Show as well as playing an acoustic set at the annual Classic Rock awards located at the Roundhouse in London. They were also voted ‘Best New Band’ by listeners of Planet Rock Radio. In mid 2012, Pressure & Time was voted number two album of the year and the band named “Breakthrough Artist of the Year” by Classic Rock Magazine.[19]

Career 2012-present

Later career 2012–present

In February 2012 the band went into Honey Pye studios in Nashville, Tennessee for twenty days to record their third full-length LP album Head Down with Dave Cobb and this time award-winning engineer Vance Powell (Jack White, The Raconteurs).[20]

During this time, the album Pressure & Time was reissued as a deluxe edition from which the last single “Face of Light” was taken. A video for the single was filmed in the UK’s peak district.[21] The band then embarked on US and Canadian shows including Rock on the Range and Big Music Fest before a string of European summer festivals including Rock Am Ring, Sweden Rock, Ruisrock, Bukta, Graspop and Download. The band again also played European shows with Evanescence and Eagles of Death Metal as well as Black Stone Cherry.[22]

Rival Sons third LP album Head Down was released in September, 2012 to critical acclaim.[23][24] The album charted at number 31 in the UK album chart, number 5 in the UK indie chart, number 6 in Sweden, number 13 in Finland, number 14 in Norway, number 30 in Switzerland and number 38 in Germany. The debut single “Keep On Swinging” started a trend on Twitter, and the video was filmed in a church with snakes. The band then went on to complete another sold out European tour and were featured on the cover of Classic Rock Magazine. They also the ‘Breakthrough artist’ award presented by Vic Reeves.[25]

In January, 2013 the band released a second single from Head Down with a video for Until The Sun Comes directed by Simon Gesrel, known for his stop-motion work and his work with Michel Gondry (The White Stripes, Björk).[26]

In March, 2013 the band recorded for Billboard The Beat and appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. On March 7, 2013 Rival Sons left on a tour of Europe supported by The Balconies. In April they toured the UK supported by The Graveltones and Ulysses culminating in a sold out show at Shepherds Bush Empire. Rival Sons also played a station session in St. Pancras, London for the second time to raise money for NSPCC.

Rival Sons did a small mid-west USA tour in May before returning to Europe in June to play more summer festivals including Download, Kivenlahti Rock, Bergenfest, Bravalla, Main Square and Open Air St. Gallen. The band also supported Kiss in Italy and Switzerland.

In September 2013 Rival Sons supported Sammy Hagar across the US then played Hard Rock Vegas in December and started the New Year by headlining a street party in their hometown of Long Beach.

In January, 2014 Rival Sons returned to the studio in Nashville with Dave Cobb to produce their fourth full-length LP album. Amidst great anticipation of their fan base, the critically acclaimed Great Western Valkyrie was released in June, 2014. Even before the new album’s release Rival Sons began their 2014 European Tour opening for Aerosmith in Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden. The summer tour continued through Europe with club and festival dates in Germany at Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park, then onto four sold out shows in the United Kingdom and the legendary Isle of Wight Festival.

They traveled back across the Atlantic to begin the USA 2014 summer tour with a sold out show at 3rd and Lindsley in Nashville, TN. The US tour included several festivals and two sold out back to back dates in New York City. Rival Sons travelled back and forth between US and Canadian dates mid summer, before heading back to Northern Europe for four large festivals, ending the summer with a trip to South Africa to play the Oppikopi Festival.

After a rest Rival Sons began the second leg of the US tour playing dates in California including The Fillmore in San Francisco and a sold out show at the legendary The Troubadour. More Fall 2014 US Tour dates included shows in Arizona, Nebraska, Nevada, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland & New Jersey.

Rival Sons has had several live television performances in 2014, the first on Le Grand Journal (Canal+) then in October Late Night with David Letterman and Later… with Jools Holland. They performed live at the 2014 Classic Rock Magazine Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards. In late 2014 Rival Sons fourth LP album Great Western Valkyrie was released. It was nominated for “Album of the Year” in 2014 by Classic Rock Magazine.

In October 2015 they recorded their fifth LP album Hollow Bones, again with music producer Dave Cobb, in just three weeks. Rival Sons toured the United Kingdom from March to April, 2015 as well as played the main stage at Download Festival in 2016. Their LP album Hollow Bones was officially released July, 2016.

After the recording they toured with Deep Purple in their 2016 European tour. Throughout 2016 and into early 2017 they toured as main supporting act on the entirety of Black Sabbath’s notable The End Tour.[27]

On February 27, 2018 it was officially announced that Rival Sons had signed on with Low Country Sound an imprint of Elektra run by Dave Cobb.[28]

Creative process

“No one tells us how long to go into the studio for or how many songs to record, everybody understands how we do business.

It’s a blessing that we can get in and get out of there. It plagues a project if you spend too long in the studio. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” - Scott Holiday

Rival Sons try to record and release an album per year and believe writing and recording all material together in a studio within a month leads to a more fruitful creation. The live recording process they use is considered a key to their specific sound. guitarist Scott Holiday referred to it as bringing the “danger” back to rock & roll.[29]

The band has a long, friendly and professional relationship with acclaimed music producer Dave Cobb. Cobb has worked on most of the bands album releases since the bands inception.

Band members Current members Jay Buchanan – lead vocals, harmonica (2009–present) Scott Holiday – guitar, backing vocals (2009–present) Mike Miley – drums (2009–present) Dave Beste – bass, backing vocals (2013–present)

Former members Robin Everhart – bass (2009–2013) Touring members Todd Ögren – keyboards, percussion, backing vocals (2014–present)