User:Matthewschnoor/Broken Face

Broken Face was an American band formed in 2007 in Mattawan, Michigan by lyricists Matt Schnoor and Grady Congdon, and drummers Caitie Rowe and K.C. VanFleet, four high school students. The quartet released their first EP The Beach. After some personnel changes, the group released their debut studio album Where the Tree Meets the Ground. The band went on hiatus following the release of Where the Tree Meets the Ground, as each member of the band went to separate colleges all across the country. In April 2011, Schnoor announced a third album, entitled Fifteen Layers of Irony, though the band's lineup would only consist of him and Congdon. In April 2012, with no songs produced for the new album, Schnoor released a statement declaring the band had broken up.

The name of the group comes from The Pixies song, Broken Face, a catchphrase of one the groups friends, as well as the name of an at the time rival group, Broken Fight.

Origins and Feud with Broken Fight: Fall 2006-March 2007
In 2006, Rowe was in a relationship with a person who claimed to be the guitarist for a rock band, Broken Fight. Through the collaborative efforts of Rowe and Schnoor, the two deduced that Broken Fight was nothing more than a gimmick to try to impress Rowe. The two informed friends Congdon and Van Fleet, who both thought the discovery was hilarious. Through further investigation, Rowe found that her (ex) boyfriend continued to claim this band to be true and the four decided to create a band of their own and write an album together. Congdon came up with the name Broken Face for the band. His reasoning was from three sources. One was the obvious mockery of the name Broken Fight, as well as it being the name of a The Pixies song. The final part of the name came from future member Jake Dawson, who would frequently say "I'll break your face, kid."

The Beach: April-May 2007

 * Main Article: The Beach

In May 2007, the four band members gathered in Schnoor's basement and began recording tracks using his Macbook and the application Garage Band. The group's first song was Armstach, written by Congdon and Schnoor. The two also serve as the lead vocalists in the song. Rowe and Van Fleet provide the drums and backup vocals. The second song recorded, Logan's Song, became the closing track on the album. Congdon improvised the lyrics to Logan's Song while playing a toy accordion. The whistle was added later, but was also played by Congdon. The other three members of the band are only present in the laugher at the end of the track. Rowe and VanFleet were unable to contribute to the songs Le Douche is the Devil's Friend and He-Ugh, due to scheduling conflicts, but they were both involved in the writing process. Due to their absence, Schnoor and Congdon brought in their friend Evan Frazier to be featured on drums under the name "Mix-Masta" Evan. Schnoor wrote and sang He-Ugh, and wrote Le Douche is the Devil's Friend although Congdon sang it. Finally, Schnoor wrote and produced Good Song, placing it as the first track on the album. Schnoor wanted to create a legitimate track for fear that listeners would be turned off by unpolished tracks like Armstach. After all the songs were recorded, Congdon came up with the album name of The Beach, to continue making fun of Broken Fight and a song on their fake album entitled Where the Sand Meets the Sea. The album was released independently in May of 2007.

Departure of Rowe and Van Fleet, New Group Members: June 2007
Just weeks after the release of The Beach, personal issues grew between Rowe and Schnoor. At the end of May 2007, Rowe left the group, along with Van Fleet. Due to the absence of two of the founding band members, Schnoor and Congdon worried the band would not be able to continue and went on hiatus. During the hiatus, Congdon and Schnoor began writing and recording tracks for their debut studio album, but were deeply frustrated by the difficulty they were having producing quality songs. Schnoor stated, "it was like we lost our passion. We had all the drive in the world, but everything we made turned out to be complete crap." During this time, Congdon and Schnoor produced the songs, Pledge, Where the Plunger Meets the Poop, and Song, all of which would later appear on Where the Tree Meets the Ground.

After these songs were recorded, Congdon and Schnoor realized they were going to need to add more members to the group. The first addition was Evan Frazier, who had appeared on Le Douche is the Devil's Friend and He-Ugh on The Beach. At the same time, another friend of the band's, Sam Barajas, volunteered his drum set for the band's use, and is featured on the track Sick Beats. Though Barajas was only a part of the group for a matter of weeks, he still received credit for Where the Tree Meets the Ground. Finally, in late June, another friend, Jake Dawson, agreed to join the band. Once the lineup was complete, they were able to go forward with production of their debut album.

Where the Tree Meets the Ground: June-August 2007

 * Main Article: Where the Tree Meets the Ground

During the group's hiatus, Congdon and Schnoor agreed to make their debut album more serious, to counter the ridiculous nature of The Beach, and Schnoor wrote a satirical song about religion. However, after recording it, they realized it lacked the fun and energy on their first album. The two abandoned their plans on becoming serious and recorded Pledge, Where the Plunger Meets the Poop, and Song. They also remixed Le Douche is the Devil's Friend into a more coherent, shortened version. After the recording of those four songs, the two realized they couldn't complete the album between the two of them. Shortly after, they added Frazier and Barajas to the group. Barajas allowed the band to experiment with a real drum-set. The four each took turns recording some drum beats but when they realized how terrible they were, they overlapped them together, sped up the tempo, and produced it the track Sick Beats. Barajas left the group after the recording of this track. By mid-June, the three group members realized they still weren't producing anything substantial, and decided to send their first album to a friend, Jake Dawson, to try to convince him to join the band. Dawson loved what he heard and gladly agreed to join the band. In late June, the four members got together to finally record the rest of the tracks for their debut album.

Once production began, Schnoor decided to step back in the band and not be featured on vocals, feeling a lack of creativity. By sheer chance, Dawson assumed the role of lead vocalist when he surprised the group by improvising lyrics to midi tracks on Schnoor's old keyboard. The band was able to finish recording their entire album that night. The other three band members described Dawson on that night as "unbelievable." Congdon was quoted saying, "we just put the microphone in front of him, gave him some shitty songs to write lyrics to, and the album happened." Dawson provided the lead vocals and wrote the lyrics to 15 of the album's 22 songs. He also provided every word in the "soundboard" track The Jakey D We Know. The band collaborated on Country Song, Ode to Teachers, and Swinglines.  The same night the album was recorded, Schnoor's computer was broken and the album was unable to be produced. Weeks later, the computer was returned and just a couple days later, the album Where the Tree Meets the Ground was released.

Where the Tree Meets the Ground was a massive success, yet it was criticized by former member, Caitie Rowe, who described it as "a whole new band." Though she complimented Dawson's creativity, she declared this was not the same band she was a part of.

Uncompleted Second Album and Extended Hiatus: September 2007-March 2011
After the release and subsequent success of Where the Tree Meets the Ground, all four members of the band agreed to begin working on a second studio album, to be completed by September when all the members would leave for different colleges. Congdon began writing new songs, including Eric Hite, Disgusting, and Sunshine Bitch. Frazier stepped behind the scenes, producing the song Grady's Ladies, also featuring himself on vocals. Unfortunately, the members were not able to find time to sit down and record the album together. These songs still remain unreleased.

In the Fall of 2007, the band declared a temporary hiatus when they began college, far away from one another. Though he never gave a formal resignation, Dawson quit the band at the end of August 2007, before producing a single song for the second album. The band remained inactive for the next year.

In October 2008, Congdon and Schnoor visited Frazier at The University of Minnesota, and they began to brainstorm once again for their next album. The band agreed on the name Three-Man Space Jam for the album, yet nothing was produced in the time Congdon and Schnoor were there. At the end of October, Frazier announced he would be leaving the band to concentrate on school, leaving just Congdon and Schnoor. Before they could decide the fate of the group, Congdon disappeared for almost fifteen months. No former members of the band were in contact with him, including Schnoor. With Congdon's disappearance, Schnoor had no choice but to put the band on an indefinite hiatus and by the middle of 2009, none of the band members were in contact with each other.

Congdon returned in March 2010, but Schnoor stated in an interview, "even with [Congdon]'s return, the likelihood of [a third album] being released is highly unlikely." Citing a loss of interest in producing music, as well as a lack of time to write, in January 2011, Schnoor announced that the band was officially breaking up, though this statement would be retracted three months later.

Fifteen Layers of Irony and Breakup: April 2011-April 2012
On April 8th, 2011, Schnoor sent Congdon a song he had been working on, which Congdon liked. The two began discussing the band again, and agreed that they would like to finally complete a second album. That night, Congdon and Schnoor agreed to take the band in a slightly different direction. Remembering how unsuccessful they before Frazier and Dawson joined the band, they agreed to make the album heavier on the music rather than full of comedic lyrics as they had done on Where the Tree Meets the Ground. They also became aware that their first two albums were made very ironically, and wanting to continue with that trend, they agreed to call the album Fifteen Layers of Irony after a quote by April Ludgate on the NBC sitcom, Parks and Recreation, of which both Congdon and Schnoor are fans. Schnoor planned to create the music, while both members would collaborate on writing lyrics together. When asked about adding more members to the band, Schnoor commented "[Congdon] and I are the only ones who have stuck with the band from the start and are the only ones who really care about it. We've seen so many people come and go, and I think we're going to try to complete this album on our own."

By 2012, no progress had been made on the record and the band began to receive criticism for dragging out the process so long. One publication stated, "we've been hearing about this second album for almost five years. The band has created two titles for the album, yet haven't produced a single song. It's starting to become overwhelmingly obvious that this album is never going to happen, and [Schnoor] needs to just admit it so we can all get on with our lives."

The band remained silent for four months before Schnoor finally released a one-sentence statement announcing that the band was breaking up, "Broken Face is over."

Discography

 * The Beach [EP] (2007)
 * Where the Tree Meets the Ground (2007)