"Well Jared [Fountaine] and I already knew how to play guitar," said Thomas of how the idea came about, "Leo [Pastrana] was in an acapella group at Rutgers (where the four met), and I had gotten all the equipment we would need for my birthday. So, Malcom [Nason] said he'd learn how to play drums and the rest is just kinda history."
The rest is history indeed. They named the band after Thomas's mother for providing the instruments and equipment ("and because she's smoking hot," jested Nason), and began playing when they went back to college.
"We would only play at night, once our homework was done," said Pastrana of the rules Thomas enforced as band leader. "He was worried we'd get carried away and addicted to playing and neglect our school work." Once everyone had completed their work, however, they'd meet up in Thomas's room and begin jamming.
"We stared out slow at first," recollected Nason of their first session, "Our first song was Eye of the Tiger. It was terrible and we barely got through it, but it was a start." Though there was a noise limit for dorm rooms imposed at Rutgers, the boys managed to get away with their jam sessions. "The RC's were really into it, and they let us keep it up. They even wanted to try out the guitar once. It was a really supportive enviroment." Eventually, word got out about their jam sessions, and small crowds would turn out to hear them play.
"It was really nerveracking at first, but you got used to it." Fountaine who predominately played bass when they first started, played his first guitar solo at one of these crowded jam sessions. "Eventually everyone kinda knew who we were. We were known as those rock band kids."
The boys eventually decided the time had come for them to play professionally and they began playing sets at their local venues. "We just exploded. Suddenly, we were playing all these new songs in all these new places and we had a tour going." said Thomas of their quick rise to fame. "It was incredible, we were getting more and more fans everyday. After a while, we had played practically everywhere in every corner of the globe. We didn't stop until we had all of the stars that we could get." Unfortunately, like all bands that rise to fame quickly, Ryan's Mom started suffering their creative differences.
"Leo didn't want to sing some of the songs that the rest of us wanted to play." explain Nason with an edge to his voice. "We wanted to do Chop Suey, but Leo called it just a bunch of screaming. It was pulling teeth to get him to do it. We had to explain that we needed more stars in Stolckholm so we could play the showcase and get a plane. When he did it, he wasn't anywhere near as enthusiastic and he only got 76%. The 'Spirited Survivor' award at the end said it all."
The problems continued for the band, the most important being the fanbase. "We couldn't get anymore fans and we all knew it," said Fountaine "We needed to step up the difficulty. We were all playing Expert level, except for Malcom who just kept plodding along at Meduim. When we confronted him about it, he got all defensive talking about how much harder the drums were then everything else. He even attacked me specifically. He said that bass is what you let your girlfriend play when she doesn't want to sing."
"I think alot of it was us being high strung about the tour," admits Pastrama. "We were all getting less sleep. One gig, the roadies forgot the game disc and we had to cancel. I was pushing Jagged Gorgeous Winter to be in every make your own setlist, and none of them wanted to play it. We wanted new songs, but Xbox Live charges so much. It was really ugly there for a while. We decided it was time for a us to all take a break and pursue our own things."
The dream was over, but not before the band had made their mark as America's favorite band.
"I never understood it," admits Thomas, "We were really just a big cover band, literally nothing we did was original. We even played a Spongebob song once. There was abosolutely no reason for anyone to ever come to our shows."
It seems the band will deny their genius until the very end. However, this writer will never forget their incredible energy, their commitment to excellence, and when they kept a star power going for a full minute. That shit was sick.
Where are they doing now?
Jared Fountaine launched a successful solo career and just earlier this month got 98% on Through the Fire and Flames on Expert.
Ryan Thomas got himself a turntable and game disc at Walmart and now is a DJ in his spare time. He says, "It's way more fun cause you don't fail and there are all these sick mashups like Rhianna vs The Killers."
Malcom Nason joined the space marines and now has 3,012,468 confirmed kills. A squadmate said of Nason, "He's awesome with the sniper rifle and battle rifle. He's not some noob out there using the needler and grav hammer. This guy is the real deal. I hope he's keeps playing team slayer with me for a long time."
Leo Pastrama got a girlfriend and now regularly has sex. She doesn't play bass.
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