Stara Zagora
Stara Zagora
Genres: alternative rock, indie rock
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About Stara Zagora
Stara Zagora was formed in 1999 by Derek Taylor (lead vox/gtr) and Toby Lawhon (gtr/backing vox) in Dallas, TX. Ignoring trends, their purpose was to create emotive and intense music, with a transcendental sense of melody. The pair were later joined by Bryan Geddie (bass) and Scott Honea (drums). In 2000 'Dust-bin Parade' reached number 1 of over 14,000 songs on garageband.com, which sparked interest from Geffen. After a successful showcase for A&R, the band played at The Viper Room for Jordan Schur and Jimmy Iovine. Iovine’s comment, "That's the best The Viper Room has EVER sounded!" proved that Stara Zagora was destined for prominence in the music scene. After a long courtship with the label, the band was finally set free to focus again on perfecting their sound and adding to their already passionate fan base. Stara Zagora's self-titled full-length debut was entirely produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Taylor, who is a highly regarded, frequently requested mixing engineer in the local music scene. He has worked on many successful regional and national albums including the Burden Brothers' 'Buried in your Black Heart', Blue October’s 'History for Sale', South FM's 'Drama Kids' and Greatness in Tragedy's debut effort. To launch their CD in July 2004, Stara Zagora’s ‘Our Own Device' was featured on the KDGE’s 9 o'clock Cockfight besting all five of their opponents, or as the Dallas Observer put it, “KO'd such heavyweights as the Beastie Boys and A Perfect Circle to retire undefeated in the station's ‘Cock Fight’ competition. Not bad for a band named after a Bulgarian town." The band also played 102.1 The Edge’s Edgefest 13 music festival and will kick off the station’s Local Show series at Trees in September. http://www.myspace.com/starazagora _________________________________ DEREK TAYLOR: "Ray Riendeau and I met on a Rob Halford songwriting session in Phoenix in 1999. We found that we had complimentary musical styles and penned a couple tunes outside of the sessions. The result was cosmic. I returned to Texas and enlisted the help of good friends and talented musical visionaries: Toby Lawhon and Bryan Geddie. We continued to create a body of tunes that eventually became Stara Zagora. In August of 2000, we reached #1 on Garageband.com which attracted the attention of Geffen. We quickly put together a live ensemble and played showcases for Geffen in Dallas and L.A. After about a year of negotiations, Geffen ultimately passed. We decided to finish the record ourselves. I bought a new studio rig and we got to work. About halfway through the process I developed some health complications that prevented the completion of the record. I used the next year and a half to really dive into mixing as an art and a science. During this time, I polished many of my skills and started to build my initial base of mixing clients. By 2004, my health had improved, and we finished the Stara Zagora record. We gigged and shopped our record to labels until September of that year, when I met with more health complications. At that point, I decided to focus on my studio work. The CD is not currently available, but we are working to get it distributed online. "
Taken from Last.fm
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