Redline Addiction, Rock Band

A Craving for Speed and a Love for Music: Redline Addiction

They are a young band, from the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area, ready to take on the music scene-full force. When you hear their music you will soon detect an eclectic mixture of sound that is nowhere near novice. In the tune, "Everybody Knows," you can hear a hint of Kiss and the late 90s group Lit. You get my drift-there is some serious radio play ahead for this band.

At first they called themselves, Into the Breach-composed of Justin Liberti (drums), Neil Mutreja (lead guitar), and Chris Mcvey (rhythm guitar). Soon enough they found the missing pieces of their band, Rob Robinson (lead vocals) and Justin Ganderson (bass) and officially named themselves Redline Addiction in July 2007. The name fits them well because of their intensity and addiction to music.

Lead singer Rob Robinson says, "We play loud and aggressively, always keeping the levels in the red. We're high energy and play hard. Our sound is as if it has an addiction to speed, an addiction to pushing the limits. The fact that that most of us grew up on the Redline of the metro was sort of an icing on the cake."

Their first appearance together as a band was in October 2007, when they opened for The Misfits. Robinson says when he first auditioned with the group and the first couple of practices after it was almost creepy how connected the band members were through varying degrees of separation. "It just goes to show you how small the world can be."

Their debut album is called, "Goodbye Miss Dolly." Robinson says the band came up with the album title because the lyrics (mostly written by Mcvey) have to do with relationships between men and women, and "Goodbye Miss Dolly," became "kind of" an inside joke among the members of the band.

"To me, good writers have the ability to allude to their theme in subtle ways and the really good ones do it in a way that is subtly obvious. I think Chris has succeeded because his music is open to interpretation," says Robinson.

The band is still fine-tuning their sound and everyone agrees that the song, "The Arsonist" is their most ‘complete song.' Robinson says, "Lyrically, musically, and vocally, the song is our most professional effort to date and when we play it live you can see it in the way we perform it...it's our Bulls on Parade meets Metallica, song. Ganderson's song, "My Favorite Rival," is another one we are very proud of." "Everybody Knows," is a killer at all of our shows and along with "Arsonist," is the majority fan favorite."

"Mcvey wrote almost, if not all of the lyrics on this album, and most of the root chords to the music. But by the time the song is a finished product, we have all had our hands in its crafting. Everyone has their own essential contribution to the songs. Chris definitely lays the foundation for most of the songs, but we all attack it with our unique perspective. Neil is a blues soloist and brings that element to the table."

"Ganderson has a knack for creative bass lines, which sneak up on you, like in, "Difficult to Dream." That's so vocally driven that sometimes you miss out on how great the bass line is. Liberties drives every song and is really gives our sound the take no prisoners attitude it has."

Robinson recalls, most of the songs were written before he joined the band, and was completely blown away by the songs the band had already compiled.

He says, "Fortunately my best attribute is embellishment...I just took what they already had and added a little bit here and a little bit there to suit my vocal preferences, but it was easy coming in when the music was already great to begin with." In the future he would like to get more involved in the writing process for the next album.

Robinson believes "the fan" is what makes the whole experience worthwhile. "We get really into it, our fans dance along, and at times we can even hear them singing with us. It's always fun...there are some people that support all of our shows and really it's more appropriate to call them friends."

The band has been influenced by modern rock as well as heavier rock. Robinson says, Collectively I think we would all agree that Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Audioslave, Metallica, a little Green Day, maybe some Nirvana is evident in our music.

The band feels radio today, "Is what it is." "They do the best they can but are limited to the type of music they can play and the types of artists that they can give airtime to." Robinson says, "There are many talented bands on the radio, and some that are not quite as talented, but at least have a great hook or image."

"That's not really a talent, but equally important to success in the music industry. But I know that we would all agree that there are volumes of bands and songs that get no airtime but are pure gems."

Robinson believes Redline Addiction's music is radio friendly. "I think we have some songs that could get some airtime, but for the most part I think we are still at that raw, live performance stage in our development, as a band." The band would love to be on the radio, and it is one of their goals. They realize they have to "pay our dues" before any of that happens.

In the few months that the band has been together, they have already played at some top gig joints in the in the area. They have been at DC9, Jaxx, The Grog and Tankard, Saphire café in Bethesda, and the Rock n' Roll Hotel in D.C.

The band has goals set so they can strive for their highest potential. Robinson says, "At the outset of forming the band, we set three goals: headlining for a national act at the 9:30 club, playing the DC101's chili cook-off, and to have a song played on the radio. We hope to get something played on DC101's local lix in the near future so that would take care of one of our goals."

He also says, "We would hope that by this time next year we will have knocked the other two goals off of the list. I think the newest goal would have to be to finish the next album within the year. We already have the foundations for about 11 new tracks so we are almost there in terms of new material."

Robinson believes new material, which would be their second album will be the one that puts them on the map, nationally." He wants people to say, "We knew them when..."

Currently, Redline Addiction is signed with the Virginia based label, Counterpoint Records, LLC. Robinson says, "One meeting with "Juju" McNeilson, the owner and we knew we were in the right place. His vision is very much along the same lines with our own and I think he has the means to take us there."

Check out the band for yourself on Saturday April 12, 2008, at the Zodiac Grill in the Kentland's (654 Center Point Way, Gaithersburg MD-across from the movie theatre.) You won't be disappointed!

For additional shows dates and album info, check out the www.myspace.com/redlineaddiction or email the band at redlineaddiction@gmail.com. Their album "Goodbye Miss Dolly," is available on iTunes and at www.amazon.com and www.Pandora.com.