Artist vs. Poet

History

After the demise of his previous band, Enter the Collector, Vocalist Tarcy Thomason advertised on MySpace.com about starting an acoustic project in the Fall of 2007. Guitarist/vocalist Craig Calloway was the first to respond. They wrote music and quickly converted the project into a full band. Drummer, Joe Westbrook, joined the band as were bassist Jason Dean and finally guitarist and vocalist Joe Kirkland.

In 2008 they were signed by Fearless Records. Artist vs. Poet released their debut, self-titled EP in November 2008, recorded by producer Mike Green, who has worked with Paramore, The Higher, and Danger Radio. Their songs have been on MTV's The Real World and Parental Control. Alternative Press has called them "one of the 100 bands you need to know" in both 2009 and 2010. It was announced that Craig Calloway was leaving the band on a live ustream chat on September 23, 2010.

The band has traveled across the country supporting their album and were a part of the Atticus Walk the Plank Tour with A Change of Pace and The Classic Crime. They have also toured with My American Heart, The Graduate, Danger Radio, Mayday Parade, Breathe Carolina, Go Radio, The Maine, We the Kings, as well as being on the Guys Guys Guys Tour with Sing It Loud, The Summer Set, The Morning Light, and The Friday Night Boys. AVP played all summer on the Vans Warped Tour 2010 and toured fall 2010 on the Fearless Friends Tour.

They released their second EP Damn Rough Night while on tour with Forever the Sickest Kids in 2009. Their first full-length album Favorite Fix was released on Fearless Records in March 2010. Favorite Fix reached No. 17 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.

Artist vs. Poet covered Lady Gaga's song, "Bad Romance", for the album Punk Goes Pop 3.

in mid-2011, Artist vs. Poet announced that lead vocalist, Tarcy Thomason, and drummer, Joe Westbrook, were leaving the band. Thomason to spend more time with his wife and child; Westbrook to pursue further schooling. Lead guitarist, Craig Calloway, had already left the band earlier, leaving only bassist Jason Dean and rhythm guitar Joe Kirkland. Dean and Kirkland felt they were an important enough part of AvP to keep the band alive. New lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist would be Joe, and a new lead guitarist and backing vocalist was added named Dylan Stevens, who met the band through a friend.

They more recently posted on the band's tumblr a voting poll for fans to vote which song the band should cover. Artist vs. Poet is going to record/release the winning song. As a result, the band covered Jason Derülo's "Ridin' Solo", Taylor Swift's "Mean", Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass" and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe".

The band was released from the label on December 7, 2011, with the band releasing their own statement. The band subsequently independently released Naughty or Nice, a Christmas EP. They moved to Los Angeles in early 2012. They released an acoustic album, Remember This, on April 25, 2012 that contains eight original songs, including "Leavin' In the Morning" featuring Mat Musto as Blackbear. They released a full-band album, Keep Your Secrets, on January 8, 2013 that features eight original tracks. and re-released their acoustic album, Remember This (Anniversary Edition), on April 26, containing all of the tracks on that album in full-band arrangement, as well as two new tracks, "The Remedy" and "Whiskey > Problems." They released "Sleep EP", a mix of old songs re-imagined and new material, on September 21, 2013 and Sake of Love', containing only new songs, on March 3, 2014. On December 8, 2014 the band announced that 'Medicine would be released on December 16, 2014 having released several tracks, including "Medicine", "Sincerely Me", "Break Away" and "Kids Again", via Soundcloud.

Band members

Joe Kirkland

Joe Kirkland, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band announced in 2012 that he would be a contestant on the third season of the NBC series The Voice. In the opening show on September 10, 2012, he sang "Gives You Hell" from The All-American Rejects with two of the judges, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton, hitting the "I Want You" button, and Kirkland opting to continue in the competition as part of Team Adam. In the battle rounds Kirkland beat Samuel Mouton and moved on to the knockout rounds, where he lost to Bryan Keith on October 29, 2012.

Discography