Sev

Biography

The Washington D.C. area band Sev first performed together live on October 31, 1995. The formation happened earlier that summer when Max asked bassist Will, who was in another band at the time with him, to start a new project. With the gears in motion for a new sound, Will brought in his high school friend Dennis as the band's drummer. Singer/rapper Phil was the next to join, followed quickly by vocalist/guitarist Danny.

Rise

Sev quickly gained the attention of the Mid-Atlantic Music Scene. Winning the "Big Break" contest hosted by at-the-time local alternative rock radio station 99.1 WHFS, Sev opened the 1999 HFStival with their performance on the Street Stage. In 2000, Sev started a campaign to be noticed by major labels in New York City.

One of the labels to take notice was Farmclub, represented by Marcie Jacobson. Farmclub was a website-TV show-record label venture headed by Interscope (Jimmy Iovine) and the head of Geffen (Doug Morris). Bands were asked to upload tracks which would then be voted on. Bands getting enough votes could perform on the show in an effort to get signed to the Farmclub label. Sev uploaded their music and their fans responded, leading Sev to be the first band to be signed through the website and TV show.

On the show, Sev performed the songs "Stand Straight" and "Same Old Song". "Stand Straight" became Sev's first national single on Farmclub compilations, but not as an "official single" from the band. Sev immediately went into the studio in 2000 to cash in on their sudden success.

Label controversy

The show Farmclub aired on the USA Network on Monday nights after WWF Monday Night RAW. However, when RAW moved to TNN in late 2000, Farmclub's core audience went with it. Farmclub lost their core audience and the venture crumbled. This led to Sev being pushed on to the Geffen label. Geffen, not having an interest in the band, took two years to release All These Dreams. Once the album came out in 2002, Geffen announced it had no other plans for the band and stopped all communication.

In July 2002, Pepsi launched a new soft drink named Pepsi Blue and wanted a song from a Universal Music Group artist, of which Geffen belongs to, to help advertise the product. Pepsi picked out Sev's "Same Old Song" to represent their new product. The concept was to record a music video and a commercial using the same footage and with hopes that Pepsi Blue would be seen in both the commercial and music video. Since their future with Geffen was bleak, Sev used this opportunity to gain exposure and have their first music video financed for them. "Same Old Song" would eventually chart, peaking at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart.

A few songs from All These Dreams appeared on the extreme stunt DVD series by Adrenaline Crew.

Final years

A follow-up album was in the works but never came to be. Some of the songs from this era can be downloaded for free at the band's website. The band experienced several lineup changes and then eventually became inactive in 2006.

Vocalist Phil Clayman went on to work with the Songs Of Love Foundation for 3 years, allowing his experience and talent in music to help terminally ill children.

Drummer Dennis Fay joined the cover band American Giant in 2009, but is no longer listed as a member.

Former Guitarist Jeremiah Folwer now lives in the former Soviet Union and has several hits in Eastern Europe in the group Awesomatic and ANTENNA.

Original Members

Later Members

Albums

All These Dreams CD / LP (Geffen, 2002)

1. All These Dreams
2. Same Old Song
3. Menace To Society
4. When
5. All Right By Me
6. Stand Straight
7. 24/7/365
8. Front Of The Line
9. What You Got For Me
10. Lust
11. Player
12. Twisted

Back Rider CD / LP (1998)

1. Techno
2. 24-7
3. Higher
4. Advance
5. Who's Got The Mic?
6. Crashing
7. Jump (Remix)
8. Gotta (Remix)
9. Buy It (Remix)
10. Bonus Track (#68)
11. Bonus Track (#69)

Sunflower CD / LP (1996)

1. Drop
2. Stand
3. Gotta
4. When
5. Jump
6. Drinking
7. Buy It
8. Hip Hop Habeeb (bonus track)

Singles