Ronnie Winters (b. 1983, Middleburg, Florida, USA; vocals) and Duke Kitchens (b. 1984, Middleburg, Florida, USA; guitar, piano, vocals) formed this Florida, USA-based metal and emo influenced pop punk act in 2003. The band went through an 18-month period of writing and rehearsing before making their mark on the local live scene, and signing a production deal with Scott Fravala of Vision Sound recording studios, which was based just outside Jacksonville. Both Fravala, and Angela Jenson, of artist development site Kings of A&R, were instrumental in pushing the band towards a major label deal. Once a six-track EP was completed, thousands were pressed up and the band travelled to different cities to hand out CDs and flyers, when they were not carrying out self-promotion on Myspace.
After an overhaul of the original line-up in summer 2005, Winters recruited Jon Wilkes (b. 1986, Jacksonville, Florida, USA; drums/vocals) and Elias Reidy (b. 23 August 1986, Orange Park, Florida, USA; guitar/vocals). Reidy then invited Joey Westwood (b. 1986, Orange Park, Florida, USA; bass/vocals, ex-In Fate’s Hands) to complete the quintet. They were signed to Virgin Records by Jason Flom in October 2005, and soon began work on their debut with David Bendeth who had previously worked with Hawthorne Heights. The radio-friendly indictment of domestic violence, ‘Face Down’, was heavily rotated on MTV2 prior to the album’s release in the USA. Don’t You Fake It sold 25, 000 copies in its first week of release and reached number 25 on the Billboard 200 Charts, with many critics likening the band’s sound to that of Blink-182 and Taking Back Sunday.
