Album: For The Cause

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Brought together through mutual friends in 2006, Mike Kunz (then living in Chicago) and Donn Aaron (Atlanta) began with a weekly songwriting challenge designed to trigger each other’s creativity. Each Saturday night they emailed each other a new song, staying up late into the night reworking them over the phone. The band materialized almost by accident as the pair quickly realized their chemistry had a life of it’s own.

They soon ditched the songwriting competition, and drawing on their diverse influences ranging from Elton John to Daniel Lanois, and Kiss to Radiohead, began work on the full length album “For the Cause.” A majority of the record was recorded partially in Chicago and partially in Atlanta as the two sent tracks back and forth across the internet. After several short trips South during the recording of the album, Kunz moved to Atlanta to make Romeo Spike a full time realization. During production of “For the Cause,” the pair caught the attention of Grammy award winner, and long time Elton John mix engineer/producer Matt Still who produced, mixed and provided back-up vocals on almost half the album.

Romeo Spike’s refined rock is led by Kunz’s vocals and Rhodes electric piano, and Aaron’s guitar and pedal steel (which has been described as “playing lightning”). Skyler Ross from Atlanta joined as bassist in mid 2009. In addition to being an accomplished instrumentalist, Sky also sings backing vocals and is a songwriting contributor to the band. Sky grew up with performance in his blood as both of his parents were Broadway performers. The newest member of Romeo Spike is drummer, Owen Liversidge from Glastonbury, England, who came aboard in October 2010. Owen has a modern, dance/pop approach and injects a British flair into Romeo Spike’s rhythm section. He creates a blend of acoustic rock drumming and electronics that are essential to the Romeo Spike sound. As a former frontman/singer for his own band, Owen is integral to the songwriting team and adds a fourth harmony to the group.

Uniquely, three of Romeo Spike’s four members have been lead singers in former bands. Another main strength of the band is found in the accomplished guitarmanship of both Kunz and Aaron. As a teen, Aaron was featured in both “Guitar Player” and “Guitar World” magazines. In 1991, he was the lead guitarist and co-songwriter for the group “Mary My Hope”. He recorded guitar with Ludacris on a track that was featured in the Martin Lawrence motion picture “National Security.” In November 2005, Aaron’s solo album “Unfinished Symphonies” was chosen by Performing Songwriter magazine as one of their “Top 12 Independent DIY Releases.” Aaron’s role in the mastering side of music production in the last several years has allowed him to work with over 10,000 records, with hundreds reaching multi-platinum, platinum or gold sales awards from the RIAA.

No matter how slick and finessed their productions can become, “It’s all about the song,” Kunz says. “Songwriting is this weird form of magic where if you happen to be in the right headspace, you just have to play one note and listen for all the music that is already there.” Aaron describes his approach to songwriting as an exploration in complete mystery: “I liken it toTarot Card reading, or playing with a Ouija Board. I find this whole thing to be a fragile mystery, and I leave it at that.”