Marin County is a sunny, green, and mellow collection of towns just north of San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge. It is this area where refugee hippies migrated following the hazy, drug-filled days of Haight-Ashbury. Eventually, those hippies became yuppies and had babies and created high schools. One of these schools was Marin Academy, where a visionary bohemian instituted a "Rock Band" class in the curriculum.

The roots of Stroke 9 grow from this "Rock Band" class. In the spring of 1990, as a project, the entire rock class went into Jim Reitzel's Right Sole studio in Kentfield, CA, and emerged with a 5-song demo, hastily released under the name Rufus Hairsbain. The tape, recorded and produced by the class on 48 digital tracks (!), included the songs "Blindness," "Wild," and "Dream Song," all of which would go on to be mainstays of the Stroke 9 set. The initial pressing of the tape, with hand-colored cover art by Hairsbain guitarist Sean Collins, immediately sold out.

At the end of the spring of 1990, Rock Band seniors Luke Esterkyn (guitar, vocals),Greg Gueldner (drums), Tom Haddad (bass), and Kirsten Stromberg (keyboards, vocals) took off their final half-semester to form the project-band "Stroke 9," for full academic credit. Setting up in a basement room of Esterkyn's parents' house, the young band began writing songs for their "senior thesis," a new demo tape.

Stroke 9's first live performance (outside of a couple of school talent shows) was at the Cafe Nuvo in San Anselmo in the early summer of 1990. Soon after that show, the band went in to Merge Studios to record the 8-song tape "Bad Language Makes For Bad Feelings". Songs on this tape include "Pi-912," "Raise Yer Hands," "Her Justifications," and "Don't Look Down." Immediately after this recording session, the band members split up for summer, and college in the fall.

In the summer of 1991, Esterkyn and Gueldner returned to California to rekindle the Stroke 9 fire. Unable to rally Haddad and Stromberg, they tapped former rock band mates and Rufus Hairsbain members John McDermott (guitar) and Stephen Heath (bass) to join Stroke 9. During those brief vacation months, the band moved over to Esterkyn's garage, began writing songs in earnest, and played many gigs in any cafe, club, or party that would have them. "Music About Friends and Acquaintances (And People We Don't Even Know)" was recorded with Jim Reitzel at the end of this summer, and the 12 songs include "Help Me Change," "Yer Voice," new versions of "Wild" and "Carrie-Anne," and the "Marin" song.

In what was to become a pattern, the band would split up for school and reform for winter break and summer vacations. During these times Stroke 9 gained fans and momentum; moved to the famous Grange boxes (storage sheds) where Marin legends such as Protein rehearsed; began working with Tim O'Brien, who would later become their manager; and even opened for Keanu Reeves' band "Dogstar" at the Edge in Palo Alto.

The highlight of this part of Stroke 9's history is the CD "Boy Meets Girl," recorded at RO Studios in Concord, Ca, and produced by the band with Mark Hensley. Taking an entire week, this was their longest studio session thus far. Producer/engineer Hensley required only airfare from Seattle, a cot in Greg's parents' guest room (where the whole band was sleeping), $300 for the week's salary, and a single latte a day. Recorded and mixed in 7 days, Stroke 9 released "Boy Meets Girl" themselves, as they had with all their recordings. Between local record stores, live shows, and walking through the mall with a Discman and headphones, over 1,000 copies of this CD were sold.

Riding high on this success, Stroke 9 entered the next phase of its career.

In the summer of 1995, Stroke 9 bass player Stephen Heath made the difficult and painful decision to leave the band after 4 years to move to Los Angeles and pursue a career in acting. Remaining members Luke Esterkyn, John McDermott, and Greg Gueldner gave him a waiter's apron, bade him good luck, and focused their attention on the future of Stroke 9. With college behind them, the band was now a full-time possibility. Luke called Jeremy Fisch, a drummer from his Philadelphia ska band the Lids living in Lake Tahoe, and Greg moved from drums to bass. The group was once again complete.

The new lineup moved to Sonoma County, into a tiny, one-room cabin with a loft in Bodega, Ca, the famous setting of Hitchcock's "The Birds". Living off the garden and infrequent trips to Costco, the band soundproofed their house and spent long days jamming and writing music. Living as recluses, they wanted to create new material to help them move from the Marin cafe and house-party scene, and into the San Francisco club scene. Unfortunately, with no recording of the "new" sound of the new lineup, they couldn't get booked anywhere, including the City's worst pay-to-play venues.

In order to finance a new CD, the band committed to painting Luke's parents' house. Three long months later, the money had been secured. And if any money is ever made, Stroke 9 promises to have that house professionally painted.

The band rented two 8-track Alesis ADATs, and set up a control room on a deck outside of the cabin, with blankets and a tarp to cover the exposed mixing board and tape machines at night. Radio Shack was well represented in the arsenal of microphones used to track the 10 new songs the band had written. The final song, "Please Wait," has guitar and vocals on a single track, as well as snare and kick on a single track, because one ADAT crapped out on day 6 of the week-long rental period, leaving only eight tracks to record with which to record. The machines had to be rented again to clean up the song "Bingo," bringing the total recording time for "Bumper to Bumper" to 9 days.

Stroke 9 took its master ADAT tapes to The Plant recording studio in Sausalito, Ca, where parts of "Boy Meets Girl" had been recorded, and Luke had once interned. Chris Collins and Greg Forsberg of Youth Engine mixed the album in four hazy days. Then-manager Wayne Laakko helped lay out the cover and sleeve of the disc, and 1,000 copies were printed.

"Bumper" was released by Stroke 9's newly formed label, "Records, Man, Records!" So once again, distribution was on a store-by-store basis, with the majority of sales coming from direct sales in the malls with the Discman. One by one, Stroke 9 began selling off the first pressing.

After a series of large Marin shows, including the infamous bill with Jimmy 2 Times that closed popular all-ages club Mr. Q's, and seeing as S.F. clubs still weren't biting, Stroke 9 decided to tour.

Using the book "Book Your Own Tour," Stroke 9 booked a 2-month, 13-state tour for the spring of '96. The touring vehicle was a 1988 Ford Econoline Ambulance Conversion, previously used by the Los Angeles fire department, complete with emergency lights and bloodstains.

Towards the beginning of the tour, the band sold a disc to a Japanese television crew, who gave the band a video camera to film segments for a music program shown on TV Tokyo. Several of these episodes are rumored to have aired, and the accumulated tape was later edited down by John and Greg into a 90-minute documentary.

It was a typical indie tour, with zero road support. Stroke 9 kept afloat by selling an amazing amount of CD's in the malls, up to 10 a day. Lodging was couches and floors, and the gigs were up and down.

Upon return to the Bay Area, it was decided to leave Bodega for San Francisco, and make a serious push for the clubs. Slowly Stroke 9 cracked the scene, starting Mondays and Tuesdays at the Cocodrie, Mick's Lounge, the Boomerang, and other venues kind to new bands. Over the next year, Stroke 9, with full-time manager Tim O'Brien's help, worked its way up to headlining weekend shows at the Last Day Saloon, Blake's in Berkeley, Mick's, and Paradise Lounge (with Third Eye Blind opening).

A new song, "One Time," was recorded at the Plant with Youth Engine, and used to expand Stroke 9's regular bookings into all of California. Eventually, the crowds at the clubs weren't all friends or family, and Stroke 9's fans were increasing.

The Modern Era of Stroke 9 truly begins in April of 1997. On a warm Thursday afternoon, Luke and Greg made a call from their place of work, The Jug Shop, and asked Eric Stock to fill in on drums at a gig that night. This legendary show, at Mill Valley's Sweetwater, was a magical evening, and marked Eric's entrance into the band. Despite the fact that he had never heard the songs before, his performance was amazingly tight, and his style fit into the band perfectly.

Eric, a New York transplant who had previously toured with Modern English (but is not an original member of that 80's sensation), brought a new level of professionalism and musicianship to Stroke 9. He was convinced to quit the other two S.F. bands he was playing with, and was quickly ushered into Stroke 9, with all the pomp and ceremony that accompanies the drummer's throne. Eric's first trip with Stroke 9 was to the 420 Festival in Santa Barbara, and that mystical date now serves as his band "birthday."

The summer of '97 saw increased touring by Stroke 9, with frequent trips to L.A., Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and the entire California coast. At the Bite of Seattle Festival, Stroke 9 performed to a crowd of over 5,000, and sold every disc and tee-shirt they had brought with them. College radio began paying more attention to the band, playing "Washin' and Wonderin'" regularly. As a result of Eric's virtuostic talent, the "drum solo" became a regular feature of the set, wowing the crowd at "New Orleans By the Bay" at the Shoreline Ampitheater, in June of 97.

Eventually, record companies began to sniff around S.F. for Stroke 9. It was decided to record a brand-new demo, to show the growth of the band, and to have Eric's drumming on tape. The band enlisted Neil King (Green Day, Buck-o-Nine) to engineer and co-produce 5 songs. They were recorded over a week at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley in the fall of 1997. Manager Tim O'Brien began to shop this slick, new demo tape, and landed a BMI showcase for L.A.'s top music attorneys.

Towards the end of the year, Stroke 9 began working with lawyers Ken Hertz and Jonathan Haft towards getting a record deal. New Year's came and went, with more and more labels gaining interest. Stroke 9 landed a gig at S.F.'s Fillmore Auditorium on January 17th, 1998, and decided that would be the night to showcase.

As Jeff Stark wrote in the S.F. Weekly, "Representatives from at least 10 labels, including heavy hitters from Interscope, Universal, and Maverick, were reportedly sighted filing in and out of Stroke 9's dressing room."

A week after the Fillmore show, Stroke 9 agreed to sign with Cherry Entertainment Group, a division of Universal Records, for some kind of really awesome record deal. Day jobs were quit, emotions were gushed, and love was in the air.

With this new source of income, Stroke 9 moved to Gualala, Ca, on the Mendocino coast, to write and rehearse for the upcoming album. Lulled to sleep by crashing waves and barking sea lions, the band was relaxed and focused as they wrote day and night.

In March of 1998, Stroke 9 went down to L.A. to film a scene for Ron Howard's upcoming movie, "Ed TV." They play the bar band in a scene with Matthew McConaughey and Jenna Elfman.

More to come...