Gothic Theatre

Rooney

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Rooney is a five-piece rock band hailing from Los Angeles whose music is reminiscent of artists spanning from the sixties to the present day. Although they have a distinctive style, their sound has been compared to everything from The Beatles to The Cars to Blur. Having toured the nation with acts such as Weezer and The Strokes, Rooney manages to capture elements from the past four decades and make them sound modern today.

The band was officially formed on November 22, 1999. No one knew what they were getting themselves into, but we knew that as long as music was involved, “it would be all good…” Robert Schwartzman was greatly inspired by his brother’s band, Phantom Planet, and decided to take guitar lessons. Robert then turned to Taylor Locke because he was the only kid in town who was real and talented and could play the guitar like “none other.” Later, at Robert’s school, Windward, he found Matt Star, the jazz soloist master and Teddy Briggs, the awesome jazz drummer with the cool hair. At the time, Teddy and Matt were quite anxious to join a band and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. But there was a problem; no bass player. Matt Winter, also a Windward student at the time, was recommended by several people and once he came to rehearsal and showed us his wicked skills, the band was complete. Four years after Robert originally started to take guitar lessons, Ed Rooney (our original name) emerged from the depths of cheetah songs dance (don’t ask)…

We recorded a short demo with three songs, “Someone’s Watching,” “Turn Away,” and “Blueside.” It sounded like shit, but many people enjoyed listening to us play. We gave the CD to Phantom Planet and they asked us to open for them at the Troubadour on December 17th, 1999. It was our first time ever performing live and everything played out the way we hoped . Throughout the next 6 months, we had a string of gigs around the Sunset Stip clubs and other venues, slowly building up our fanbase. Things were going pretty well for the band. We shortened the band name from “Ed Rooney” to “Rooney,” recorded our debut EP, Deli Meats in Tom Weir’s studio, and were all really happy with it..

Just before the EP hit public in July, however, we had to announce that the dynamic Teddy Briggs was indeed leaving the band for personal reasons, but on perfectly friendly terms. He helped us to show newcomer Ned Brower the ropes, whom we welcomed into the family that is Rooney. Ned continues to amaze us and has since become our very good friend. And from this point on, we hope to play as many shows as we can…as soon as possible. So come see us. You won’t be disappointed.

This Bio was taken from RooneyBand.com Coprighted to Rooney.