Via Satellite

Drew Andrews: Vocals, guitar, laptop, keyboards
Scott Mercado: Vocals, guitar, sampler keyboards
Tim Reece: Drums, sampler

There have been other incarnations of Via Satellite. Another lead singer. Two bassists long gone. But the Via Satellite that Drew Andrews, Scott Mercado and Tim Reece currently call home has become more than an assemblage of musical talent, it’s become a brotherhood. The experimental rock symphony that the Via Satellite trio are conducting with their samplers and loops and laptops and guitars is rocketing the band past conventional musicality and into a universe all their own.

“Via Satellite has had various stages of development,” remembers Andrews. “We started with just hanging out and playing, getting into the studio, then we began performing live, and now we’ve moved on to deconstruction and just complete electronic reinvention of our songs. To tour, make art, and play music. Simple."

At the inception of Via Satellite, things were tough. Personality clashes were par for the course with an ex-minister (Andrews), a lit major (Mercado) and an artist/psychologist (Reece) in the same room. There was never enough time to record when day jobs and different musical directions got in the way of tours and records and all the things that bands are wont to do. Then things started to click. Mercado and Andrews moved themselves into a dual-frontman setup and began to collaborate more prolifically. The music that began to come out was cinematic, a mix of ambient noise and art rock. National tours soon fell into place and the band was thrust into creative mode. In contrast to how unspectacular the band’s journey to success has been – with the typical changing members, grinding day jobs and little time to record – the spectacular part has always been the music.

“The hype was never what brought people to this band, it was the music,” Reece says.

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