Count the Stars was an American

pop-punk Pop-punk (also punk-pop, alternatively spelled without the hyphen) is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop music, pop. It is defined by its fast-paced, energetic tempos, and emphasis on classic pop s ...

band from

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

, that formed in 1995.Count the Stars
biography at

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

After recording two albums, one with

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Victory Records Victory Records is a Chicago-based record label founded by Tony Brummel. It operates a music publishing company called "Another Victory, Inc." and is the distributor of several record labels. It has featured many prominent artists including Thu ...

, the band split up in late 2003.

Biography

Count the Stars formed after the breakup of Chris Kasarjian, David Shapiro, and Clarke Foley's old band from high school. They had decided they wanted to make music their primary focus in life so Chris began writing new songs with David Shapiro and Clarke Foley. Adam Manning, a long time friend from another local band, joined them completing the band’s lineup. As an unsigned band named Visual Reason, they recorded "Another Useless Night," their first album, and released it on Dreamsand Records. They sold upward of 5,000 copies. They went to malls and local shows to promote the new album and developed a strong underground following. The band signed to the

based

. They then recorded the early 2003 release ''Never Be Taken Alive''. After the release, they toured with bands such as

Taking Back Sunday Taking Back Sunday is an American rock band from Amityville, New York, formed by guitarist Eddie Reyes and bassist Jesse Lacey in late 1999. The band's current members are Adam Lazzara (lead vocals), John Nolan (lead guitar, keyboards, voc ...

The Early November The Early November is an American rock band from New Jersey. The group formed in 2001 and signed with Drive-Thru Records in 2002. , they have released two EPs '' For All of This'' (2002) and '' The Acoustic EP'' (2002) and seven full-length a ...

Fall Out Boy Fall Out Boy is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, lead guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer A ...

, and Copeland. They also appeared on the

Vans Warped Tour The Warped Tour is a touring rock music festival that toured the United States and Canada each summer from 1995 until 2019, and returned in 2025 for its 30th anniversary. By 2015, Warped was the largest traveling music festival in the United S ...

. Their touring came to an abrupt stop when they were in a van accident in September 2003. After the accident, they soon embarked on a full US tour at the beginning of November, which was cut short when the band suddenly and officially broke up on November 30, 2003. The band stated that they were not compelled to continue their musical effort. They also made it clear that they would not point fingers or give out specific details as to why they split. Clarke Foley and Adam Manning both went on to become members of the bands

The Reunion Show The Reunion Show was an American pop-punk band from Long Island, New York. They released one album on Victory Records before three members of the group moved on to form Action Action. History The group formed from members of Step Lively, the ...

and

Action Action Action Action was an American indie rock band, formerly signed to Victory Records. History Action Action was formed in 2004 by members of The Reunion Show, Count The Stars and Diffuser. The band signed with Victory Records and released their ...

. David Shapiro went on to become a talent agent for United Talent Agency and The Agency Group, before co-founding his own San Diego-based agency in 2018, Sound Talent Media. In 2020, Shapiro helped create the National Independent Talent Organization (NITO) to support music professionals during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. He also owned a record label named Velocity Records and a flight school, called Velocity Aviation. He died on May 22, 2025 while piloting a small plane that crashed in San Diego.

Band members

* Chris Kasarjian –

Vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

and

Rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

Adam Manning Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam sin ...

–

Lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

Clarke Foley Clarke is a surname which means "clerk". The surname is of English and Irish origin and comes from the Latin . Variants include Clerk and Clark. Clarke is also uncommonly chosen as a given name. Irish surname origin Clarke is a common surname i ...

–

Bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

*Dave Shapiro –

Drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Discography

* ''Another Useless Night'' (2001) - Dream Sand Records * ''Never Be Taken Alive'' (2003) -

References

External Links

* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1995 Pop punk groups from New York (state) Rock music groups from New York (state) Victory Records artists