Language Room is an American indie/alternative rock band based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. Its members are Todd Sapio (

song writer A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

), Scott Graham (

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 ...

backup vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

), Matt Graham (

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, backup vocals), and Sean Hill (

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 ...

). In 2014 the band changed its name to KIONA.

History

Sapio and Scott Graham originally met in

Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With an estimated 3,878,704 residents within the city ...

, where they were each pursuing careers as professional musicians. After little progress and hard luck, both became frustrated with the music scene in LA. Unbeknownst to the other, both Sapio and Graham decided to change directions by relocating to Austin. After a chance encounter during the 2007

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

conference, the two reunited and began collaborating. Scott then invited his brother Matt Graham to join the group on bass guitar. Shortly before an important gig, the group's drummer canceled. Caleb Kelly stepped in to cover the performance and subsequently became a permanent member. In 2008, the quartet won a local battle of the bands competition and used the money to record and release a three-song EP. Shortly after its completion, Sapio met

Blue October Blue October is an American Rock music, rock band originally from Houston, Texas, formed in 1995. It currently consists of singer/guitarist Justin Furstenfeld, drummer Jeremy Furstenfeld, multi-instrumentalist #Personnel, Ryan Delahoussaye, b ...

bassist

Matt Noveskey William Matthew Noveskey (born June 16, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, guitarist, and bassist, best known as the bassist in the bands Blue October and Harvard of the South (band), Harvard of the South, and as bassist ...

in a guitar shop in south Austin. Noveskey, also a producer when not playing with Blue October, liked what he heard and expressed interest in doing a full-length album with Language Room. After successfully scraping together enough loans for the recording sessions, the group released its debut album ''One By One'' in February 2009. Based on the strength of this album, Language Room signed with both G&G Entertainment and Pazzo Music. Later in 2009, the band, experimenting with new revenue streams, raised $10,000 on crowd funding platform

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

, which was relatively new at the time, to purchase an RV and fund a tour. News publication

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogra ...

recognized Language Room as the first entity from the Austin area to successfully complete a Kickstarter campaign, kicking off a string of successes for the town generally known for its artistic and technological leanings. On August 10, 2010, the band released ''Language Room,'' its record label debut. A majority of the tracks were originally on ''One By One'' and were reworked and remixed for the Pazzo release. Two new tracks were written and added: "Quiet Eyes" and "Frantic". In July 2011, Kelly amicably left the band to pursue other projects. Sean Hill then joined the group on drums. In December 2011, after a second successful Kickstarter campaign, the foursome went into the studio with producer Dwight Baker (

Kelly Clarkson Kelly Brianne (born Kelly Brianne Clarkson, April 24, 1982), known professionally as Kelly Clarkson, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Rising to fame after winning the American Idol season 1, first season of ''Ameri ...

Bob Schneider Robert Schneider (born October 12, 1965) is an Austin, Texas based musician and former lead singer of the rock band Ugly Americans. He has recorded and officially released over 20 studio albums and EPs, many on his own Shockorama Records label. He ...

Alpha Rev Alpha Rev is an American alternative rock band from Austin, Texas, fronted by Casey McPherson (formerly of Endochine). McPherson remains the group's only consistent member. However, historically the core members have also included Zak Loy on l ...

Dixie Chicks The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) are an American country music band from Dallas, Texas. The band consists of Natalie Maines (lead vocals, guitar, bass guitar) and sisters Martie Maguire (vocals, fiddle, mandolin, guitar) and Emily Stra ...

) to record new material. The result was an E.P. entitled ''Skin & Heart & Lungs,'' released on January 3, 2012.(2010). Language Room Official Biography. Retrieved from http://languageroom.net/multimedia. The group recorded their second full-length album, ''Midnight Holiday'' with Matt Noveskey producing the sessions. The album was released in February 2014.

Discography

* ''E.P.'' (2008, produced by Derek Jones) * ''One By One'' (2009, produced by

) * ''Language Room'' (2010, Pazzo Music, produced by Matt Noveskey, mixed by Chuck Alkazian) * ''Skin & Heart & Lungs (E.P.)'' (2012, self-released, produced by Dwight Baker) *''Midnight Holiday'' (2014, self-released, produced by Matt Noveskey)

References

External links

Official Language Room Web Site

Fender Artist Profile

Language Room on iTunes
{{Authority control Indie rock musical groups from Texas Musical groups from Austin, Texas