Highlight Reel
Band from Ventura CA
Formation and initial success
8stops7 formed in Ventura, California in 1996. Vocalist Evan Sula-Goff explained the meaning of the band’s name as, “Basically, seven is a symbol of something you want to get away from, and eight is the door you go through to get there.” After self-releasing their first self-produced album Birth Of A Cynic, the band signed with Warner Bros. Records/Reprise Records under the Warner Music Group umbrella in 1999 through their manager.
Their second album In Moderation was produced by Toby Wright (KoRn, Alice In Chains, Sevendust) and included re-recordings of 4 songs from the previous album. Two of the songs from In Moderation, “Satisfied”, and “My Would-be Savior”, were featured on the soundtrack of the Sony PlayStation game Street Sk8er 2. “Satisfied” was also featured in the Sony PlayStation 2 game Gran Turismo 3 and on its soundtrack. The video for “Satisfied” was featured on the MTV show 120 Minutes. “Question Everything” was featured on the Friends Again Soundtrack with other artists featured on the Friends NBC sitcom. Apple placed the music video for Question Everything on the Mac OS 9.1 CD, and later included a high-quality mp3 copy of the song to demo the new digital speakers included with the PowerMac G4 Cube.
To date, In Moderation has sold more than 400,000 copies, enjoyed widespread national radio airplay, and spawned two hits that landed on three different Billboard charts.
Exit from Warner
In 2002, when Time Warner, the parent company of 8Stops7’s record label, merged with AOL, every artist who hadn’t sold 1 million albums in the previous year was dropped with a promise of being re-signed in 2003. The rumour that Warner did not want to deal with the band’s manager anymore turned out to be false. Due to new politics, new executives and new opinions, the band was not re-signed. Because of the manager and agency’s continued faith and belief in the band they continued to tour and be booked by the William Morris Agency with the hopes to secure another deal. The band spent the next few years working to separate themselves from their manager to accomplish their new goals.
Current status
The current line-up consists of all four original members, singer Evan Sula-Goff, guitarist Seth Watson, bassist Cory Tarallo, and percussionist Adam Powell along with guitarist Rodney Amieva.
After raising money from fans through the pledgemusic.com website, the band released their fourth album Fables on February 8, 2012 The album’s first single is titled “The Sting”. “To come back as hard as this band has with Fables is not only to believe in yourself but to know who you are, unequivocally….From the first track to the last, Fables is exactly the kind of post-grunge melodic rock that’s expected of this band, only better…8stops7 is unattached and arena-ready. Get it.” Michelle Cicero, writing for the VCReporter