Lo-Pro (album) explained

Lo-Pro
Type:Album
Artist:Lo-Pro
Cover:Lopro coverart.jpg
Released:September 30, 2003
Recorded:2003
Studio:NRG Recording Studios (North Hollywood, California)
Genre:Hard rock
Length:42:14
Label:Geffen/413 Records
Producer:Aaron Lewis
Don Gilmore[1]
Next Title:Letting Go
Next Year:2009

Lo-Pro is the debut studio album of Lo-Pro, released on September 30, 2003.[2] [3] It had one single in "Sunday" which garnered considerable radio play upon release. Throughout 2003 and 2004, Lo-Pro toured with groups like Staind and Three Days Grace in promotion of the album before being dropped from their record label.

Background

Singer Pete Murray and guitarist Neil Godfrey had previously played together in the band Ultraspank. After releasing 2 albums in 1998 and 2000, the band split up in 2001. Burned out and disillusioned, everyone parted ways to do their own thing. However, Murray and Godfrey eventually got back together with making music. Godfrey summed it up as:

During the Spank progression Pete M. had always been doing his best to record stuff, keeping up on technology updates. By the end of that time he was getting really good with Pro-Tools. So I think about 2 or 3 weeks went by and I'd been playing my guitar. I called up Pete and said I had some ideas to lay down.The Spank guys were all going in different directions. With the pressures of the industry gone and the freedom to do anything I wanted, we started writing songs. The result was so refreshing in the fact that we could record ourselves and make these great sounding recordings we could listen to.[4]

The demos they created in these sessions were the starting point for the album. Eventually, they were able to gain the attention of Aaron Lewis, lead singer of the band Staind, and was signed to his vanity label, "413 Records", through Geffen. Through this, they configured the rest of the band, and began work on the actual album, with producing being done by Aaron Lewis and Don Gilmore.

Release

The album was released on September 30, 2003. It peaked at no. 9 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and stayed on the chart for two weeks. One single, "Sunday", was released from the album, and while it did receive moderate radio airplay, another single was never released, and the band was later dropped from the label in mid-2004.[5]

Murray later would express a number of regrets on the album, ranging from it being "over-produced" [6] to not releasing "Oblivion" as a single.[7]

Known "homemade" demos

These are songs known to have been worked on by Pete Murray and Neil Godfrey when they were creating demos in one of their homes:

Single charts

SongChartPeak
position
Year
"Sunday"Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks202004
"Sunday"Billboard Modern Rock Tracks272004

Personnel

Additional personnel

Notes and References

  1. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/don-gilmore-mn0000798368 Don Gilmore credits at Allmusic
  2. "Staind's Lewis Makes Lo-Pro Look Like Chopped Liver, But It's All Love - Group released self-titled debut Tuesday" MTV.com. Oct 3, 2003.
  3. "Lo-Pro Coming this Tuesday" Melodic.net. Sep 28, 2003.
  4. "Interview with Neil Godfrey for a college magazine in late 2005 " Posted to the Lo-Pro message board on Nov 6, 2005.
  5. "Lo Pro Has Parted Ways With Geffen" Melodic.net. Jun 9, 2004.
  6. Fredrickson, Mark: "Pete Murray of LO-PRO " Ink19.com. February 2008.
  7. Markunas, Jim: "Lo-Pro – Interview With Pete Murray " CWG Magazine.com. Apr 16, 2010.