See if you agree with so many others who believe that this band has "cracked the code" and produced something that is brand new but at the same time so familiar that you already know it by heart, created something totally unusual that has already sold millions and millions of records and then combined it all in a package that nearly everyone who sees it wants to get a piece of the rock. Or in this case the Rock Sugar.
It all began when lead vocalist Jess Harnell was vacationing on a tropical island and got a very intriguing idea. An Emmy nominated "man of a thousand voices" (who gets to use many of them singing in this band) and already one of L.A.'s premier studio singers, Jess was named by Variety magazine as "One of the Top 10 Voiceover Actors in the Business" boasting credits from "Animaniacs" to "Transformers"to "Finding Nemo." (Please imdb him for a full list of Jess's credits). However, Jess's first love was always fronting a band and performing rock music – "I just wanted to see it be fun again!" His idea was simple: what if a heavy metal hair band in 1989 got stuck on a desert island and the only music they had to keep them company in all the years since then was the very 80's pop CD collection of a 13 year old girl? What if you took the best loved metal riffs of the 80's and laid the melodies and lyrics of that decade's best loved pop songs over those riffs?
Not a mash up in the traditional sense but a complete transformation of two of the worlds favorite but wildly separate genres of music into one. "And from the beginning we knew it had to be done with integrity and real attention to quality" says Jess. "After all, these are the songs that we and everybody else love! We want to give you all your favorites songs that you've heard a million times before but in ways you've never even dreamed of."
Jess promptly took the idea to his best friend and musical partner, guitarist Chuck Duran, a successful L.A. recording studio owner, producer, musician and all around V.T.G. (Very Talented Guy). Chuck shared Jess's vision and promptly came back with "Don't Stop The Sandman", a seamless merging of the sweet sounds of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin" with the thundering power of Metallica's "Enter Sandman." The result was Rock Sugars first video and single which has spawned an internet sensation, is already in heavy rotation at rock stations around the world – and is growing by the day.
But the band didn't stop there. The sugar, and the songs, kept flowing. Rick Springfield met Ozzy Osbourne, Paula Abdul danced with KISS and somehow, AC/DC and Madonna finally came together – in one song. As Jess describes it "Rock Sugar is the perfect band for the ADD generation because every 45 seconds the song you were listening to turns into a different one and you have a brand new shiny object!" Two years of painstaking work later, the band released their first album, the aptly titled "Reimaginator" to rave reviews worldwide. Combining 13 raise the roof anthems which integrate no less than 34 of the world's favorite songs, word took off like a shot and the album received rave reviews worldwide – and you can read them in the press section at rocksugarband.com. Within six weeks, the "Don't Stop The Sandman" video, with mainly word of mouth to promote it, had over 300,000 hits on Youtube – and now Rock Sugars combined Youtube hits of their various songs are rapidly
The next step was for Rock Sugar to begin booking their high energy and enormously entertaining live show around the world and within six months they were opening arena shows for some of their favorite bands like the Scorpions and Queensryche, becoming the first band in the history of the Memphis In May to open and close the days performances when they stepped up to fill in for headliner 3 Doors Down who were stranded in Nashville. And let's not forget Rock Sugar's triumphant spot at the 2010 Download Festival in England alongside AC/DC, Slash and Aerosmith – and of course 120,000 screaming rock and roll fans.
And so the Rock Sugar story has begun. The band continues to add fans and radio stations all over the world and as Jess Harnell says, "there's something magical about the idea of hearing all of your favorite songs from two such different genres of music played at the same time! The Rock Sugar album and live show are like a big surprise party where the surprises just keep going and going and the crowd doesn't get a chance to sit down." So prepare to have the line between pop and metal blown to smithereens and pour yourself a shot of Rock Sugar. Because Pop Rocks.
