The tale of Roadside Revival should be made into a film because it has everything a good story needs: drama, despair, drugs, a magical apartment house, and a happy ending – but more about that later...

The band was formed in 2006 by american singer-songwriters Jeffrey Hayes and Kym Cooper. For Jeff the band became essential – a much needed outlet for the songs that saved him. Yeah, we know the whole “music as a life-saving force“ spiel, but in Jeffrey’s case it’s actually true.

He was born in 1969 and grew up in the Watchung Mountains of New Jersey. Ten kids, Jeffrey the youngest. Dad’s filling station doesn’t feed the family. When the gas bill has not been paid you put a camping-stove on top of the gas-stove and cook dinner anyway. When Jeffrey is six, his mother dies. He realizes that singing feels good, preferably alone in the woods, sad songs for the squirrels. Country and Hillbilly, his parents‘ favorite, the older siblings Rock’n’Roll, the songs from sunday school – everything blends and it blends well.

Jeffrey finds a guitar. There is no way back now. One day he finds himself in New York City. He plays street-corners. He discovers the Ramones. A new blend, folk with the ‘fuck-it’-attitude of punk rock, it’s weird, it’s perfect. Jeffrey moves to Los Angeles. Gigs in coffee houses, homemade cassettes, odd jobs to survive. He sings and dreams. Drugs help him dream and nearly kill him. He opts against it. In 1998 he visits a friend in Germany and stays. Music for Munich street-corners.

Then the first CD, “tree”, produced in his bedroom. Critical acclaim. Two tours with Ani Difranco. A handful of tours with other artists. Mainstream and riches? Not really. Instead: he meets Kym Cooper and they form Roadside Revival. Songwriting and recording, produced by his friend, Maximillian Hecker. When Kym Cooper eventually goes back to Texas, the future seems dark for Roadside Revival. It’s hard to find musicians who share Jeffrey’s love of Folk and Country and not only pretend to do so. Enter Jeff Golding, long-time neighbor and multi-instrumentalist who grew up on an old farm in New Zealand and likes to sing about it. He becomes a Roadside member. He understands Hayes‘ songs as he too has many siblings and ended up in Munich due to strange and crooked ways. At a gig they meet Andrew the bass player/Katia the drummer – Roadside Revival is a band again! Andrew is also not from Munich. He came via San Diego, he’s an author and has seen a lot of the world. He loves Iron Maiden and everything’s fine. They rehearse in Jeffrey’s kitchen and their E.P. reaches #1 on Reverbnation’s Folk & Country charts. Their international fan base is growing. Everything’s fine but in true Roadside tradition – the road gets rough. In the middle of recording the new album the drummer quits – new job, new life. Once again it seems to be the end of the road, but whoever thinks that doesn’t know the true story of the apartment house the two Jeffs are living in...for some reason the house attracts talented musicians from all over the world. Why? No one knows.

While taking out the trash Jeffrey Hayes meets a guy who just moved into the building. They talk about the Ramones and Brian Wilson and realize that this guy is looking for a band. Till just returned from New York where he played in a Brooklyn-based Post-Whatever band. He becomes the Roadside’s new drummer that very same evening. This makes the band complete. By way of N.J., New Zealand, Brooklyn, and San Diego. Roadside Revival has finally found it’s home!

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