Although rock quartet Solea's self-titled debut was not released until 2005, the impetus for the band stretched all the way back to a European tour in the summer of 1996 between a popular first-generation emo band, Texas Is the Reason, and the long-running pop-punk act Samiam. The primary singers and songwriters of each band, Samiam's SERGIE LOOBKOFF and Texas Is the Reason's GARRETT KLAHN, bonded over the course of this extensive haul and began writing songs together on their shared tour bus, fleshing them out during sound checks. After the tour ended, the pair kept in touch, but their respective professional commitments kept the project from moving much past the idea stage. Even after Texas Is the Reason split up in 1997, Klahn went on to form a short-lived new band, The New Rising Sons, while Loobkoff spent his spare time in his hobby band, Knapsack. At loose ends in 2001, Loobkoff and Klahn found themselves without bands at the same time and formed Solea, inexplicably named after a song by Miles Davis. Complicated by the fact that Loobkoff and drummer Johnny Cruz (also formerly of Samiam) lived in Los Angeles and Klahn and bassist Niko Georgiadis lived in Buffalo, NY, Solea's first songs were written and demoed through the mail before being recorded at former Pavement drummer Gary Young's studio in Stockton, CA, in early 2002. Those songs, available through the band's website and on a self-released demo, led to a second EP, Even Stranger, in 2003. During a volatile tour promoting Even Stranger, Georgiadis and Cruz left the band, replaced by bassist JOSEPH ORLANDO and drummer Scott McPherson (formerly of Sense Field). This lineup of the band wrote and recorded their self-titled full-length debut, released in Japan in early 2004 and in the United States on the Textbook Music label in October 2005. Solea's second album, Finally We Are Nowhere, was scheduled for release in December 2006, following Loobkoff's temporary diversion with a reunited Samiam. ~ Stewart Mason, Rovi