Forever The Sickest Kids

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Hometown:: Dallas, Texas, United States
Founded:: 2006
Genre:: Alternative
Label(s):: Universal Motown

Website:

http://www.foreverthesickestkids.com/

Members:

Jonathan Cook (Lead Vocals) [(2006-Present)]
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Caleb Turman (Guitar/Backing Vocals) [(2006-Present)]
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Austin Bello (Bass/Backing Vocals) [(2006-Present)]
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Marc Stewart (Guitar) [(2006-Present)]
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Kyle Burns (Drums) [(2006-Present)]
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FORMER Members:

Kent Garrison (Keyboards) [(2006-2011)]

Biography

There isn’t a person on the planet that could’ve predicted that the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, area would be the breeding ground for a new strain of loop-driven pop-punk. That’s where goofball sextet Forever The Sickest Kids melded their love for hip-hop grooves, pop songs and loud guitars into an alloy that’s charmed audiences all over the world. In 2004, vocalist Jonathan Cook, guitarist Marc Stewart, keyboardist Kent Garrison and drummer Kyle Burns were members of the pop-punk/emo band the Flipside who got some traction in the local scene, playing side stages when the Vans Warped Tour came to town and were even spotlighted as a top unsigned band in AP&R. Around the same time, bassist/vocalist Austin Bello and guitarist/vocalist Caleb Turman were playing out as the acoustic duo Been Bradley. When the Flipside called it a day, Cook contacted Bello and Turman to see if they’d want to be part of a post-Flip’ project. In late 2006, the six dudes became FTSK; the first song they wrote, “Hey Brittany,” generated massive attention on networking sites like PureVolume and MySpace. Besides attracting millions of fans, the song caught the attention of various major-label reps liking what they heard. FTSK aligned with Universal Motown the following year, releasing their first EP, Television Off, Party On that summer. That record was followed up by their 2008 full-length, Underdog Alma Mater, a collection of ridiculously hooky pop gems powered by Garrison’s laptop loops and the boy-band-hanging-in-the-alley vocal characterizations of the band’s three singers. In 2009, the band concocted a plan to record a series of EPs: The first, The Weekend: Friday was released later that year, featuring such crowd-pleasers as “What Do You Want From Me” and “She Likes (Bittersweet Love).”

But the fun doesn’t end in three-and-a-half-minute increments: FTSK are also known for wiseguy antics that have made them equally loved and reviled. Whether they’re forgetting to turn off their exaggerated fronting (where other bands playing with FTSK at the 2009 Australian festival Soundwave were psychically lining up to put the beatdown on them) or running snarky fan contests (the winners got to hold Stewart and Turman’s guitars like human stands for an entire show), they always seem to figure out how much they can get away with. “We have this punk-rock mentality,” drummer Kyle Burns told AP in 2009, “of just having fun and making sure everyone we’re talking to is having fun. It comes off as being jerky, retarded or immature. So we get in trouble a lot.”