The Mae Shi 'Hlllyh' album

We are the Mae Shi. We were born in Los Angeles in late 2002. We tell our grandparents that we are a rock-and-roll band, because when the lens of history pulls back far enough, that term fits us well. We tell our co-workers and classmates that we are an experimental band, because that term preps the uninitiated for the no-frills venues we perform at (like The Smell in our hometown) and the bands we choose to perform with (like Health, Abe Vigoda, Child Pornography, and Silver Daggers). We tell our younger brothers and sisters that we are a punk band, because we are a punk band and we think it's important for people to know that punk rock doesn't mean liberty spikes and safety pins.

However, we tell you, the press, that we are a pop band, because that's how we see ourselves and that's what we want to be. Pop music is a highly refined and potent drug that changes the way people think and behave. Our goal is to change lives.

We do everything ourselves. This isn't a boast. It's as much a product of necessity and our obsessive-compulsive behavior as it is some band ethic. In the past five years, we've written, recorded and mixed four records ourselves. We've played nearly 300 shows, mostly self-booked, throughout the world. We've designed and hand-screened hundreds of band t-shirts. We produced a DVD, which documented our first U.S. tour and collected 35 videos directed by friends. We've built (and marketed and sold) our own instruments. We've produced and directed music videos. We wrote this bio you are currently reading.

Currently, there are six members of the Mae Shi: Brad Breeck, Jeff Byron, Tim Byron, Bill Gray, Jon Gray and Marcus Savino. You are likely to only see four of us on stage at any given time, but the rest of us are lurking in the shadows. We've been told that "mae shi" means "business card" in Japanese. This is fitting, because the band is our business card. The band is our self-help vehicle, and as our personal goals change, our roles within the band change.

Amidst all of this change, some things are constants. What's been done has been done, and it's of little interest to us unless we can repackage it in a new and exciting way. The only option is to forge ahead, to try new things, to test out bad ideas, to all try to sing and work together and hope the road we're on leads somewhere. It's about the journey and the destination. This all sounds immensely airy but we believe it -- at its core the rock and roll band is a surrogate family for our culturally extended childhood, it's our self-help group, it's our soap box, it's a way to see what we're really capable of. Growing up is tough. This is our attempt to grow up.

On February XX, we will release our newest record, "HLLLYH," on our own Team Shi label. We are very proud of this record. We worked obsessively on it for two years. Like all of our albums, it is a concept album. While you may gravitate to songs like "Lamb & Lion" and "Run To Your Grave," we hope you listen to the record from start to finish, because we've presented a story with a beginning, middle and end.

We are the Mae Shi, and this is our story. It's about self-improvement and trying to live life at the top of your lungs. It's about living life rightly, respecting others, and trying to sort out all the static and figure out what matters. We do this in basements and backyards and in fancy clubs we don't even feel comfortable in. We do this in living rooms and bathrooms and bedrooms and wherever the sound sounds best. We do this with ten dollar keyboards and Olvera Street guitars and with light-reactive synths we built ourselves. We do this with broken cymbals and busted speakers. We do this the first thing when we wake up. We do this after a hard day at work, when it's the only solace and life seems to be a constant source of frustration. We do this on weekends. We do this all the time.

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The Mae Shi - Hlllyh