Crossbreed (band)


Crossbreed was a six-member industrial metal band from Clearwater, Florida, formed in 1996. They were signed with Artemis Records before being dropped from the label in 2003. The band released two EPs and three full-length albums before disbanding in 2010.

History

Early years

Crossbreed was formed in 1996 as a four-man band consisting of James Rietz, Chris Nemzek, Charlie Parker & Travis Simpkins. A year later they added keyboardist Jason Troph who left in 1998 to front the Orlando-based band Irrational. He was replaced by Phil "Flip" Marquardt. Their self-produced album .01 was released in 1998 with only 1,000 copies made; the album featured a cover version of "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak.
In 1999, Dan "DJ" Izzo joined the band as their Turntablist/2nd Keyboardist. It was at this time that he began developing their stage show using black lights and glow paint, which helped bring the band to the attention of the music industry.

2000–2005

On April 29, 2000 Crossbreed played Tampa's 98Rock's radio festival, Livestock, where they met the girls from the band Kittie. They gave them a copy of their Babydoll EP, which found its way to the A & R Rep for Kittie's former label Artemis. Crossbreed was signed to Artemis by the end of the year and their debut album, Synthetic Division was released nationally on May 8, 2001. Their first single, "Underlined", debuted on MTV2 & MTVX. The video for that song was nominated for a Billboard Music Award. In the summer of 2001 they toured the U.S. and Canada with the German band Rammstein and did a short run with Static-X. Synthetic Division has sold to date a total of over 100,000 copies. In what would be a sign for the future, bassist Charlie Parker left the band after a show on April 20, 2002. Crossbreed then parted ways with their label in 2003 and after a show with Orgy on May 2, 2004, bassist Bishop, keyboardist "Flip", and drummer Simpkins left the band as well. Later that year, Izzo would also leave the band. James Rietz & Chris Nemzek chose to continue and re-form the band with new members.

2005–2010

With a new line-up and manager, Crossbreed spent their time writing new material and doing shows in Florida, including opening for Orgy, Mushroomhead, and Mindless Self Indulgence. On July 25, 2005 they released their self-produced EP New Slave Nation and toured the Midwest with Mushroomhead and Dope on the "Music for Freedom" Tour. The following spring, they went out with Nothingface and Silent Civilian for a brief time before dropping off the tour due to conflict. Since that time they have toured again with Mushroomhead as well as alone throughout the Eastern U.S.
As of May 14, 2008, it was noted on Subkulture's Myspace Blog that Kem Secksdiin was co-writing and performing numerous songs on the upcoming Crossbreed album.
In July 2008, Crossbreed opened up their own audio-visual recording studio. Dubbed "The Candy Factory", the studio was located in the warehouse district of Downtown Clearwater, Florida and served as the studio where Crossbreed's new record KE 101 was recorded.
In June 2008, Crossbreed signed with "Driven Music Group", the new label of ex-Korn guitarist, Brian "Head" Welch. According to the band's , KE 101 was scheduled to be released in late spring/early summer 2009 via Ryko distribution, but due to the company going under, they decided to sign with Crash Music, an affiliate of Driven Music Group. Due to this and several other issues, KE 101 was released on September 15, 2009.
Crossbreed played their last show on December 17, 2010 at The State Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Hiatus and other projects

Frontman James Rietz released this statement on the band's hiatus:
"I will start out with nothing is official cause nothing stays gone, but, as of now, Crossbreed and its members will be moving on to other projects. We have had a great run, but after all these years, some of us have never had a chance to expand beyond Crossbreed.
Personally, Chris and I have been doing this group on paper for 14 years and have never had a chance to do anything else. As some of you might know, we have our studio which will be running as usual, but there has to be a point where some journeys end to begin new ones.
Now, I’m not saying there will never be another Crossbreed show, I’m only saying that Crossbreed will no longer be the primary focus any longer for our members."
Members of Crossbreed James Rietz and Ian Hall teamed up with Tamara Kemp to form a band called "Shu-Tang". They released their first EP "Drink Til You're Hott" on March 1, 2011. On September 2012, they released a video for the song "Dance Like A Zombie".
Kem Secksdiin released solo album called on January 12, 2010. The album features guest appearances from Crossbreed's singer James Breed on the song "Night " and F@mu$ for the song "rEZuRekdEAD".

Members

Final Line-up



ImageSize = width:950 height:450
PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0 right:50
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
Period = from:1996 till:12/17/2010
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Colors =
id:Vocals value:red legend:Vocals
id:Guitar value:green legend:Guitar
id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass
id:Drums value:redorange legend:Drums
id:Keyboards value:purple legend:Keyboards
id:Lines value:black legend:Releases
id:Turntables/Electronics value:lavender legend:Turntables/Electronics
id:Programming value:lightorange legend:Programming
Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom
ScaleMajor = increment:1 start:1996
LineData =
at:12/14/1998 color:black layer:back
at:05/08/2001 color:black layer:back
at:07/25/2005 color:black layer:back
at:09/15/2009 color:black layer:back
BarData =
bar:Rietz text:"James Rietz"
bar:Nemzek text:"Chris Nemzek"
bar:Parker text: "Charlie Parker"
bar:Bishop text: "Bishop"
bar:Floyd text: "Corey Floyd"
bar:Marquardt text: "Phil "Flip" Marquardt"
bar:Tropf text: "Jason Tropf"
bar:Inskeep text: "Travis Inskeep"
bar:Hall text: "Ian Hall"
bar:Secksdiin text: "Kem Secksdiin"
bar:Izzo text: "Dan "DJ" Izzo"
bar:Simpkins text: "Travis Simpkins"
bar:Morris text: "Chris Morris"
bar:Bartolotta text: "Angel Bartolotta"
bar:Fox text: "Dan Fox"
bar:Cais text: "Mike Cais"
bar:Diesel text: "Jay Diesel"
PlotData=
width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:
bar:Rietz from:01/01/1996 till:end color:Vocals
bar:Nemzek from:01/01/1996 till:end color:Guitar
bar:Parker from:01/01/1996 till:06/01/2002 color:Bass
bar:Bishop from:06/01/2002 till:01/01/2004 color:Bass
bar:Floyd from:01/01/2004 till:end color:Bass
bar:Simpkins from:01/01/1996 till:01/01/2004 color:Drums
bar:Morris from:01/01/2004 till:01/01/2006 color:Drums
bar:Bartolotta from:01/01/2006 till:06/01/2006 color:Drums
bar:Fox from:06/01/2006 till:01/01/2007 color:Drums
bar:Cais from:01/01/2007 till:01/01/2008 color:Drums
bar:Diesel from:01/01/2008 till:end color:Drums
bar:Marquardt from:01/01/1998 till:01/01/2004 color:Keyboards
bar:Inskeep from:06/01/2004 till:01/01/2006 color:Keyboards
bar:Inskeep from:06/01/2004 till:01/01/2006 color:Programming width:3
bar:Tropf from:01/01/1997 till:01/01/1998 color:Keyboards
bar:Tropf from:01/01/2004 till:06/01/2004 color:Keyboards
bar:Izzo from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2005 color:Turntables/Electronics
bar:Secksdiin from:01/01/2006 till:end color:Keyboards
bar:Hall from:01/01/2005 till:end color:Keyboards
bar:Hall from:01/01/2005 till:end color:Programming width:3

Discography

Albums