Lifestyles Of The Not-yet Famous
Continued

by Erin Kosnac
photos by Tim Harrison

Madonna Would Be Proud

Joe Dennis and Jamie Stillman were at The Record Revolution in Cleveland. A box of demos for the Deftones sat outside the store – free for the taking. These were the tapes The Party of Helicopters' first demos would be recorded on.

Joe Dennis gazes past the crowd.

"The only thing I recognized on the tapes was Madonna's record label Maverick," Dennis, the band's singer, says. "And I remembered she put out Candlebox, so I figured they must be pretty bad.

"Jamie and I took all the tapes and made our first demo on those. Some of the covers were napkins, and some were brown bags cut to fit inside a tape case. I haven't seen one of those things in three years."

The four members of The Party of Helicopters, a heavy metal influenced rock band, have all been friends since their days in high school. For Dennis and drummer Jon Finley, it was an instant friendship.

"Finley said he liked my Anthrax shirt," Dennis says. "And it was only the first day of school of our freshman year."

Dennis and Finley, bass player Ryan Brannon and Stillman on guitar, form the band, which has been together for about five years.

"Most of us just like to play music and can play all the instruments," Stillman says. "We're actually not playing the instruments we started out playing. They're the same instruments we've always played in the band. But the drummer is really a guitar player, and our singer is really a guitar player. And our bass player is really a guitar player. And I'm really a drummer.

"But we formed it just because we were bored, and we're like, 'Let's just form this band so we can play these instruments.' And then it became fun, and people liked it. So we kept playing and went on tour. And before we even realized it, we were a band."

Dennis realized he was part of something special when he first sang with the band at a party.

"I remember I told some people they were all really lucky to be there. This was something special," he says.

"And here we are now," Dennis says, "and it seems like we have done a bunch of stuff."

Five years. Eight records. Seven tours.

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