ALLELE
3/2/2006
Florida band finds Flint home
by Christina Fuoco, The Flint Journal First Edition
Flint's Machine Shop is like a second home for the members of Allele.
"I love that place. The way they treat you and the venue itself and the people and everything," singer Wally Wood said of the Dort Highway club, which is bringing back the Florida rock band for its first headlining gig there.
"When we leave Jacksonville, out of all the places we play, that's probably the place we most look forward to," Wood added.
Allele (pronounced uh-leel) was formed three years ago by Wood and former Otep guitarist Lane Maverick. Wood was playing in a band when Maverick returned to Florida from California. A mutual friend brought him to see Wood's band.
"He wanted to get together and start something, but I am very band loyal, so I was like, 'You're more than welcome to join the band I'm in now but I'm not going to leave it.' He joined and we played a few shows," Wood explained. "We kind of wanted to go a different direction with the stuff and the other guys didn't, so we started Allele and went through a few members, played show, established a drum player and a bass player and played out for a while."
After a tumultuous run with the band Cold, guitarist Kelly Hayes joined Allele in March 2004. The band is rounded out by bassist Tim Tobin and drummer Giancarlo Autenzio The band signed to Corporate Punishment Records, run by ex-Cold associate Thom Hazaert, and released its debut CD, "Point of Origin," featuring the first single, "Closer to Habit," in October.
The album was recorded at Cleveland's Spider Studios with producer Ben Schigel (Chimaira, Drowning Pool, Breaking Point). Wood, who aided in the album's production, said Schigel and Allele's record label gave the band a lot of creative freedom.
"He had a lot of great ideas on the vocal stuff. He was easy to work with. He wasn't like, 'It's going to be my way or the highway because I'm the producer,'" Wood said.
During the recording process, Schigel taught Wood to be more subtle with his choruses, especially on the single "Closer to Habit."
The band has been touring constantly, opening for Saliva, Yellowcard, Nonpoint, Staind, Sevendust, Earshot, Trapt, Shinedown, Socialburn, 12 Stones and Godhead. Wood admitted opening for violin-laced rockers Yellowcard was an ill fit and somewhat disconcerting.
"It was an odd bill, and somebody tried to get us kicked off the bill. It didn't happen because it was at a university. They (the university) really wanted us to play. But we ended up playing the show," Wood said.
"Punk fans are very, very brutal. But in the first song, they were moshing like crazy. They loved the band. They booed the second band after us it was just great. Not that it's great to get booed, but it's great they didn't boo us," he added with a laugh.
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