iSound

Long Before serendipity stage-drived into Lola Ray and a platinum-selling band signed them to their new label, John Balicanta, Brian Spina, and James McIvor were just a bunch of seventh graders hanging out in the O.C. They attended St. Margaret's, a parachial school in the small missionary town of San Juan Capistrano, California. Brian moved from Northern California, John had lived in Saudi Arabia, and James relocated from his native U.K. The three spent too much time loitering at Disneyland, throwing crap at the lunch lady ("mammoth hunting"), and replacing their prohibited piercings with clear fishing line. MOre than anytnig else, however, they obsessed over music. Meanwhile, three thousand miles due northeast, in Syracuse, New York, Alex Smolinski, similary fanatical about music, was taking it out on the drums. "Brian was the school's bad-ass guitarist," explains John. "On free dress days he'd wear a Slayer t-shirt. I was in awe of him." But when th...