-Circle of 5ths Ready For A Lively Year - Sacramento, Calif.

-- Pulling together one of the more unique combinations for a band, the Sacramento-based, heavy sound of Circle of 5ths are heading straight for a big year in 2002 with plenty of happenings already surrounding the band including some big shows and a brand new, debut full length disc about to hit the radar. Featuring a bulldozer style guitar-drum-bass mixture all set to melodic, strong vocals, this band, whose members have an extensive past, has laid their groundwork already, just a scant one and half years into their actual existence.
Featuring a cast of characters that runs the gamut of diversity including drummer Thommy Jacobs, bassist Mike McNellis, vocalist Shyra and the apparent ringleader and guitarist Steve Mahoney, Circle of Fifths provides a wide appeal for their fans with their sound and stage show, mixing a grooving vocalist with a wall of metal.

-The Three Meet The Fourth
By the mid 1990's, guitarist Steve Mahoney had run the course with his current band Spectre who, in their own career, had a successful six year run which included several full scale tours and four independently released albums. Mahoney had seen this project rise and ultimately break apart, but his creative mind was not finished and needed a new outlet.
Soon after the demise of Spectre, Mahoney hooked up with a brand new band based in the Sacramento area which included all of the members of Circle of 5ths, minus their future vocalist. Drone, which featured Mahoney (who also sang), Jacobs, McNellis and one time Circle of 5ths guitarist Drew Rosen, also had an extended career, this time spanning from the mid to late 1990's. In this time, the band would record many different tapes and discs (most notably was their last official release "Machines of Tolerance") and play countless shows to a solid following in the capitol city area. However, Drone would eventually see the end of the line as a new beast was taking shape, even if they didn't even realize it until later.
"After being together for over four years and hashing it out, I think everybody felt that Drone had had its day. I talked to a lot of people who thought that there was something missing with the band that they could not really put their finger on. So I put my own finger on it and felt it was me as the singer. Later I would start writing material thinking of a vocal line, but the voice wasn't mine," Mahoney related.
The voice in his head was that of Circle of 5ths vocalist Shyra. Starting at a very early age by singing at church and keeping her creative mind continually working, Shyra's path to becoming the front woman for this band certainly did not follow that of the usual heavy band. Her past credits include dancing stints for ultra-popular hip-hop and R & B stars such as MC Hammer, Bobby Brown and Paula Abdul all the while completing back up vocal projects for various artists during her career.
With her status as the vocalist for Circle of 5ths, Shyra also has the ability to change conventional thinking and break apart the usual trends. "Just being in this genre of music and loving artists like Jimi Hendrix and Lenny Kravitz and being a female artist and black (Egyptian / Latino), I can make a difference as well as they could. You don't see too many females of color doing this type of thing" she explained. "I am definitely into doing this with these guys because I wanted a change of music than what I was used to doing."
Ironically, Mahoney met Shyra during the height of the Drone era, hooking up for various projects and musical creations. It wasn't until towards the end of the Drone days did this idea become more of a reality. "We have a nice relationship together as friends and we respect each others abilities," Mahoney continued, "so we- thought maybe we should do a band. We thought maybe that that is what our band needs and what she needs and she was saying how she liked our band and what we did."

Early Circle of 5ths History
In what was probably an unintentional twist of fate, this band hit the stage for the first time, armed with a brand new four track EP entitled "Blurring The Lines", on May 5th, 2000 and began their live show career. They would eventually follow that show up with their second gig at the annual Stockton Skate Park Show in Stockton, CA in late May 2000 and seriously have not looked back since the first steps.
Their recording and stage show combined was intended to break open the popularity from the outset, but the band didn't receive the attention they had expected.
"We thought, and still think that we have, as a band, something very unique and at first we thought we would come out and shock people and they would immediately love us. That didn't really happen. We were wrong about that. But people have really warmed up to the band over time and we have quite a loyal fan base now who keep coming back to our shows," Mahoney summarized.
Indeed, over time, Circle of 5ths have gained a larger following and planted their name squarely in the middle of the NorCal Underground Scene and, probably in the not to distant future, in the national scene as well.
The disc they created, "Blurring the Lines", completed in just under thirty-eight hours time, provided a strong glimpse into what sound this band ultimately was after, with the punishing metal met by Shyra's smoothed vocals. Several tunes made their way to the radio in the Sacramento area and the press dipped into what this act brought to the collective table. Over time, Circle of 5ths have continued their presence in the scene and have grown together to create today's incarnation of the band, with a brand new disc set to be released early this year.

The New Recording
-With a year and half together as a unit and only a four track disc out on the street, the band's next move was to pull together a full length disc of brand new tunes for their current and new fans.
Recorded at Big Worm Studios (open since 1996) in Sacramento and engineered by Randy Valdez (the same combination as their initial EP), the band is taking their time with this new effort, going through it with heavy attention to both detail and sound. Of the tracks to be included on this effort, "Bitter" offers a heavy skipped chunk riff, "Closure" offers a cool vibed bass interlude and a harmonic wrapped inside the sound, and "I'll Be" which works with a hooked riff and into a powerful direction.
At the time of this article, the vocals had not been laid down yet and Jacobs was finishing the drum tracks to a couple of the tunes. What was played over the speakers in the engineer's room at Big Worm brought the power and precision of their EP, but added a lot of maturity to the structures and riff work with heavy drumming. The guitar tone was full on Steve Mahoney, with that very thick, big boned sound literally crushing through the small speakers.
"We have more maturity in our songwriting definitely. We have grown as a band and as a unit," Jacobs added.
"Every band grows together as a group," Mahoney continued, "and we all know what each other is capable of and have the ability to write songs that showcases each persons ability and still be really good songs at the same time."
With the addition of Jeff Keller as their new manager (who, ironically enough, manages the North American activities for former Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno) to help with the new recording, band business and record distribution, this new disc, due out in March 2002, should easily work this band's name more into the mainstream thinking while remaining rooted to their heavy style and sound.

A Positive Spin and Lively Stage
-While this band's message touches on a lot of subjects, this collective hopes to elicit some positive energy and vibes throughout their sound. Working within this genre where the trend is to call on very dark material to create the landscape, Circle of 5ths uses the dark edge to spin the story into a forward moving message.
"We still do touch on the dark subjects of life as a lot of the heavy rock bands out there dwell on the very dark aspects, but we are trying to be one of those few bands that shed a little bit of light," Jacobs confirmed.
"It is definitely positive. I don't look at our lyrics and message as 'strictly this' or 'strictly that'. It is more universal. We talk about everything," Shyra added.
Circle of 5ths takes that vibe and translates it to a vibrant stage show, using their stark combination of appearance and sound to their benefit. "There is not a lot of bands who have really powerful lead singers or really powerful stage presence in front of their band. We have both with Shyra," Mahoney explained. Shyra, with a dancing career behind her and now as a vocalist, takes a performance to another level, especially in the metal genre with her striking presence, beautiful face and writhing movement on stage. For most shows, she almost immediately becomes the center of attention when performing, generally drawing in a range of people who also find the music once attached. But what obviously does it, even if sub-consciously, is her deeply melodic, almost hauntingly pretty, at times, voice as she layers the crushing type guitars behind her.
"Being a dancer, you have to be able to dance to anything." Shyra related. "It was just the guys, especially the young crowd who knows the whole Britney Spears thing and them thinking that this was some kind of Britney meets metal type of show. But if they see you grooving to the music they accept it."
Indeed, the audience has accepted this band and their status in the underground continues to grow, including bigger shows (like opening for the legendary Living Colour on January 20th, 2002 at the Boardwalk) and their forthcoming new recording.
Yes indeed, it should be a lively year for this band.