Striving Higher
Contact Information
WWW: http://www.strivinghigher.tk | EMAIL: info@engineerrecords.com
Available Releases
Striving Higher
Striving Higher
Band Biography
Striving Higher was formed in the spring of 2000 by Daan Schaars (vocals), Paul Wijnen (guitar) and Frits Hollebekkers (bass), three friends from a small town in the south of the Netherlands, after they found Jeroen Arts (drums) through an ad in a magazine. In December of that year, Joost van Gisbergen (guitar), then a member of a local hardcore cover band, was added to complete the line-up that is still intact today.
In February 2001 Striving Higher played live for the first time. Even though the setlist of the first show already consisted of mostly original material, the band had yet to find it's musical direction. Through the following year, the music evolved from simple, fast and basic hardcore to a more melodic, emotional and diverse yet equally energetic type of hardcore with personal as well as socially critical lyrics, all under the influence of favorites like Bane, American Nightmare and Shelter, as well as old school heroes such as Gorilla Biscuits, Youth Of Today and the earlier Dischord bands.
In June 2002, the band finally considered their repertoir good enough to go into a studio for the recording of their first release. Seven songs were recorded with Holland's best known hardcore and punk rock producer, Menno Bakker (NRA, Undeclinable Ambuscade, De Heideroosjes, Mainstrike, The Apers) at the famous Bunt Studio. The result of this session was the mini-cd "...at caelum certe patet" (latin for "...the sky at least is still open").
It came out in November 2002 as the first release of The Decline Records, nowadays also known for releasing material by bands like Justice, Downslide, Restless Youth, Act Of Ignorance and Jaguarz. After the release of this cd, the ball really started rolling for Striving Higher. The band started playing shows around (and sometimes outside) the country on a regular base, with bands like Ensign, Striking Distance, Inhuman, Face Tomorrow, Dead Stop and Born From Pain.
In the mean time, the cd received very positive reviews almost everywhere, while nearly selling out in it's first year of release, without any real distribution or promotional campagne to speak of. Two songs from the cd were eventually included on compilation albums: 'strength we've gained" on "NRG80" (Wanted Recordings), and "Don't give me..." on'the bonds we built" (New Day Records).
After more than a year of playing lots of shows, the band decided to slow it down a bit to be able to focuss more on writing new songs again. Also, Joost had joined old school hardcore band Downslide (ex-Reaching Forward, and one of Crucial Response's latest signings), while Jeroen was playing shows with his surf band on the side.
But in April 2004, after having written enough new songs, Striving Higher returned to Menno Bakker and the Bunt Studio and recorded ten songs. The band was so happy with these new songs that the following live shows didn't include a single song from the first cd anymore.
And now that this cd is ready, Striving Higher is more than fucking ready and unpatiently waiting to play everywhere again.
