DRIVE is proudly sponsored by 323 FASHION!
Drive on the move!
Drive was founded in 2004 by Gerard Kolodejcak with aspirations of eventually introducing original music to their audience. Tony Palmari, manager for Wise Guys, a hotspot for San Antonio's nightlife, hired Drive for their first performance on September 17, 2004. This was only 3 weeks after the members began rehearsing together. Over the next year, Drive restructured to improve its level of professionalism, production and then by introducing stronger members into the group. Gerard teamed up with Izzy Hernandez, formerly with Zomba Music Publishing, also having accomplishments being part of groups signed to Capitol EMI, and Sony Music. Along with playing Bass Guitar, Izzy added the professional business structure needed for the group to move forward on its journey to success with its original music. In March of 2005, Jack Saenz, chief engineer at KHM Studios, multi-Grammy award winner and a close friend to Gerard and Izzy, offered some studio time to the band on short notice. The group had original music but not polished enough for the studio. In a matter of 3 hours, they wrote and recorded the song "Why Don't You" which became it's first of many original hits with the fans. Even with all of its positive momentum, Drive was still in need of a major aspect, Live Production. In October of 2006, Jack Saenz came onboard, not only with his studio experience but with over 15 years of road experience as a production manager and engineer for acts such as Rick Trevino, Garth Brooks, LeAnn Rimes, and The Rolling Stones among others. As when Izzy first came in and structured the business side of the group, Jack restructured the live performance side and fills the rolls of Sound Engineer, Lighting Director and Production Manager. Drive's latest additions, John Hernandez (guitar) and Mando Aussenac (drums), along with their years of touring around the world has brought additional strengths to the group with thier strong song writing and arrangements as well as their incredible live performances.
Drive released their long awaited debut album in October of 2007. The members of Drive took a hiatus from their jobs in order to have the time to write new music for the album. The songs have been performed in their live show and have become the most requested songs in their musical line up by their fans. A varied range of rock styles in their originals has captured a wide cross section of fans ranging from Pop-Rock lovers to the heavier Rock style lovers. The group is currently working on material for a new album slated to be released mid 2009, although this has been a challenge with their six day a week performance schedule that spans through 2009. Since their debut release, the group has performed with artists such as Buck Cherry, Army of Anyone, The Burden Brothers, Drowning Pool, Finger 11, Powerman 5000 and has also had Sean Morgan of Seether perform ???Remedy??? with the group. Drive's established and growing fan base has managed to break sales records for most of the venues performed at, (still hold these numbers to date), and has increased it's MySpace traffic to over 120,000 hits and over 2500 friends.
With Drive's success with the fans comes success with professionals in the industry as well. Shortly after their debut release, Drive has been sponsored and supported by companies such as Electro-Voice, Yorkville VTC, Red Bull, BP Lighting and Sound, Miller Lite, as well as potential future business ventures with Coors Light, Hughes and Kenter, Ludwig, Hofner guitars and several others. March of 2008 marked a new milestone for Drive with an endorsement from Electro-Voice which has provided them a brand new, all EV microphone package. Along with their elaborate light show consisting of 10 moving lights, trussing, LED lighting fixtures, and more, a brand new state of the art line array sound system has been added. Drive is the first band to have the Yorkville VTC speakers out on the road. A huge Video system is in the works for the near future.
Drives dreams of becoming a success in the music industry are slowly becoming reality. With their solid foundation as musicians, management, and production, the obstacles ahead will be overcome with ease.
