The Crash Motive, a five-man outfit creating a refreshing and memorable sound, is poised to explode into the national consciousness in much the same way it has in its native Delaware. That's where local radio jumped all over "Waiting (Save Your Life)", while the band was still finishing their degrees at the University of Delaware. On October 9th, 2007 the band released their first album CONSEQUENCE nationally with Wind-up Records. The band's first single "Not Giving Up" has been featured as a promotional song for NBC's hit television show "Friday Night Lights". The song first received atten... (+) expand

The Crash Motive, a five-man outfit creating a refreshing and memorable sound, is poised to explode into the national consciousness in much the same way it has in its native Delaware. That's where local radio jumped all over "Waiting (Save Your Life)", while the band was still finishing their degrees at the University of Delaware. On October 9th, 2007 the band released their first album CONSEQUENCE nationally with Wind-up Records. The band's first single "Not Giving Up" has been featured as a promotional song for NBC's hit television show "Friday Night Lights". The song first received attention last year as a featured track on EA sports Madden 2007 video game. It has gone on to be used on ESPN's NFL Live, as well as being played for millions of fans in professional sports stadiums and arenas across the US.

Prior to arriving at the University of Delaware, singer Derek Fuhrmann had no idea that in four years he would be fronting a band with a worldwide recording contract. The college experience exposed him to classic rock acts like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, as well as guitar-centric bands including Radiohead and the Dave Matthews Band. “Napster opened my ears to a whole new world of music. Primarily, music of substance, which was right there at my fingertips. Getting to know these artists and their music is what inspired me to start writing my own songs.” By his sophomore year he’d begun playing guitar and decided that he wanted to surround himself with people who were more advanced musically than he was.

Fuhrmann went online and started searching profiles for “University of Delaware students; drums” and so on, and collected an immediate database of potential partners. “That way I was able to cherry-pick the type of band I wanted to create. Jamie Orlando (keyboards) was the only one who actually was willing to meet with me and explore the possibilities. Everybody else,” he chuckles, “kind of ignored my instant messages.”

Orlando is a self-taught musician who’d experimented with everything from jazz to electronica before that fateful first meeting with Fuhrmann. He recalls, “When I first met Derek he had only been playing guitar for a couple of months – I wasn’t sure what to think, but then he started singing and I realized that this was something I should stick with.” Fuhrmann counters, “I didn’t know what to think when I first met Jamie. Here is a guy with hair below his shoulders, a black Metallica shirt on, and he’s asking me to jam with him to a book of jazz standards.” What transpired was an impromptu session where Orlando improvised over Fuhrmann’s guitar and vocals. Fuhrmann concludes, “I figured if he didn’t want to do that, he was not the guy for me.”

In the meantime, fellow Delaware students Josh Berger (bass) and Tyler Ingersoll (drums) had been playing together in a number of bands. Berger recalls, “I’d met Tyler during our freshman year, when I was still playing guitar. He came over to my place one day and we just played all day and into the night. The police finally came and shut us down.”

The pair was eventually drafted into The Crash Motive, to be joined a short time afterwards by guitarist and college buddy Shawn Manigly. “I was really the one to introduce electric guitar into the band,” he shares. “When I joined, our sound became much more rock-oriented.”

Ironically, the largest common bond between the five members wasn’t their musical influences, but their drive and determination to make music their first priority and somehow survive doing it. Berger recalls, “We would come up with a list of goals every six months, and we were usually able to check each of them off at the end of that period. One of the very first goals was to build a fan base of at least 25 people who’d come to every show – not counting people the group already knew. We thought that would be impossible, but we blew that number away pretty quickly.” Manigly adds, “There is a business aspect to what we do, which we take very seriously. We know that if we want to achieve our goals and build a long career, we have to do things right.”

In the spring of 2007, the band hit the studio with producer Don Gilmore (Linkin Park) to record “No Tomorrow, Just Tonight”, the lead track from their debut Consequence. Fuhrmann says, “This is a song about living in the moment, which I believe is essential for everyone if they want to live life to the fullest. It’s a concept that has helped me get through some of the hardest times and to truly enjoy the best times.”

The album title Consequence draws from an experience in Fuhrmann’s life, and the lyrics written about it in the song “Believe It”. He tells the story, “I was home one evening working on a new song, but all I had demoed was the backing tracks which I felt had a raw emotion. I had no melodies or lyrics to paint the canvas with. Suddenly, I realized I was late for an appointment. I was rushing down the road when a nasty motorcycle accident occurred about fifty yards ahead of me. Myself and a number of other drivers rushed to assist the victim. He was holding his bloody head in his hands as if thinking to himself, ‘How did I get here? What could I have done differently to avoid this nightmare?’ As soon as I got home that night, the song wrote itself.”

Berger offered, “Our career choice has provided us with a lot of experiences that we wouldn’t have had otherwise, we feel very honored each time we play for a crowd.” Fuhrmann added, “I hope that people will relate to this album, and to the five of us. That’s what makes playing music so rewarding.” (-) collapse