Hoobastank

Hoobastank is an American rock band, best known for their 2004 hit “The Reason” and other hits “Crawling in the Dark” and “Running Away”. They formed in 1994 in Agoura Hills, California, with singer Doug Robb, guitarist Dan Estrin, drummer Chris Hesse, and original bassist Markku Lappalainen. They are signed to Island Records and have released four albums and one extended play to date. Their fourth album, For(N)ever, was released in January 2009. They have sold 10 million albums worldwide.

Early career (1994–2000)

Hoobastank formed in the Los Angeles County suburb Agoura Hills in 1994. According to drummer Chris Hesse, vocalist Doug Robb had known guitarist Dan Estrin for some time before competing against him in a high school battle of the bands competition and subsequently, they decided to form a band.^[1] They then recruited Markku Lappalainen and Hesse to form Hoobastank, which at the time was spelled Hoobustank (pronounced the same way as “Hoobastank”). In an interview with Launch Yahoo!, Doug Robb said the name had no particular meaning: “You’re going to ask me what it means. It doesn’t mean anything. And it’s really cool, it’s one of those old high school inside-joke words that didn’t really mean anything.”^[2] However, on the December 16, 2003 broadcast of Loveline, they claimed the name came from a gas station in Germany near where a friend lives.

Hoobastank started playing gigs at the local venue Cobalt Cafe along with Incubus, 311 and others. They recorded their first full-length self-released album in 1998 called They Sure Don’t Make Basketball Shorts Like They Used To. It featured an unusual saxophone section headed by Jeremy Wasser, who executive produced said album and recorded the Summer Romance saxophone solo on Incubus’ S.C.I.E.N.C.E. album. By this stage, Hoobastank had developed a strong reputation in Southern California. This attracted interest from Island Records, who subsequently signed the band in 2000. At the time of signing, the band had completed a second full length album, titled “Forward”, also featuring Jeremy Wasser, however Island execs felt that the direction they were heading in would work best without a sax, so Jeremy departed the band and the album was shelved. A few tracks were rerecorded for release on the bands self-titled 2001 release. The original recordings from the “Forward” sessions made their way to the Internet via peer to peer sites in late 2001.

Hoobastank (2001–2002)

Hoobastank released their self-titled debut album in November 2001. The first single was “Crawling in the Dark” which was a breakthrough hit reaching #68 on the Billboard Hot 100, #3 on the Modern Rock chart, #7 on the Mainstream Rock chart^[3] and #1 on an MP3.com download chart in early 2002. Also, this song was featured in the 2002 inline skating game, Aggressive Inline, appearing on the Xbox, Playstation 2 and Gamecube consoles. The second single “Running Away” was even more successful reaching #44 on the Billboard Hot 100, #2 on the Modern Rock chart, #9 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #3 on the MP3.com download chart. The Hoobastank album went Platinum thanks to these hit singles and reached #25 on the Billboard 200 album charts and #1 on the Billboard Heatseeker chart.

The album achieved recognition internationally with the band touring in Europe and Asia in support of the record. “Remember Me”, the third single released from this album, was a moderate hit reaching #23 on the Modern Rock charts and #9 on the Mainstream Rock charts. The band made a song titled “Losing My Grip” for the soundtrack of the movie The Scorpion King.

In late 2001, Hoobastank was invited to play in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame due to the success of the album.

The Reason (2003–2005)

The band entered the studio in 2003 with producer Howard Benson. Recording was disrupted for a month when Dan Estrin was seriously injured in a minibike accident in August. Estrin had recovered by October and the band headed off on a Nokia Unwired Tour with The All-American Rejects and Ozomatli in November.

An interview was made with Chris ‘soldier’ Hesse, asking the same question all ask … “How did the band come up with the name Hoobastank?” He replied, “Doug’s brother is the vice president of BMW Motorcycles and lives in Germany. And there is this street out by his house that is called Hooba Street or something like that and before Doug could pronounce the name, he called it Hoobastank and it was kinda a cute thing and his brother still teases him about it to this day. When we were looking for band names it’s almost impossible to find a band name that hasn’t been taken. Anything remotely normal has been taken already. I don’t remember how it came up but someone said it and we were like yeah.”^[4]

Their second album The Reason was released in December 2003. It showcased a harder-edged vocal performance from Robb. The single “Same Direction” was made available for download on the band’s website. Doug Robb says on the band’s website: “A lot of it is about asking questions or questioning all that people see. It’s not all about religion. “Out of Control” is about that and about opening your eyes after being blinded by being devoted to anything.” “Same Direction” would reach #9 on the US Modern Rock chart, #16 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #16 on a composite World Modern Rock chart (based on the US, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Canada, and Australia). A year later, the Let It Out DVD collected the band’s videos. ‘The Reason’ was put to a popular music video on Tangle.^[5]

The title track was released as a single in the first half of 2004. It became a hit reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the US and World Modern Rock charts, #10 in Australia and #15 in Germany. The song was also played during the final episode of Friends. In Canada, it spent 21 weeks at the top, setting a new record for most weeks at No. 1. Meanwhile in the United States, the album reached #3 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

The band’s international profile was increased by a support slot on Linkin Park’s Meteora world tour in early 2004.

Is This the Day? (2009–present)

On September 2, 2009, Hoobastank announced on Twitter that they are recording an acoustic CD.^[12]

On October 30, 2009, Hoobastank covered a song “Ghostbusters” for Halloween and music video released on Hoobastank’s official YouTube channel.

On December 8, 2009, Hoobastank released a live album Live from the Wiltern available elusively through iTunes.

On January 19, 2010, Hoobastank released a new song entitled “We Are One” as part of a compilation from Music For Relief in support of the Haiti Earthquake crisis.

On February 12, 2010, Hoobastank released a new song entitled “Never Be Here Again” as part of the Team USA Olympics soundtrack.

In May 2010, the band announced that they will be performing an acoustic live tour at several places in Japan. And in June 2010, they announced that will they be releasing an acoustic album entitled Is This the Day? in August. It was released on August 4, 2010 in Japan^[13] and on August 10, 2010 in US.

Hoobastank
Hoobastank at MTV Asia Awards 2006, From left to right: Dan Estrin, Doug Robb, Chris Hesse and Josh Moreau.
Background information
Origin	Agoura Hills, California
Genres	Alternative rock, post-grunge
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Island
Website	http://www.hoobastank.com/
Members
Doug Robb Dan Estrin Chris Hesse Jesse Charland
Past members
Markku Lappalainen Jeremy Wasser Derek Kwan Josh Moreau David Amezcua