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Division Day has been around since 2001, the summer in which the four lads (Ryan Wilson, Rohner Segnitz, Seb Bailey, and Kevin Lenhart) moved into a house in Santa Cruz, sound-proofed a bedroom, put together an EP, and played their first few shows. After that summer, it was back to school for 2 more years; Division Day performed now and then, and every summer they took up residence in new unglamorous practice spaces (garages, portable trailers, laundry rooms). It was in the final of these collegiate summers that the band wrote and recorded their second EP, The Mean Way In, working with engineer Alex Oana (Kid Dakota) at San Francisco's Tiny Telephone studio.
Fast forward past 18 final months of school, past a move to New Orleans and back for Rohner, past a Costa Rican sojourn for Kevin, and we find the band back in LA, finally ready to continue the trajectory they had started years earlier. Division Day quickly settled in the "Rock Block", a bank of studios and rehearsal spaces in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of LA, where they shared a backyard with Earlimart's studio, The Ship. The band played shows constantly, making trip after trip between the Bay Area and LA, touring with both LA- and San Francisco-based bands, and building an ever-increasing fanbase in both halves of the state.
By 2005, Division Day had set to work writing their debut full-length, Beartrap Island. Once again, the band went north to San Francisco to record, tracking with engineer Scott Solter (John Vanderslice, Mountain Goats) at his home studio, and mixing once again at Tiny Telephone. All told, it took seven sleepless weekend sessions spread out over a 9-month span to complete the record. As Beartrap was taking shape, the band continued their steady pace of performances. They also managed to complete their first music video, which was masterminded by director Chris Levitus (Radiohead Most Gigantic Lying Mouth DVD) and producer Anthony Deptula (Kill Rock Stars DVD's for the Decemberists, the Mae Shi).
Since Beartrap's completion, Division Day has toured relentlessly, earning a reputation as riveting performers as they made numerous runs through the North- and Southwest. These tours, while quite successful, were not without some incident; in one short year, the boys were slapped with a year-long expulsion from Canada (busted without work visas), and spent a night in jail in Spokane (ridiculous burglary charges, since dismissed). Undeterred, Division Day headed east in October to New York's CMJ festival, where they garnered an inclusion in the New York Times, and sold out their headlining show at Union Hall. Their success has continued back home with a sold out February residency at LA's Spaceland, and in Texas, where they tore through four shows within a 24-hour span at this year's South by Southwest festival.
Division Day recently signed to Eenie Meenie Records and their acclaimed Beartrap Island will be re-released by the label complete with new artworkd and two additional previously unreleased tracks.
