Gatsbys American Dream is an American indie rock band from Seattle, Washington. Since their founding in 2001, they have released four full-length albums and one EP. The band's self-titled fourth album, their second on Fearless Records, peaked at number 22 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart and number 28 on the Top Independent Albums chart. The band drew their name from F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.
Origins and Why We Fight
The prototypes for the songs on the band's first record, Why We Fight, were (according to Bobby) written by his earlier band, One Point Two on Together Records (Killed For Less Records) out of Richmond Indiana. Scott George owner of Together Records/Killed For Less Records says One Point Two CD is still available on interpunk.com and to this date claims it to be ahead of its time and ground breaking. This band was made up of Bobby, Casey Bates, Josh Berg, and Dustin McGhie. The group later met up with the former guitarist and singer of Good for Nothing, Nic Newsham and Ryan Van Wieringen, and formed Gatsbys American Dream. Although Casey Bates never joined the band, he has remained their producer throughout the band's career.
When Acceptance guitarist Kaylan Cloyd heard a Gatsbys demo, he handed it to Darrick Bourgeois, owner of local record label Rocketstar Recordings. Shortly afterward, Gatsbys signed a two-record deal with Rocketstar and worked with producer Aaron Sprinkle to record their 2002 debut album Why We Fight.
Shortly after the release of their first album, the line-up changed when bassist Josh Berg left and Kirk Huffman (formerly of K Through Six) was recruited. He is often recognized as the only bassist because Berg never toured with the band. After the band's first tour, Dustin McGhie also left and the band found Rudy Gajadhar, formerly of Waxwing and Bugs in Amber.
Ribbons and Sugar
In 2003, the band released their second record, Ribbons and Sugar, a concept album based loosely on George Orwell’s fable Animal Farm. Musically, the album found them exploring a harder-edged pop sound, opting for unusual time signatures and tempo changes. Although literary references are common through most of their material, Ribbons and Sugar also began a motif of record label disdain. The lyrics of "Cut the Strings" read: "This is awful to think who decides what should or should not stay, what ends up on the cutting room floor. Apparently it's not my choice to make."
In the Land of Lost Monsters
Gatsbys' two-record deal with Rocketstar was fulfilled with Ribbons and Sugar, and the band decided not to renew their contract. Later, guitarist Ryan Van Wieringen would leave the band to further his college education.
Following the release of Ribbons and Sugar, the band did a showcase with Drive Thru Records. Slightly embittered by the process, the band signed a one-record deal with Chicago-based LLR Recordings in 2004. Their contractual record, the more mellow and subdued In the Land of Lost Monsters EP, was in part a response to the post-Ribbons record label attention the band had received. Labels that approached them wanted the band to write choruses for their next record (a standard songwriting technique the band had, up to that point, seemed to avoid). Newsham and Darling's lyrics for Lost Monsters reflected this struggle, criticizing the music industry and expressing the band's wariness of record labels, although this was not the only theme of the album. In addition, many of the literary allusions on this EP centered on A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin as seen by the songs The Dragon of Pendor and The Loosing of the Shadow, although Darling has denied that the lyrics of "The Dragon of Pendor" were about the Le Guin book in particular.
Volcano
Several months after the EP's release, the band settled on Fearless Records and released their third full-length, Volcano, in April 2005. Thematically, Volcano revolves around Pompeii (as evidenced by the title of the second track on the record), which stands as a metaphor for the uncontrollable intensity of human emotion. The album is rife with literary and cultural references from such diverse works as children's film Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Lionhead Studio's Fable, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the action film Jurassic Park, and Orson Scott Card's science-fiction epics Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead.