Singer/songwriter Geoff Rana was studying at AIM when he formed The Jefferson with bass guitarist Jared King and two other students in 2005. The line-up has since changed but Rana and King are still members of the band, which is generating plenty of buzz.The four-piece melodic rock band have just finished recording their debut studio album, “A Safe Return to Earth” with ARIA Award-winning producer Craig Porteils, who has worked with artists such as Guns n Roses, Fleetwood Mac, Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll.
A release date for the album hasn’t been confirmed yet but early January has been mooted, says Rana. Meanwhile, the band return to AIM this month in order to film a video clip of their popular song “Running” in the institution’s new auditorium. Rana, who graduated with a Bachelor of Music Contemporary Performance (Hons) in 2008, has been writing songs for many years now. In 2000 he travelled around Europe with his guitar, ending up in Ireland where he won a song-writing competition. Returning to Perth in 2004, he played with a band called Stellar then heard about AIM and enrolled in 2005. He met Jared King and together they formed a band with two other students, which they called The Jefferson after the name the original drummer used to call Rana (as in Geoff-erson).
When the original drummer and guitarist moved on, they were replaced by drummer Dion O’Connor, who was recommended to Rana by a friend at AIM, and guitarist Andrew Turner, who was a friend of Rana’s. “This line-up has only been together for a year,” says Rana. “The sound is still evolving but you can feel we’re a band. It feels really good.” Craig Porteils certainly saw potential when he caught them playing live at one of their Sydney gigs. With Porteils at the helm, The Jefferson recorded a self-titled EP in January, featuring five tracks including the popular “Running” and “Days Are Falling.” “Utopian Management said they liked the songs on the EP would that they’d really like to hear an album,” says Rana. “Then we won $5000 through a Triple M competition and decided to put it into doing an album.” Named after a chapter in a book about astronauts and outer space, which just happened to be in the studio when they were recording, “A Safe Return to Earth” features the five songs on the EP and another eight tracks, all written by Rana. Interest in the band is building nicely.
The Jefferson were recently featured on top new music site www.ourstage.com coming 3rd in the pop category and were in the top 10 in the www.mysongcast.com song competition winning a month of promotion on Facebook and a review from Universal Music, which described them as “a band with lots of potential.” With a big, melodic sound, The Jefferson are often compared to British bands like Snow Patrol and Stereophonics. “We’ve been told we could do really well overseas,” says Rana, “so I think that’s where we’ll be looking – to the UK and LA markets.”
For more information about The Jefferson visit: www.myspace.com/thejeffersonband |
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