Keeping Sanity

Keeping Sanity is an American Indie Alternative Rock band formed in late May 2005 in Woodland Park, Colorado. Their sound has been best described as an operatic drama played out through hushed vocals. In addition, clean drumbeats with distorted melodies, two secondary vocalists (Stephen & Cole) along with Jeremy Clegg's near whispered voice all give the band a sense of deep structure. Their lyrics are question based and at times poetic, often thought provoking the listener to reply. They have gained a solid local fan base in their hometown Woodland Park, Colorado.

On their MySpace they cite their influences as Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Blindside, Saosin, The Academy Is, and Anberlin. All younger bands, but not surprising considering the average age of its band members as 18. Even more surprising though is the maturity seen in their songs at such a young age.

In 2007, Keeping Sanity was voted by the Colorado Springs Gazette as "Best Local Band." The Gazette said, "Rock music is all about energy, and that’s what these four Woodland Park teenagers deliver by the bucketful. They play original power pop with driving beats and great guitar interplay, practically guaranteed to stick in your head for days."

The band is currently working on an album entitled Waking in the Face of Beauty which is due to be out summer of 2007.

Members
*Jeremy Clegg - guitar, lead Vocals
*Cole Laborde - rhythm guitar, vocals
*Stephen Knowlton - bass, vocals
*Aaron Campbell - drums, percussion
Former members
As stated off of their PureVolume
*Natalie Paris - bass
*Douglas Danial - guitar
*Wade Shaw - bass
*Stephen Knowlton - bass, guitar, vocals, songwriting

History
Keeping Sanity started in May 2005 with original members Jeremy Clegg, Stepehn Knowlton, Aaron Campbell, Natalie Paris, and Douglas Danial. The band played multiple shows, until they eventually decided that a third guitarist was unnecessary and Douglas was asked to leave. After playing several more shows in venues around and in Woodland Park, the band decided to fire Natalie Paris due to "Issues with a PMSing woman". After a long search, and auditioning several hopefuls, local Bassist Wade Shaw was accepted into the band. This new member proved to be the milestone of the new Keeping Sanity. As Shaw was being trained, the band decided on adding a third guitarist, Cole Labored. The band played its first show with the new group, and Shaws energy caused an uproar and soon they were dominating Battle of the Bands competitions in their small area. The group had no idea that when they took Shaw on as a bassist, they had also enlisted the help of his mother Ragon Shaw, who had much experience in the music industry, and was able to help the band find shows and make merchandise.

As time progressed the band took a new turn. Guitarist Stephen Knowlten quit due to family issues, and the band settled on having two guitarists.At this point the parents decided that teenagers making good music and having fun was an irrational idea and that the events which transpired during shows, practices, and discussions needed to leave the realm of adolescent fun and enter the world of corporations and politics. The parents of all the members of the band came together to form the bored of directors for the new Keeping Sanity Corporation. Many weeks into this new system, the band began to fracture.

At this point, much to the discontent of Shaw, but to the delight of the corporation, Knowlton returned to the band, claiming to have "changed". This new detail caused the strain already put on by the corporations involvement in the bands decisions to worsen. The band split into two opposing branches. Campbell and Labored, who were entirely for the corporations involvement, as well as Knowltens position on the band. the second being Shaw, and at times, Clegg, who loathed the power that the corporation held over them and didn't believe that Knowltens return should be a celebrated event. After many weeks of arguing, Shaw and Clegg came out on top, when Knowlten left the band once again. He would soon return, but it would be a short and irrelevant stay.

Although Knowlton was gone, the stress caused by the demands of the corporation remained. The corporation wished for the band to become more mainstream, and "sell out" to the modern day pop-music. Shaw was quoted as saying "This is all a load of bullshit. I don't want to sound like some hawthorn heights cover band struggling to get out of my mom's basement. Music comes from inside a person, it isn't some false generated slime that can be forced out of a brain and onto a guitar". But as time progressed, the corporation demanded change, and for Shaw to keep his liberal trancendentalist ideas to himself. Things went on like this for some time, until the band was unable to cope with Shaws opinions and asked him to leave.

Thinking that all problems had been solved, the band continued, the remaining members becoming mindless slaves to the tyrannical corporation. Knowlton returned yet again to play bass for the group, but having lost their most valuable asset, Ragonn Shaw, they spent nearly eight months without playing any shows. It wasn't even a year before Stephen yet again left the group. The band continued to fall apart when Labored quit, then returned, and Clegg decided to retire from singing.

The band is now struggling to find a singer and a bassist.

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