Josh Havens - guitar and vocals
Matt Fuqua - guitar and vocals
Brad Wigg - bass and vocals
Marc Dodd - drums
"Beautiful Love" was used as the theme song to MTV's new series "8th & Ocean" debuting in Spring 2006.
"Beautiful Love" is going to be featured in the Lindsay Lohan movie "Just My Luck" - out in May 2006.
The Afters have received 3 nominations in the 2006 GMA Music Awards: "New Artist of the Year," "Rock/Contemporary Album," & "Rock/Contemporary Song of the Year!"
The Afters “Beautiful Love” won the 2005 MTV University Network’s “Streaming Woodie” Award – given to the song that was downloaded or streamed the most from the MTV U website. The Afters beat out My Chemical Romance, and Hawthorne Heights to win the award.
“Beautiful Love” is the song that plays on this website!
ABOUT THE ALBUM:
"Our music is about finding common ground and looking past the simple labels that people use to divide the world into easily defined subcultures," says Josh Havens, guitarist and vocalist for the Texas-based rock quartet The Afters.
The album's first single, "Beautiful Love" was written, Havens says, while his wife was in Mexico on a humanitarian-aid trip. "Shortly after we got married, she left to help build houses for people who were living in shanties. I was back in Dallas strumming on a guitar thinking about how people say 'love can change the world.' It's usually a cliché, but my wife was living out that ideal. That night I wrote 'Beautiful Love' for her and all the magical things that can come from love."
The hopeful message in "Beautiful Love" taps into a theme that runs throughout the album with songs like "Love Lead Me On," "Someday" and "Until the World." "We're all in this world living our life, trying to do our best and trying to figure out why we're here," Havens explains. "Essentially, the album is about running the race of life. At the end of the race, there are winners and losers. With these songs, we explored a utopian outlook where everyone wins and everyone lives for something greater than their own desires."
ABOUT THE BAND:
The unlikely origin of the Texas-based rock quartet The Afters is steeped in caffeine. Josh Havens and Matt Fuqua were working together at a Starbucks in Mesquite, Texas while playing for other bands. On slow nights, they entertained customers and themselves by playing a few acoustic songs. "I'm sure we weren't supposed to be playing music on the clock, but the customers liked it," Havens jokes.
They wound up playing an acoustic show together at a University conference, and were surprised when people came up to them after the show asking where they were playing next. "We thought it would be fun to play a show and then go back to our bands," Fuqua explains. "Instead we were overwhelmed with incredible feedback from people. We decided to keep playing together and see where it took us."
Wigg explains, "We were able to draw people in at our live performances initially through our onstage charisma. Especially Josh. He has that sort of dreamy, wistful look of innocent vulnerability while maintaining a degree of confident charm. But when you break the show down to its elements there's a great deal of variety to be found. Josh sings, I sing, Matt sings, we have pop songs, we have really dramatic rock-your-face-off songs, we have sweeping, melodic ballads. There really is something for everyone."
In 2000, The Afters went into the studio to record a six-song EP. They sold all 2,000 copies in a few weeks and earned enough money to return to the studio to cut their debut, WHEN THE WORLD IS WONDERFUL. Independently released in 2001 under their original name Blisse, the album sold more than 25,000 copies and became a staple on Dallas rock radio.
The band knew it was onto something, but it was a show on Halloween 2002 that convinced Dodd. "That was when I knew I was finally going to be able to quit Starbucks," he says with a laugh. "We were on stage and all of a sudden the parts clicked into place at the same time. It felt like nothing could stop us." Two years later and with a new moniker, The Afters signed with Simple/INO Records to record their follow-up, I WISH WE ALL COULD WIN. Based on the strength of the album, Epic Records agreed to sign The Afters and release the album in the winter of 2005.
