STATE4

Nick Mitchell started STATE4 as a solo project in Socorro, New Mexico in 1997. He released the first EP called Retrospect that year and played a number of shows around the Socorro area. He moved to Madison, Wisconsin in early 1998, where he continued to grow STATE4 by building a base of fans using the site MP3.com. In July of 1999, Nick released the self-titled full length album using his MP3.com stock earnings. The "white album" received numerous favorable reviews, and garnered him a bit of attention in the Madison area.

Shortly after releasing the white album, Nick met Andrew Davies, a fellow electronic musician from Madison. The pair began working on music together, and soon expanded on STATE4 by adding Erin Joyner (vocal) and Jerry Nevaiser (drums). This line-up lasted through the beginning of 2001, and after several performances and the recording of the Issues in Monochrome EP, Erin left the band. After searching for several months for a replacement singer, the band decided to add Laura Hillman to the line-up, and soon the band was gigging around Madison and recording their next CD.

Because of the limited opportunity that Madison presented STATE4, the band decided to move to a larger market, and ended up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Shortly after the release of Less Than Happy in July of 2002, Jerry left the band. STATE4 grew around the Twin Cities area, doing gigs at most of the major venues, with the pinnacle being a Saturday night at the 400 Bar in June of 2003. Unfortunately, even with the success the band was seing, personality and creative differences ultimately broke the band up. In early July of 2003, STATE4 was put to rest.

Later, Laura and Nick formed Endless Blue to continue the more subdued and downtempo elements of STATE4. They are currently active in the Minneapolis area.

Andrew teamed up with another Minneapolis artist and drastically changed musical direction with the new group Heliosphere. Pumping out up-tempo future pop and EBM, Heliosphere casts its dark shadow over the opposite end of the electronic music spectrum.

http://www.state4.com