Excerpts from the Blank Theory's debut album "Beyond The Calm of The Corridor," serve as a free outlet. For lead vocalist Nathan Leone and bassist Matthew Leone, identical twin brothers, what seems to be the beginning, transpires back to a drive to make music that would allow listeners to mentally cleanse and purge themselves.
The Brothers Leone speak from the same head, Matthew said in a recent phone interview. After losing their mother at age 12, their No. 1 inspiration came from anger, frustration and loss. The same emotions would someday create the foundation of The Blank Theory.
It began while the twins were living in Italy, fresh off full-ride soccer scholarships to Butler University where they attended in 1996 and 1997.
"We just kept having this overwhelming draw towards music and we couldn't escape it," Leone said. "The atmosphere, the environment, and the adversity of living in a different culture and learning about different cultures was extremely inspiring in terms of song subject matter...Spiritually we really sort of evolved out there."
After they quit soccer, their next step was renting guitars from a library in Florence.
Years later, 25-year-old Leone anticipates the release of the album (released Sept. 24, 2002). For Leone, a week of sleepless nights will pay off in January.
It's all part of an unconventional plan," Leone said.
As the first band off New-Line Records, the Chicago natives will make their commercial push in January.
"The plan is a slow build to acquire foundation and credibility," he said.
After being released to speciality and college radio, The Blank Theory was the No. 2 most added band across the board on radio.
"It just sort of happened organically without us really pushing it or working it hard," he said.
After crawling out of the underground music scene in Chicago, The Blank Theory earned its fans playing at coffee houses and the Metro.
"That fosters a lot of competition out there," Leone said of Los Angeles' reputation to give birth to music's greatest. "You can kind of get lost in the crowd. The thing that's nice about Chicago is that you can kind of sneak up on people."
The Blank Theory, however, made a splash. The band soon signed with Scratchie/New Line, continued to sell out shows, and eventually fostered a relationship with the Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha and Adam Schlesinger, who Leone described as their "top songsmith."
Iha brought his musical experience to the band.
"The wealth of knowledge that he has from his experience has helped us tremendously," Leone said. "From a production standpoint it was really cool how we kind of put it up because we're a raw, heavy rock band and we bring our most premature heavy songs that were kind of self-indulgent and had a lot of parts...All three of us combining to make one record I think really maximized the potential."
Beyond the production walls, The Blank Theory draws its writing influences from a combination of outside factors.
"We do a lot of what just naturally feels right in a song. The thing that I love so much about the Pumpkins is that it seems like each song told a story," he said. "That's kind of what we want to accomplish with our writing. We want each song be like that."
With the band's philosophical lyrics and intense sound, Leone said he wants the message to serve as an outlet to young fans who can apply it to their own lives.
"What we want to do is make our message or our philosophy available if people are in to subscribing to them," he said. "We just want people to think for themselves and the whole reason is to build yourself and build your soul."
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