California Redemption

California Redemption
California Redemption
Background information
Also known as	CaRe
Origin	Thousand Oaks, California
Genres	Punk, Hardcore, Melodic Hardcore
Years active	2002 – present
Labels	Dead Lamb Records LTE Records
Associated acts	Future Primitive Dead Alive P.O.S. Misfire The Midnight Shakes Mute
Website	California Redemption Homepage
Members	Alon Redemption - vocals Mikkei Redemption - Guitar Joe Suburbia - Guitar Keegan Haueter- Bass Will Volkmann- drums
Past members	Doug Freed - drums

California Redemption (or CaRe) is a hardcore punk band from Thousand Oaks, California, a part of the Nardcore community, and a "major player" in the Ventura County Music scene. Their sound is a mix of hardcore and punk rock; fast guitars and politically minded lyrics fusing with "breakdowns and chanted back-ups, right out of the straightedge hawd caw [sic] playbook." Lyrical themes vary from political protests and critical analyses of American society to personal struggles and alienation.

Mikkei, Keegan, and Doug were formerly members of Mute before the start of the band. Two members currently play in side projects: Mikkei in Future Primitive and Will in Dead Alive. Alon also produces albums for LTE Records.

California Redemption was born in the summer of 2001. At that time, Mikkei, Keegan and Doug were in a band called Mute, a pop punk style garage band that experienced small success in their hometown of Newbury Park, California. In mid-2001 Mikkei began to feel that something in Mute was definitely lacking. Mikkei soon quit, citing lack of lyrical meaning and conflicts in musical creativity. Mute broke up shortly thereafter.

After spending summer listening to Propagandhi and brainstorming lists of potential co-conspirators, Mikkei made up his mind. He called up two of his ex-mates from Mute; Keegan and Doug. He had been telling them he didn’t want to do anything musically for the past couple months, but now Mikkei asked them not to start a new band, but just hang out and jam Bad Religion songs. The new project didn’t have a singer, but there was already someone in mind. They called up a friend, Alon, who despite lack of singing experience, was obsessed with Bad Religion and was super-stoked on the idea of being in a band.