Headstrong (band)

Headstrong
Origin	London, Ontario
Genres	Rap rock
Years active	1998–2003
Labels	RCA Records
Members	Matt Kinna (vocals) Jon Cohen (Bass) Joel Krass (Guitar) Brian Mathews (drums)
Past members	Richard Humpartzoomian (bass)

Headstrong was a Canadian rock band formed in 1998. They released one eponymous studio album under RCA Records before being dropped from the label and ultimately disbanding in 2003.

Collectively, the band members all met in 1993 while Kinna, Krass and Matthews were living in Saugeen-Maitland Hall at the University of Western Ontario and Cohen was completing the Music Industry Arts program at Fanshawe College. Among Cohen's classmates at the time was Greg Below, who would later go on to create Distort Entertainment. While Headstrong initially began in the late 1990s under the name bomb32 in London, Ontario, the group was formed of two long-standing pairings. Cohen and Krass had grown up friends in the Niagara Region, writing and performing under various incarnations since 1987, the two were greatly inspired by Living Colour, Guns and Roses, GWAR, and much of the Classic Rock and Modern Punk era at the time. Kinna and Matthews had a slightly shorter, but similar relationship living in Toronto and attending the same summer-camp, they drew their inspiration from a like, but wider range of sources.

Comparable to acts such as 311, Stone Temple Pilots, Rage Against The Machine and Helmet, they used the popularity of Farmclub to promote their music. The strength of their first single, "All of the Above," earned Headstrong over a million votes from fans of the television show's site. They became Farmclub's first international guest and were granted a performance at LA's Farmclub stage in the summer of 2000. While there, they shared the stage with the likes of Kid Rock and Eminem and caught the attention of David Bendeth, senior vice-president of A&R, who signed them afterwards. Headstrong then made their live American debut at the CMJ Music Marathon on October 12 at Don Hills, New York City. Also a key advocate of the band at RCA, was Bill Burrs, now Senior Sony-BMG Vice-President Promotions. The band's relationship with David could be described as frictional, as the label was in a constant state of interference with the band's ideals, perhaps rooted in their being Canadian with an American label partner in a notorious marketplace; but they could not deny that Bendeth had a great deal of influence in their improvement as players. The label itself was in a period of instability brought on by the creative destruction digitization would bring to the North American music industry. Headstrong could be remarked as one of the last acts to enter the analog market place, as the RIAA was beginning to align legislative forces against piracy in the form of Napster roughly at the time of their signing, certainly it was the backdrop to their courtship with the label. Headstrong did not 'win' Farmclub, nor were they signed on directly on the heels of the performance. Prior to their arrival to the taping, it was known that the band was on the radar of many in the Canadian and US industry before this performance as they were managed in part by Andy Martin of Deep South Entertainment in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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