Rooney. Simply a five piece band from Los Angeles not afraid to feed the American public with good music and prove that Pop can actually be a serious genre. This powerpop band has been influenced by "musical legends" including The Cars, The Beach Boys, Queen, ELO and more. Ned (Rooney's Drummer) once said, "We focus on writing catchy, cohesive songs that people can remember and sing back to you. We're not afraid of the pop because that used to be a good thing and now it's something that rock snobs have given a negative spin." When listening to Rooney, great melodies, beautiful harmonies and catchy lyrics are not far away!
Rooney began their journey in 1999. The band began as "Ed Rooney" coined from the popular 80's movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." However, the band's lineup was quite different in the beginning. After drummer Teddy Briggs and guitarist Matt Star left for personal reasons, the band expanded to include Ned Brower (drums) and Louis Stephens (keyboards) joining Robert Schwartzman (lead vocals/guitar), Matthew Winter (bass) and Taylor Locke (lead guitar/vocals). Rooney played their first show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, opening for Phantom Planet. Before the show the band opted to drop the "Ed" and shorten their band name to Rooney, officially on their way to becoming the band we all know and love today!
Building a strong tight-knit fan base was important to this five-piece rock band. Before long, fans from California were coming to all Rooney's shows, knowing every single lyric before their full-length self-titled album was even released. However, instant fame was not the case. The band released numerous independent EP's called Deli Meats, Plug It In, The Rooney Sampler , and Mastedonia. They tried as hard as they could to keep connected with their fans and spread their music through the internet on their official band website,www.rooney-band.com. This would lead to their success as well as a strong fan base across the nation and beyond.
Finally on May 20th, 2003, the band's debut album was released under Geffen Records. Considering the many delays, Rooney fans that had been there from the start were overjoyed! It was clear that Rooney's goal was to create good pop/rock music and redeem the bad reputation that Pop had acquired over the past years. On July 17th, 2008, the band's second album "Calling The World" was released. Again, because of the many delays (about four years), Rooney fans were thrilled once again! In the summer of 2008, the Rooney Boys packed up and headed out for a headlining tour across the world. Rooney - a band where the music never fails to speak.