Otherwise will perform live at The Record Exchange (1105 W. Idaho St., Downtown Boise) at 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25. The in-store is presented by Boise Weekly. Otherwise is opening for Three Days Grace at Knitting Factory later that evening, and if you buy Otherwise’s latest CD True Love Never Dies at the in-store we’ll give you a free ticket to the show! As always, this Record Exchange in-store event is free and all ages!

ABOUT OTHERWISE

Las Vegas will always be the city of sin, but it means a lot more to Otherwise. While the rest of us go there to let off steam, roll the dice and enjoy the eye candy, Otherwise grew up in the shadows of all the bright lights and broken dreams. Las Vegas is their home, and it’s where they’ve lived life, faced death, and climbed the mountain of trials and tribulations that have become True Love Never Dies, their debut album for Century Media Records.

“We weren’t as aggressive when my brother and I first started jamming together, but then things started to happen – people died, relationships ended, and life got more real,” says Otherwise frontman Adrian Patrick. Despite being raised in a tight-knit family, Adrian only started playing music with his brother – guitarist Ryan Patrick – a few short years ago. “Our writing was a lot simpler when we started, but as circumstances forced us to grow up, our music matured with us. Tragedies and loss are part of life, and our music is one of the ways we maintain a positive outlook, despite the setbacks.”

Nowhere is that more evident than on the band’s breakthrough single, “Soldiers.” The song began as a metaphor for the battle that unsigned bands go through to get their message heard as artists, then quickly transformed into an anthem for everyone living on the front-lines of life. “When I started writing the lyrics, I was staring at my bandmates and thinking that they are my brothers in arms,” says the singer. “It was going to be our anthem, but by the time I finished I realized it was an anthem for our whole nation. We are all soldiers fighting for something, whether it’s to put food on the table, to be heard, or just to be happy. Every soldier is human, and we’re all human.”

Already hailed by Fox News as the No. 1 unsigned band in America, “Soldiers” became the song that brought the local Vegas rockers to the national spotlight. Hand-picked to perform alongside Avenged Sevenfold and Five Finger Death Punch on the main stage of the inaugural 48 Hours Festival in October 2011, MTV Headbangers Ball host and Sirius XM DJ Jose Mangin was so impressed by Otherwise that he immediately added “Soldiers” into rotation on Sirius XM’s Octane channel.

In a matter of weeks, the track reached the top of Octane’s charts, the single sold more than 10,000 units independently, and Las Vegas’ best-kept secret was making tremors at a national level. They signed with Century Media Records in December, began recording their debut album with acclaimed producer Jay Baumgardner [Godsmack, Bush, Papa Roach, Seether, Sevendust, P.O.D.] at his NRG Studios in January, and in February embarked on their first national tour as a band, opening for Pop Evil.

“Soldiers” is the first time America is hearing Otherwise, but it’s not the first time they’re hearing Adrian Patrick, who was the featured male vocalist on the In This Moment single “The Promise,” from the band’s 2010 album A Star-Crossed Wasteland. Patrick was asked to record a scratch vocal for the song, so producer Kevin Churko could shop the track to more established vocalists… However, the results were so good his vocals ended up making the final cut, and his duet with In This Moment frontwoman Maria Brink was promoted and performed on each date of 2010’s Mayhem Tour. “Ryan and I followed Mayhem around in our Mom’s decade-old minivan,” says Adrian, who hit the road with his brother and put 17,000 miles on the vehicle, paying for gas by walking into the crowd and selling CDs on every date of the tour. “We had to send the van off to a junkyard right before Thanksgiving – I had a lump in my throat.”

Otherwise aren’t the first band to put their blood, sweat and tears into their music, but they are the only band who could have made True Love Never Dies – the 11-track debut is a testament to their perseverance in the face of adversity, and a living, breathing tribute to their cousin, who died shortly before they signed with Century Media. “Our cousin had those words tattooed on his neck, so now we’re holding onto that idea, and the belief that true love never dies,” explains Ryan of the album title.

On an album ripe with anthems, “Scream Now” and “Vegas Girl” are both arena ready – The first being a call to arms for everyone to scream out in unison (for loved ones, lost ones and life), while the latter is a testimonial of sorts – not pointed at any one girl in particular, but definitely targeting a particular “type of girl” from Las Vegas…

One of the album’s more emotional moments is “1000 Pictures (I Don’t Apologize).” “We wrote that song one night in Hollywood,” says Ryan, “the chords came, the melodies came, heartbreak came right after … and the lyrics were written. It’s an anthem for the heartbroken.”

“When we look back at the songs and their subject matter, calling the album True Love Never Dies was very fitting,” says Adrian. “We’ve worked really hard to get to this point, and this album is proof that hard work, perseverance, and a little bit of talent can take you a long way.” Adds his brother Ryan, “we’re at the foot of Everest now – we’ve been climbing the small desert hills in Vegas, now it’s time for the mountain…”

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