This is the 66th post in our Celebrity of the Day series.
October Project formed in 1991. It was originally just Julie Flanders and Emi Alder creating and writing music together. In 1989 they were introduced through a friend to Mary Fahl and they three immediately began working on creating a band. Eventually they formed the official line up which was Mary Fahl (lead vocals), Marina Belica (keyboard/vocals), David Sabatino (guitar/vocals), Emil Adler (piano/vocals), and Julie Flanders, the band’s lyricist and at the time a non-performing member.
They played their first show in November of 1991.The name of the band came from a folder that Alder kept which contained songs and chords and suggested her goal of booking their first gig by October. They of course missed this goal by one month.
It was not long before the band began playing at many of the regular clubs in Manhattan and in 1993 they were signed to Epic records. They released their first album, October Project in November of that year. The band went on tour throughout the next year to promote their album, opening for the likes of Sarah Mclachlan and the Crash Test Dummies.
In 1995, they released their second album, Falling Further In and went on a headline tour to promote it. They were subsequently dropped from the label in 1996 with no explanation of why and the band decided to call it quits.
With the vocals of Mary Fahl, the haunting melodies and deep, emotional lyrics the music of October Project is unparalleled and was widely acclaimed by fans and critics alike. It is believed by many that since their sound was not pop enough or genre enough that they label dropped them as being unmarketable.
Years later Julie Flanders, Emi Adler and Marina Belica decided to reunite under the same name. They released an EP entitled Different People and October Project covered in which independent artists recorded the songs of Flanders and Adler. They band said they were going to release a third album but the website has gone defunct since September of 2008 and nothing further has been announced.
To learn more about October Project visit ArtistDirect.
