VAST Biography

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Biography VAST

VAST stands for Visual Audio Sensory Theater, and is the brainchild of Los Angeles, California-based singer-songwriter and musician Jon Crosby.

The musical outfit began when Jon Crosby was sixteen, and at the time the other members of the group consisted of a drum machine and a bass player. VAST's concerts included elements of performance art as well as music, employing display monitors and other visual effects onstage.

The band first had some success when a local radio station gave one of their demo tapes consistent air-time. Crosby sent demo tapes to several New York City recording companies, eventually signing with Elektra Records. Thomas Garadis, Steve Clark, and Rowan Robertson made up the hastily-assembled band along with Crosby. After touring America and releasing their first album, named simply Visual Audio Sensory Theater (1998), they began work on a second album, entitled Music For People (2000). Before it was finished, Robertson left in pursuit of a solo career. After auditioning, Justin Cotta was chosen to replace him. The new quartet began another US tour. In 2001, Cotta and Clark decided to leave the band to form their own band.

VAST's next album, Nude, was released on February 24, 2004. Two months after the release, the band began the new tour with a new lineup.

Towards the end of 2003, Crosby had started his own label, 2Blossoms Records & Media, and after the 2004 tour began selling a double CD of the Turquoise and Crimson albums (which had previously been available only in mp3 format), mastered and with new artwork, entitled Turquoise & Crimson from his website. This release featured songs that were not included on the retail release of Nude, along with alternate mixes of the songs that did appear on the Nude record.

Since then, three more "official" VAST releases have been made available: A Complete Demonstration in 2005, which is a compilation of early demo tracks. April in 2006 - a version of the latest VAST album recorded all in one take; the finished version was in May 2007. Crosby then spent all of June and July that year mixing the album himself. This was his first time mixing an entire record, as the only song he mixed before then was "Lost" from the Nude record. And, in September 2006, a live recording entitled Live At CBGB's was released. These latter two releases were only made available as digital downloads.

As of December 2006, Jon Crosby has been allowing fans to submit questions pertaining to specific VAST albums that are subsequently answered in "Q & A" audio commentaries and distributed to members of the VAST Fan Club. Thus far, commentaries have been made for Music For People (December 2006), Visual Audio Sensory Theater (January 2007), and Turquoise & Crimson (set to be made available sometime in 2007).

A second live release, entitled Seattle 2007 (again released as a digital download), was made available in May 2007, while another album, tentatively entitled Closed Romantic Realism, is set to be released in early 2008.