SURREAL

Crossover Prog • United States

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Surreal biography
Founded in Atlanta, US in 2008

SURREAL is the brainchild of Corey LENNOX, a graduate of the Berklee College Of Music, and is a band of four young musicians from Atlanta, Georgia, USA playing art rock with indie/alternative transitions. The original line up consisted of Brandon HORSLEY (keys), Corey LENNOX (vocals, bass, guitar, keys), Max EVE (guitar) and Kyle McCARTHY (drums), but in the early stages Corey recorded a lot of the material in Surreal's studio by himself, and although the initial band was temporarily suspended while he was at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, they did manage to cut their 2008 debut album 'Autumn' together during college breaks. This album was made with female guest vocals, containing catchy melodies, and song structures similar to BIG BIG TRAIN, DREAM THEATER and IZZ - as well as more straight forward rock rhythms.

Upon his return from college in the spring of 2010, with Stephen KELLER replacing Max EVE on guitar, Patrick EGAN replacing Kyle McCARTHY on drums, and the addition of Julie HOLMES on bass and vocals, Corey began working on a new album called "Someday Was Today", which was finally completed about a year later in May 2011. Five songs from the original 'Autumn' album were eventually re-worked with this new "official" Surreal line up and released as 'The Autumn EP' in 2014. The original 'Autumn' album from the band's old high school days was considered by Lennox and Horsley to be rather poorly executed, and they have actually tried to bury it since.

Despite the project's music receiving international acclaim and a fair amount of independent radio play, it has proven a difficult task for Lennox and Horsley to find and keep other musicians who share their passion and commitment, and consequently more lineup changes followed in the wake of The Autumn EP's release. That all changed in 2016 however, with the addition of a brand new rhythm section comprised of Atlanta-based songwriter and performer Daniel GRAHAM (who is also the chief organiser of the annual 'Prognosis Atlanta' DIY music festival, as well the ex-frontman of the band OMNIPRESENT on bass at the beginning of 2016, and Jeffrey MATTHEWS (a graduate of The Atlanta Institute of Music & Media, who had also previously worked with OMNIPRESENT) on drums in September of that year.

This fresh, revitalized lineup - resembling something like an Atlanta scene sup...Founded in Atlanta, US in 2008

SURREAL is the brainchild of Corey LENNOX, a graduate of the Berklee College Of Music, and is a band of four young musicians from Atlanta, Georgia, USA playing art rock with indie/alternative transitions. The original line up consisted of Brandon HORSLEY (keys), Corey LENNOX (vocals, bass, guitar, keys), Max EVE (guitar) and Kyle McCARTHY (drums), but in the early stages Corey recorded a lot of the material in Surreal's studio by himself, and although the initial band was temporarily suspended while he was at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, they did manage to cut their 2008 debut album 'Autumn' together during college breaks. This album was made with female guest vocals, containing catchy melodies, and song structures similar to BIG BIG TRAIN, DREAM THEATER and IZZ - as well as more straight forward rock rhythms.

Upon his return from college in the spring of 2010, with Stephen KELLER replacing Max EVE on guitar, Patrick EGAN replacing Kyle McCARTHY on drums, and the addition of Julie HOLMES on bass and vocals, Corey began working on a new album called "Someday Was Today", which was finally completed about a year later in May 2011. Five songs from the original 'Autumn' album were eventually re-worked with this new "official" Surreal line up and released as 'The Autumn EP' in 2014. The original 'Autumn' album from the band's old high school days was considered by Lennox and Horsley to be rather poorly executed, and they have actually tried to bury it since.

Despite the project's music receiving international acclaim and a fair amount of independent radio play, it has proven a difficult task for Lennox and Horsley to find and keep other musicians who share their passion and commitment, and consequently more lineup changes followed in the wake of The Autumn EP's release. That all changed in 2016 however, with the addition of a brand new rhythm section comprised of Atlanta-based songwriter and performer Daniel GRAHAM (who is also the chief organiser of the annual 'Prognosis Atlanta' DIY music festival, as well the ex-frontman of the band OMNIPRESENT on bass at the beginning of 2016, and Jeffrey MATTHEWS (a graduate of The Atlanta Institute of Music & Media, who had also previously worked with OMNIPRESENT) on drums in September of that year.

This fresh, revitalized lineup - resembling something like an Atlanta scene supergroup - performed numerous small-scale gigs in 2016 and 2017, gradually testing and refining the material that was to become their latest album, "The Rush" (released in early December 2017) - a richly textured, emotionally charged, and genre-bending album considered by Lennox to be one of the finest works of his musical career, and featuring a 27-minute prog rock epic called "Endings Are Beginnings" - a suite of music that showcases not only Corey's compositional prowess, but the talents and arranging sensibilities of each individual band member.read more