The Afters

It's official, we can now forgive Starbucks for inspiring Nickelback's name back when the Canadian rock band's bassist Mike Kroeger worked at in his native Alberta, Canada. In 1999, Josh Havens and Matt Fuqua struck up a friendship while working at the same branch of the coffee shop in Mesquite, Texas, US. Recognising their shared musical talent, their supervisor asked them to perform a couple of songs together for their customers, and whilst doing just that, they discovered that they shared a lot of musical chemistry together. They decided to form a band together shortly afterwards, taking the name The Screaming Mimes whilst they were a duo. However, after recruiting fellow Starbucks employees Brad Wigg and Marc Dodd to play bass and drums respectively, they renamed themselves Blisse and began performing live all over Texas.

The band released their debut EP the following year, which was a huge local success. Off the back of that they were able to record and self-release their debut album “When The World Was Wonderful” in 2001. However, shortly after the release of their debut album they found out that another band called Blisse already existed, meaning that they had to change their name. Shortly after settling on The Afters, the band signed a record deal with INO Records, and followed that up with a promotion and distribution deal with the major label Epic Records. Wisely, the band decided to take their time with their follow up, and wouldn't release their second album “I Wish We All Could Win” until February 2005. Ever since then, the band have continued to have hits on the Billboard Christian Charts, with 2010's “Light Up The Sky” topping it in its first week of release.

The band remain one of the most critically acclaimed Christian acts of all time, with a rollicking good live show to match and over fifteen years of experience in writing, recording and performing fuelling them. They're at the top of their game, and come highly recommended.