Foretold

ELDERSBURG — The only sound heard when traveling to one of Foretold’s night practice sessions is the light rhythm of chirping crickets.

The hard rock quintet’s practice space is in the basement of the home of the band’s new guitarist, Mike Kane. Set on a secluded parcel near Piney Run Park, there are no streetlights near the home, just rolling green hills.

A lit chimnea crackled outside the back porch. The doors of the basement, usually shut because of the practice noise, were open because the warm weather made it necessary to do so. On the top of the entranceway, a sign read “Leave your ego at the door.”

The basement looked something like a professional recording studio found in Los Angeles. There were the multiple mixers, the computers for editing, two keyboards, several microphone stands and amplifiers. Posters of bands Nine Inch Nails, Santana and Smashing Pumpkins bumped into strips of black foam used for sound proofing.

“We’re all pretty serious about this,” said Kane, 21.

Andrew Dugan, 18, Foretold’s lead singer, grabbed a nearly empty gallon of green tea and took a quick swig. The band then launched into “Wait …,” which they wrote just two weeks ago. Dugan clutched the microphone, pulling the stand toward his body as he opened his mouth wide and forcefully sang.

Eric Pindell, 18, the other guitarist, stood facing Kane, the two trading licks and jumping back and forth and side to side on the downbeats. Aaron Patz, 21, subduedly strummed bass in the back of the room next to 18-year-old drummer Matt Pukach.

Everything sounded polished and in sync, a significant accomplishment considering this lineup of Foretold has existed for mere weeks. The floor shook as they played and, for a few moments after they wrapped up the first song, ears rang with a high-pitched twang.


“Wait …” will be played on radio station 98 Rock’s “Noise in the Basement” program on Sunday. “Noise in the Basement,” a weekly showcase of area bands hand-picked by radio staff, isn’t exactly their big break, the band said, but more of a stepping stone. Still, it’s a significant milestone in the young band’s career. They’ll follow up that radio exposure by playing live with a “Noise in the Basement” show, broadcast from Fletcher’s in Baltimore Monday.

After working on a few more songs, including “Tell Me,” their newest, the band took a rest and sat in chairs surrounding the still-burning chimnea.

“If you play around here, you’ve got to make your own opportunities,” Patz said, referring not just to Carroll County, but Baltimore. “You have to be willing to sacrifice.”

Apart from sacrificing free time, Pindell said he’s turned down a couple of college baseball scholarships in favor of the band. He did say he’ll probably enroll at Carroll Community College, which Dugan is also considering, in the meantime. In the fall, Pukach will enter Towson University, but he said the band is what’s on his mind the most.

Patz founded Foretold with different musicians four years ago. Pindell and Pukach, friends since guitar club in seventh grade, soon joined up and Dugan has been the lead singer since December 2004. Kane, who heads up his at-home Infuseon Productions, which records other local bands, has the most experience of the bunch, playing in various groups and recording for several years. After his last band signed a record deal, he had a falling-out with the members and was approached by Foretold. “We’ve come to the point already where we are so comfortable with each other that we all feed off each other’s music and energy,” Kane said. “We can tell what each one is thinking at any moment when performing.”

Foretold isn’t looking back and lingering on past incarnations or disappointments. For the group, it’s all about the present and the future. They want to record an album and go on tour as soon as high school careers end for Dugan, a senior at Liberty High School, and Pindell and Pukach, seniors at Century High School.

“We all do this for ourselves. The band is our world,” Pindell said. “I think we’re all in agreement that this is what we want to do with our lives.”

And they want to continue to write together and develop as artists. Foretold’s collective influences range from Tool and Sevendust to Dave Matthews Band and the Beatles. Kane is the Beatles fanatic of the group. Beatles posters and memorabilia line the walls of a common room next to the instrument-filled practice space.

“If bands only work with black and white, everything just comes out gray,” Kane said. “We want to paint with all different colors.”

How many?

“Seven thousand,” joked Dugan.

“Every color out there,” Pindell added.

The band members admitted that they are at a disadvantage coming from Carroll County. Even with the county’s proximity to Baltimore, there aren’t many venues for them to book. But, they said, that fact just intensifies their determination to succeed.

And at this point in their lives, all they really want to do is play.

“We want that big prize,” Dugan said. “And for us, that’s doing what you love and making a living from it. We share that adrenaline rush, the five of us, right now. We all want to play music, stop and think, ‘God, we did that.’”
- Carroll County Times

Local band, with Towson freshman on the drums, plans upcoming show in hopes of gaining fame and success


Katherine M. Hill
Arts | 12/9/07

An Eldersburg band with ties to Towson University will headline a Christmas spectacular at Sonar, a Baltimore nightclub, this weekend.

The group hopes the show will expose audiences to its explosive brand of "hard rock."

Foretold, a four-piece band that formed in 2004, described its blend of rock and roll as alternative metal.

"You know, like horrible blood curdling screaming. It's not emo rock. If you turned on the radio to DC101 or 98Rock that's what you'd hear, hard rock," bassist Aaron Patz, 21, said.

Foretold was formed through the recommendations of friends and coworkers. Singer Andrew Dugan, 18, was working at Baldwin's restaurant when he was informed of a new band.

"I used to work as a dishwasher, and this co-worker said I should try out for this band," he said.

Other members were gradually pulled into band, whose line-up was finalized in December.

"I got a phone call in the summer of 2004 to play guitar," Eric Pindell, 19, said. "I got our drummer to play guitar with us…close to December we started."

Foretold is joined by Towson freshman Matt Pukach on drums.

Now the group is hoping to accomplish their many goals, one local show at a time. When asked what Foretold hopes to accomplish, Pindell responded, "Fulfill our musical dreams. To have fun with it."

Foretold intends to do this through work and promotion, Pindell said.

"It's a lot of hard work along the way. You've got to keep at it and be persistent," he said.

Dugan and Pindell said the band met with its share of negative feedback while the members were in high school.

"I think I'm inspired by the naysayers that say nothing's ever going to happen," Pindell said. "We've had a bunch of big bands in Maryland with a lot of faith in us. We opened for bands that like us. Everything feels right for us, like it's what we should be doing."

In time, Foretold hopes to follow in the footsteps of its musical influences, which include Sevendust, Tool, Deftones and Primus.

The band confirmed that they hope to earn fame, fortune and the perks that come with it including being, "In arenas surrounded by hot girls with a big record deal."

It's important, the group noted, that the music remain exciting and energetic.

"If something plateaus, you're going to get bored with it," Katz said.

The group, which hasn't toured before, hopes to tour this spring when it's not so cold out, they said.

Foretold will be joined by Of Broken, Soul Affect and Odd Girl Out, among others. Tickets for the three-room concert are $10. For more information, visit http://www.sonarbaltimore.com. - Towson Towerlight