Firestone Elementary

Firestone Elementary was a post-hardcore/screamo band that started in late 2004 and lasted until 2006 releasing one album and consisting of five members: Jonathan Porotosky, Justin Waite, Nate Thompson, Jeremy Smith, and Adam Perkins.

Formed in fall of 2004 firestone elementary was a product of two other bands, “Civil Funk” and “The Earmuffs”, breaking up. Civil Funk was a rapcore band that contained Justin, Jeremy, and Adam along with another member as a bassist, and even Jonathan as guest vocals. However their bassist soon had to leave to Atlanta due to school, so the band would eventually break up leaving Justin, Jeremy, and Adam to start looking for a new direction in their music by switching around roles and experimenting with sound to keep up with how the music scene has changed. With this experimentation it led Justin to playing bass himself, which is where the second band “The Earmuffs” comes into play. “The Earmuffs” was the band that member Nate Thompson was in as the bassist. The band itself had a pretty good run of three to four years, which led Nate to quitting music after it broke up to focus more on work, and with this he would sell all of his equipment to none other than Justin Waite. After selling his equipment Nate would often attend the bands practices, and he liked what he was hearing. So despite him thinking he would quit music, he eventually joined their efforts in making a band as a guitarist. And after that all they needed was a vocalist to complete the band, which is where Jonathan comes back and ends up becoming the lead singer of the band which they titled Firestone Elementary. The full lineup would be Jonathan as lead singer, Justin as the bassist, Adam on the drums, and Jeremy and Nate as guitarists.

2005/2006 was the bands most important years which they spent building an audience, having fun, and making an album. While their album “Apologies and Instincts” would release in March of 2006, in the time leading up to this the band would be playing multiple shows around Ohio, building their audience and testing out songs that would end up on the album. Some examples are when they played at Peabody’s in Cleveland, and this recording of them playing “When Diamonds Hold No Value“, an unreleased song. (However this is pretty low quality, in true 2000’s fashion.)

Getting closer to the release of the album the band would do a segment on a local college news station. On their segment they would play an acoustic version of “Your Intentions Are Pending“, the fourth track on the album, and they would have a nineteen minute interview where we would learn a lot about the band and the album itself. They would give us a detailed explanation on how the band originally formed, details on the album itself, and they also described the process of recording this album as well. For the details on this album we get an insight on some of its meaning, more specifically with the album’s artwork.

This cover was drawn and designed by lead singer Jonathan Porotosky, where he recycled and updated some of his old art for a potential children’s book he was going to make. The drawing itself depicts a girl with torn off wings holding a heart out to a boy who has the girls wings. Going back to the fourth track on the album you can find that it directly references this with the lyric, “I’ll take my heart back for the wings that I ripped off your back.” I think the album cover also goes with the overall theme of the album itself as well and how much it has to do with love and heartbreak, along with everything in-between.

The recording process for this album was split into two studios, Sound Scape Studios and S.I.M.A. Sound Scape Studios was in Pittsburg and was known for their good drum recording, and it’s where the band recorded their drums and bass. S.I.M.A, which wasn’t a true recording studio it was just a church, is where they recorded the rest of the instrumentals and the vocals as well. For a better and more in depth behind the scenes look into the recording process of the album, check out the bands documentary!

“Apologies and Instincts” is the bands one and only album, containing eleven tracks and a runtime of about forty-three minutes. The names of these tracks are:

1. Apologies and Instincts
2. Striving to Attain Perfection
3. Breathe Heavy
4. Your Intentions are Pending
5. An Infinity of Creation
6. Enough is Enough
7. Go Ahead… Take It
8. Not Yet, But I Will
9. Conjunction With Thought
10. A World of Waiting
11. My Love Song to Eternity

After the release of this album the band would do a couple of last shows, like the one at the Chevy Center in 2006, with their final show being in the Robinhood in Kent, Ohio. And unfortunately after these shows the band would break up and eventually all start families while remaining good friends with each other.

But for most member that isn’t where their music career would end. Jeremy, Nate, Justin, and Adam would start up a new band in 2020 named “Pharmacy Keys” with a new singer, Dave Moran. (Who was actually an old member of “The Earmuffs”.) They ended up releasing two albums, Conjuress in 2020 and Queen Maybe in 2022. They’re still active to this day.

1. Apologies and Instincts
2. Striving to Attain Perfection
3. Breathe Heavy
4. Your Intentions are Pending
5. An Infinity of Creation
6. Enough is Enough
7. Go Ahead… Take It
8. Not Yet, But I Will
9. Conjunction With Thought
10. A World of Waiting
11. My Love Song to Eternity

1. Apologies and Instincts (STUDIOLIVE)
2. Striving to Attain Perfection (STUDIOLIVE)
3. Breathe Heavy (STUDIOLIVE)
4. Your Intentions are Pending (STUDIOLIVE)
5. An Infinity of Creation (STUDIOLIVE)
6. Enough is Enough (STUDIOLIVE)
7. Go Ahead… Take It (STUDIOLIVE)
8. Not Yet, But I Will (STUDIOLIVE)
9. Conjunction With Thought (STUDIOLIVE)
10. A World of Waiting (STUDIOLIVE)
11. My Love Song to Eternity (STUDIOLIVE)

1. Single Match (DEMO)

Spotify

Youtube

And a special thanks to Johnathan for providing me with 90% of the info and recourses to make this, being patient with me, and for making a kick ass album in 2006!

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Cyrus Ryan

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