The Starting Line

The Starting Line is a four-piece pop punk/emo band from the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. They formed in 1999 and are currently signed to Drive-Thru Records and Geffen Records.

In 1999, the band that would become The

The Starting Line is a four-piece pop punk/emo band from the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. They formed in 1999 and are currently signed to Drive-Thru Records and Geffen Records.

In 1999, the band that would become The Starting Line was initiated in Churchville, Pennsylvania via an AOL instant message from guitarist Matt Watts to vocalist/bassist Kenny Vasoli. It asked if the then fourteen-year-old Vasoli, who was at that time in a band called Smash Adams, was interested in "Jamming and shit", as the message title read. Only a few weeks later, Vasoli found himself rehearsing with his future bandmates Watts, Mike Golla (guitar) and Tom Gryskewicz (drums). Initially, the band had another guitarist named Ryan Altmiller, who played with them for only two weeks and later went on to play in bands like Racing Daylight and Shadows in Lakeland. Soon, the band started touring under the name Sunday Drive, selling out home-made merchandise and a self-recorded demo cassette titled Four Songs. Their first official release was a three-way split with The Jimmy Tuesday Band and The Commercials contributing three songs each, released on KickStart Audio in 2000.