Biography
We the Kings are an unapologetically commercial emo-pop band from Bradenton, FL, a small town that also doubles as the home base for Tropicana orange juice. Friends since childhood (the band's name refers to the name of their junior-high mascot), the foursome — singer and guitarist Travis Clark, guitarist Hunter Thomsen, his bassist brother Drew Thomsen, and drummer Danny Duncan — formed the band while still attending high school. In 2007, under the guidance of manager Bret Disend, the still teenaged quartet placed a number of tracks on the social networking site Purevolume to build online buzz; meanwhile, the band also pursued a deal with EMI's revived faux-indie imprint S-Curve Records (home to Joss Stone, Fountains of Wayne, and the Baha Men). Their self-titled debut album was produced by Sam Hollander and mixed by Lou Giordano, both of whom had done work with some of emo-pop's most marketable acts, and released in October 2007.
