They formed in 2004 with Eric Wilkes (vocals), Johnathan White (guitar), David Hart (bass, later guitar) and Matt Bankston (drums). Shortly after, bassist Scotty joined the band (David moved to guitar). In early 2005, they released their first EP, For The Ones We Lost. While gaining popularity through touring and playing in the local area, Esmé went through several line up changes. Matt was replaced with drummer Greg Levitt. After playing throughout the remainder of 2005, they added a new singer Donny Evans and Geoff replaced Scotty on bass late that year. On early 2006, they announced their new EP, Wings For The Wounded. A demo acoustic version of Parallels was released on their Myspace page in April of 2006. The complete EP was released on June 17, 2006. Later that year, Philip Burns took over on bass duties. Esmé continued touring through 2006 and in early 2007 the band participated in the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands to for a chance to play at Taste of Chaos 2007 at the Duluth, GA stop. Released around the same time was a new song, Failure Said The Critic. Esmé remained in the top number of plays and songs through out the contest and won. A couple of months later, The Case (Rough Mix) was made available for public download on their MySpace. Early in the summer of 2007, Donny left the band and joined Settings. Esmé continued as a five piece and continued touring until late 2007. In the winter of that year, David and Greg left the band for personal reasons. The remaining three members (Johnathan, Eric and Phillip) stopped playing shows and spent that winter and early 2008 writing new songs. Early samples of electronic work from the new album were previewed on their MySpace page in January through February. Toby Weston became Esmé’s new drummer around this time as well. The Wings For The Wounded EP and Failure Said The Critic were released as free downloads until April 22, 2008. On April 22, 2008, Esmé put up the intro and preliminary album artwork to their new EP, Don’t Wake Up on their MySpace page. The following day, two more songs were posted from it. The complete EP was posted on May 23, 2008 with the final album artwork. It can now be purchased on iTunes, Amazon, Snocap and Bigcartel. In May 2009, Esme changed their name to iRival. |
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