Uphill Battle

Uphill Battle started in early 1999 as a side project for Guitarist/Vocalist Adi Tejada and Drummer Danny Walker, who had recently left their current bands and decided to start a band based on combining various brutal styles of music while respecting songwriting principles. They then recruited the multi-talented Graham Clease (Eat Shit and Die, Fields of Fire, Annihilation Time) to play bass, and Eric Gormley to play 2nd guitar.

Right before playing their first show on June 7th 1999, Uphill Battle recorded a demo in late May. The demo, recorded by Dan Weiss on 12 track, contained 6 songs and for a quick 2 day session, the quality turned out really good. As the band started playing out more, the demo sold out of 400 copies. During 2000, the band self-recorded a 2nd demo and then recorded another song with Weiss for a split 7". Due to poor recording quality, the 2nd demo was never released, and the split 7" (with Quest for Quintana Roo) didn't get released for another 9 months due to the flakiness of the "label" involved. At this point the band was becoming more serious, demanded more time, which lead to the departure of Graham, and shortly after Eric.

Jehf Jones (Eat Shit and Die) stepped in on bass and Jeff Capra (Staring Back, Manumissions, Holier Than Thou) stepped in on guitar. With the new line up, the band went back into the studio in March 2001 to record 13 songs with Nick Rucker (Bright Life). Schedules collided and it took almost 4 months just to finish tracking, but once finished, the band started sending out demos of the record to various labels they were interested in. At this point, Jehf Jones pussed out and quit, and Joe Gonzalez (A Sometimes Promise, Nation of Lepers) promptly joined the lineup as bassist and 2nd vocalist, re-recording Jehf's parts on the record.

The band kept shopping around the demo of new material and eventually things started coming together. Loudnet Records took 3 of the songs for a split CD with Anubis Rising, while 625 Thrash took one song for a compilation. The biggest news however was when Relapse Records expressed interest in Uphill Battle and promptly signed them in late 2001. Uphill Battle's first full-length 9 song self-titled CD got released on Relapse on May 28th 2002.

A five week US tour started shortly after in mid-June 2002. Jeff Capra was unable to participate in the tour, so Wes Caley filled in for guitar. The tour was full of long drives and 30 straight days of playing shows, but the band had a great time and considered the tour a success. Shortly after returning home, Capra quit the band and Wes joined as a full time member.

Uphill Battle continued to play regional weekend shows for the rest of 2002 and commenced work on new material. Sadly, Joe Gonzalez could not dedicate enough time to the band and subsequently quit in March 2003. Casey Shropshire has since eagerly filled Joe's shoes.

So after 3 guitarists and 4 bassists, Uphill Battle has carried on for almost 5 years, getting tighter and tighter as each year goes by, with each new member.