The SHooAK Story
SHooAK was started in the summer of 1996 in Rob's room, at his parents' house, by James Gillispie and Rob Belt. After James and Rob wrote several songs they went looking for a drummer. This seemed like an impossible task for Rob and James. In high school, Tommy Holton and Rob played hacky-sack during lunch (when they were on campus) almost everyday. One day, they were playing near the "Multi-Purpose Room" (this is what Bellaire high calls a big room with multiple purposes) and in that room the Jazz Ensemble (Rob, Tommy, and Robby Cook were all in Jazz Ensemble) had their drum kit set up for a performance later that night. While hacky-sacking, Rob and Tommy heard some drumming coming from inside the multi-purpose room. So, they went over to the little door-windows, took a peek, and it was Jeremy Frazer (sophmore version) shredding that roto-kit! Tommy knew Jeremy from marching band, so, Rob asked Tommy to introduce him, and the rest is SHooAK history. Jeremy, James, and Rob got together, solidified the songs they had and wrote some new ones, but SHooAK still needed a guitarist, badly. They had some tremedous musicians try-out for the part, but Tommy was the best and obvious choice. With the wonderful chemistry being experienced by these young musicians, they decided it was time to perform. SHooAK played their first official gig at Fitzgerald's on December 18, 1997. They played several other venues around Houston including: Instant Karma, the Oven, the Mausoleum, the Blue Iguana, Rudyard's, and Fitz-down. They went into the studio in April of 1999 and recorded a 12 song album with one live track, but the project ceased in the mix-down-phase of the project because Rob moved to Austin and Jeremy was Dallas-bound for college. The 2 Tascam DA-88 digital tapes, with the 12 songs, are in the good, responsible hands of Thomas Holton. Those tapes will someday be mixed, mastered, and available here. Meanwhile, there are 3 studio recorded tracks available and 3 live recorded, "open mic night," tracks available as well.
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