It was only a few years ago when Robert Balker, Steve Kinneman, and Arbach van Gluten first formed Shutterfly. "No one liked the name at our first show. We got a lot of weird questions about it, so we sat in a room and changed it."

Now, these three are Rock Star University.

"It was hard at first", van Gluten, originally born and raised in Germany, came to America at 12, first learning how to play the drums from a music program at his school, "We did not know what would happen. We had jobs to work our time around, until we were signed. Then it became good."

Rick Anderson, just over the hill after retiring early from the Music Mogul Group, was walking with his girlfriend in City Place, a shopping and dining center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

"I heard a great hook at the end of their song, then a roaring applause. It turned out to be the last song in the set as I went it to check them out. They were selling shirts for higher than you would find in stores. Not the standard start-up-band price. And the whole place was practically wearing them. I then checked around the club with the fans and with or without the merchandise, they we're loving it. I just had to talk to them."

After the unexpected meeting took place, the three rockers were taken via limo to Anderson's home. "We had to make sure this guy was legit, and not going to screw us over--limo or not", Kinneman told us. "But we figured he was a big fish when we saw the house, gold and platinum records on the wall, and pictures with other famous bands. Not to mention his car collection. I was surprised he didn't have a jet fighter in his bathroom."

Talks went on with Anderson offering to manage them. To show them he was serious about the offer, he renovated his guest house, making it into a music studio.

"It was crazy," Balker said, "the place looked state of the art, and as we checked out the place, we were greeted by all kinds of music people. Producers, sound guys. He had big time connections. They even bought us new, high-end instruments. We were thinking, 'How cool is that. Is this real?'"

Anderson recalls their first single. "It was very grainy and sounded like it was recorded on a phone in an attic. Three songs I wished I never heard. But they played their show songs, all six of them, and I knew they were onto something."

Anderson called his friend, Bob Snyder, to help him organize the tours.

Snyder, cigar in hand, told us how they managed to fight the grueling beginning.

"To play a gig, then another one that same night, then do it again the next day for a month, sometimes longer. It takes a toll on a band, but they handled it well. They even wrote some really good songs on that bus."

Anderson moved the band to Tampa Bay as soon as the small clubs and concert halls they played became standing room only. Their final tour, culminated with a sold out performance at the home of the Florida Panthers, part of their Florida based "Class Dismissed" Tour.

"We we're so nervous. We we're a wreck. But we put it away and left to great reviews in the paper and just an amazing cheering by the fans.

But now, Anderson wants to take the band national, maybe even across the pond, and land a major distributor for their first album, Roads From Nowhere.

"I left the music industry to take a break, and found myself right back in it. I am glad I could help push them in the right direction. A talent like that needs to be heard."

Edited by user 02 April 2011 03:13:46(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified