A band may have finally come to revamp the Red Stick music scene.Streamline, a band with geographically diverse members, will hold their album release party Friday at Chelsea’s at 10 p.m. The Vettes will open for the band.Mike Hogan, frontman and guitarist, has been acquainted with Jon Scholl, keyboardist, and John “Tank” Viavattine, bassist, since high school. All three are from Rochester, N.Y., but relocated to Baton Rouge last year and have aimed to revamp the city’s music scene ever since.”I started playing with Jon [Scholl] when I was 13 [years old],” Hogan said. “We started a band … and when we wanted to take it into a different direction, we met up with bassist John [Viavattine].”After graduating, the guys took a summer road trip to the West Coast. After scheduling a midnight recording session at a studio in Los Angeles, the incomplete band asked   Something Corporate drummer Brian Ireland to sit in for some songs.”I was in the studio with William Tell, another band,” Ireland said. “We did a couple of songs, and I kind of kept in contact with [Streamline].”Ireland said he was “very impressed” when he listened to Streamline’s songs and heard Hogan’s voice. After that fateful summer, Hogan, Scholl and Viavattine moved to Los Angeles permanently.”I thought they were really talented, so I quit the William Tell project and joined Streamline,” Ireland said. Ireland said he joined the band after Something Corporate decided to expand on individual projects.”We’re technically still together,” Ireland said. “We realized it wasn’t making anyone really happy … and everyone was sensing that. We’re probably going to do something in the future.”Even with the addition of a drummer, the band decided another guitarist was needed.Brad Ourso, University alumnus, was living with Hogan, Scholl, Viavattine and a girl Ireland was dating at the time. Ourso was a member of Ireland’s girlfriend’s band but was invited to a jam session by Hogan.”We hit it off and realized we liked a lot of the same music,” Ourso said. “Streamline was a better fit.”As a running joke, Ireland says he “basically stole her guitarist right after I broke up with her.”Once the band was complete, the guys started getting serious about getting their music into the public eye. Ireland grew up in Orange County and was very familiar with the California music scene. “California is no good place to grow a band,” Ireland said. “We made a unanimous decision to leave California and go somewhere else.”Eventually, and with the help of Ourso, the band ended up relocating to Baton Rouge in February 2008.”There isn’t really a music scene here,” Ireland said. “There’s a lot less competition, and I know of a lot of people who would love to have an original band out of Baton Rouge.”A year later, the band has met success and is releasing its second EP Friday. The band recorded, mixed and mastered the entire album themselves.”This was the past eight months of my life,” Scholl said. “I went to school for recording.”The drums were recorded in a studio but all other elements were  recorded in a house in town. The seven-track CD, named “The Arsonist and the Alchemist,” is a self-portrait of the band’s personality.”We’re rock and we have pop   elements, too,” Hogan said. “We want to put music out there that is completely us. When we do something, for better or for worse, it’s who we really are.”The lyrics are catchy but not cliché and the sound is very diverse. “Hurricane” incorporates a banjo while “Let Go” concentrates on the rock elements in the guitar. “The album is very representational of us five creating music together,” Ourso said. “It’s diverse.”All members of the band has big goals for the future.”I really think this band has the type of appeal to reach multiple demographics and reach a massive amount of people,” Hogan said. “We have big expectations. Hopefully we can be a real integral part of what music is for the next generation.” 
— Contact Ashely Norsworthy at [email protected]