Act As If

[Press Release - 5.11.2010] For fans of Jimmy Eat World and Death Cab for Cutie The debut full-length album from Los Angeles based indie/rock group Act As If, entitled “There’s a Light,” is now available on iTunes, Amazon mp3, Lala, and Zune. The band’s singer/songwriter Peter Verdell wrote and produced the 11-song album, and also performed all drums, guitars, piano, synths and vocals. The album was mixed by Nick Baumhardt (of The Class of 98 [The Militia Group], Thousand Foot Krutch [Tooth and Nail], and FM Static [Tooth and Nail]), and mastered by Troy Glessner (Death Cab for Cutie, Pedro the Lion). The band is currently unsigned. [Full Bio] After self-recording and releasing Act As If’s first EP in 2006, frontman Peter Verdell spent some time running the gamut of singer/songwriter ups and downs. Needing new breath, he quit his job as A&R assistant at Drive-Thru Records in 2007, began retaking music classes at a community college, and temporarily traded Los Angeles for Chicago in 2008 to drum and tour with friend/musician Andrew Ripp. In the fall of that year, Verdell made the decision to move back to LA and refocus on Act As If. By the spring of 2009, the band had recorded and self-released a limited edition 5-song EP (“More Birds with Fewer Stones”) for a west coast acoustic tour with Stacy Clark (Shangri-La/Vanguard Records). In June, Act As If began tracking 11 new songs that would become their debut full-length album, “There’s a Light”. The sonic result of “There’s a Light” is most easily described as a mix of Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Eat World. Verdell performed all the drums, guitars, pianos, synths, and vocals, while band mate Derrick Wong performed bass. The album was self-produced, mixed by Nick Baumhardt (of The Class of 98 [The Militia Group], Thousand Foot Krutch [Tooth and Nail], and FM Static [Tooth and Nail]), and mastered by Troy Glessner (Death Cab for Cutie, Pedro the Lion). Recent activity has found Act As If playing such notable LA venues as The Troubadour, and with esteemed bands including The Daylights [Epic/Sony], Everybody Else [The Militia Group], The Higher [Epitaph], Barcelona [Universal], and Stacy Clark [Shangri-La/Vanguard]. A song from their self-titled EP, “Please Catch Up,” was licensed for a primetime ABC reality show entitled “Greg Behrendt’s Wake Up Call.” Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.