FREEWILL
Freewill formed in mid 1987 when friends came together to share their love for playing music. The bands first show was opening for Agnostic Front, the Offspring & Infest in 1988. A recording date was set and between numerous local shows, a demo tape was recorded. The band began playing out of town shows with Insted and Uniform Choice. It was around this time that the band was approached by Wishingwell Records owner Pat Dubar about the band signing to the label and the deal was made.
The band members had heard Dag Nasty’s “Field Day” record and loved the sound of the studio and booked recording time enlisting the services of engineer/producer Bill Krodel (Inside Out, Chain of Strength, Reason to Believe). Once the recording was finished, the band turned in the master tapes to Dubar & partner Patrick Longre and awaited the release of the album.
In 1989, after receiving test pressings for the record, from what was explained to the band in bits and pieces, Dubar and Longre got into an argument about something business related and ended up dissolving Wishingwell Records prior to the Freewill album being released.
The band rerecorded and remixed parts of the Freewill LP and released the record on Network Sound under the name Stonetelling. By the time of the release, the members were all involved in different music projects and going their own directions.
The original Freewill LP was later bootlegged by Lost & Found records in Europe in the mid 90's. The record was then released on cd without the consent of the band containing a layout including images the band had never even seen before.
Fast forward to 2015. All four original members began talking about the idea of playing again. Around that same time, the idea for finally having an authorized version of the original recording come out was discussed and they began working towards its release. The band, now pretty spread out around southern and central California began practicing in Reseda regularly. The Freewill “Sun Return” LP was released on New Age Records in the Spring of 2016, twenty-eight years after it was recorded. Soon after, the original demo (recorded in 1988) was released as a self titled 7” through Mankind Records.
Close and dear friend of the band, Jon Bunch, passed away in early 2016 and the band played together for the first time in 27 years at a memorial show in his honor along with Samiam, Texas is the Reason, Scream, Rocket From the Crypt, Ignite & others.
2017 brought the band back around with a handful of west coast dates with Dag Nasty. Freewill began writing new material. By 2019 recording dates were on the calendar and five new songs were recorded. Two songs went to Goodwill Records for a split 7" with Zero Eight One and the others became the "Pedestrians" EP that came out on New Age Records (both in 2020).
2020 has been challenging on everyone as we all search for ways to cope and continue through such a difficult time in our history. Freewill has been busy with weekend rehearsals locked away, hunkered down during the pandemic. The band hit the studio in December (2020) and January (2021) to record eleven new songs for an LP. Half way through the band was approached by Unity WorldWide Records who was busy putting together a compilation record to benefit one of the greatest venues ever, Conne Island in Leipzig Germany. The record features so many great artists including Comeback Kid, Be Well, Death By Stereo, Youth Of Today, Field Day, BoySetsFire, Sick Of It All and so many more. The track "Why I'm Not Myself" appears on the "Strength Thru Unity" compilation 2X LP released in early 2021.
Freewill wrapped up the recording of their new LP "All This Time" with producer engineer Paul Miner at the start of 2021 and it hit the streets via Unity WorldWide at the start of 2022.