Joe Powers

Joe was born and raised in Louisville and briefly became interested in local bands like Sunspring, Endpoint, and Evergreen in middle school. He formed his first band, The Rat Bastards, in 1996 and stuck with them until the band edged into oblivian in 1999. Though this was the only band in Louisville that Joe spent any significant amount of time with, he did keep busy on a series of musical projects during the next year and a half.

He spent a brief period of time in 1998 developing a project called Rosey Buns with Danielle Donnelly, a co-worker at the Highlands Papa John's and daughter of the owner of the Hawaiian Shave Ice on Bardstown Road. The project went nowhere, but they wrote a few R&B songs and started work on a film script.

Following the demise of the Rat Bastards, Joe compiled a tape of rock instrumentals under the moniker Gwailo. The original intention was to start a band based around the material, but this never materialized.

Joe collaborated with David Boston and Dennis Sheridan on a few seperate occassions, laying down drums on several tracks as well as recording a few of his own songs with David. He also had brief stints playing with Johnny Holton and Jeremy Johnson, as well as a television theme song cover band called The Reruns that he formed with a few co-workers.

After moving to Boston in 2000, Joe earned a degree in audio production. He briefly worked in the television industry, serving as an engineer on various sportscasts throughout New England, most notably Red Sox and Bruins games. He also continued to write and record new material. Under the guise The Contact Solution, he recorded a few songs with Alex Onan in Louisville and still more with Ryan Donnelly in Boston.

In 2005, Joe moved to his current home in San Francisco, where he continues to write and record music under the Contact Solution banner.

Bands:

• The Rat Bastards
• The Reruns
• The Contact Solution (Boston)