State Of Shock has taken a slow and steady approach to its career over the years, but momentum picked up dramatically in 2007 and moves have been made to take the Vancouver band from a Canadian success story to an international one.

Cordova Bay Records released State Of Shock’s Life, Love & Lies album in June 2007, and the runaway success of lead single/video “Money Honey” propelled the quintet to new heights that included this list of impressive achievements:

• State Of Shock was nominated for a 2008 Juno Award for Best New Group.

• “Money Honey” was a top 10 single at three formats — Rock, CHR and Hot AC — nominated for a 2008 Canadian Radio Music Award in each of those three categories and won for CHR and Rock.

• “Money Honey” was #1 on the Canadian All Formats Radio Chart for eight weeks and has spent more than nine months on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 Chart.

• “Money Honey” surpassed Canadian platinum status for digital sales with more than 55,000, and it’s still going.

• “Money Honey” was nominated for a 2008 Canadian Independent Music Award for Favourite Single and won beating out other fan favourites such as Fiest.

“We’re having a good time and starting to realize that we actually did do something good after being told we hadn’t for the last five years,” says drummer Johnny Philippon of everything that’s happened since the album’s release. “It’s an appreciation that people are listening to what we have to say. It’s definitely rewarding and we’re more than happy.”

Canadian sales of Life, Love & Lies have surpassed more than 25,000, which roughly works out to one for each person who saw State Of Shock open for Aerosmith at a concert in Sarnia, Ontario last year. Nickelback also took the group under its wings as the opening act for its summer tour.

“There’s no better way to learn than to watch the pros,” says Philippon of the experience. “How much of a better opportunity could we have than playing in front of thousands of people every night, and having them give you pointers after the show? That’s rock and roll school.”

Second single/video “Hearts That Bleed” is already another multi-format smash, and Philippon expects Life, Love & Lies to go five singles deep in Canada. A video has already been shot for the eventual release of “Too Pretty.”

State Of Shock recently signed with Cory Brennan of New York-based Sanctuary Artist Management as the first step towards moving into the global arena. “We wanted to go with somebody who already had acts with international success and who had all the people in place who could set us up,” explains Philippon.

The quintet obviously has a lot on its plate, with the campaign in Canada continuing and a move into new markets imminent. Getting the most out of Life, Love & Lies is the top priority for the next year, so Philippon says the band hasn’t started thinking too much about its follow-up yet.

“You write, record, tour and promote, and then once that whole thing is done, we’ll sit down and write again. Until we get closer to the end of the cycle, we’re really not going to focus on that. This is just starting. When we get closer to the last single and we know that we’re going to have a break for a while, then we’ll really think about it. We always have notepads kicking around and we’re always writing down ideas, but we haven’t sat down as a whole and started writing new songs.”

Everything that’s happened to State Of Shock over the past year might have seemed like a long shot after the band had to endure so many hardships up to that point, but Philippon isn’t surprised at Life, Love & Lies’ positive reception.

“We knew that we made a good record and it was just a matter of getting the right people on board. We were more than confident in our music and just said, ‘If anyone ever gives us a chance, good things will happen.’”

Good things are happening for State Of Shock now, and the group’s talent, desire and work ethic should insure that continues for years to come. While quick cash is a dominant theme in the band’s best-known song, true wealth will come through the group’s goal of multiple accomplishments and sustained prosperity.

“We just want to play and play and play and get more and more fans so we can have a career,” concludes Philippon. “We just want to make more albums and keep going internationally. That would be a good thing.”

—March 2008