Our Rival has gone through many changes. Before we became Our Rival we had a different singer and only one guitarist. Kyle(me;drums) and Robert(bass) wanted to form another band now that we were in high school. We had another band in our middle-school days called Illegal Axe, but that didn't really pan out. Illegal Axe consisted of:

Kyle Longe(me); drums
Dylan Hecklau; guitar
Karlo Abejo; guitar, vocals
Robert Lee; bass

We played for awhile and even played are 8th grade talent show. We sucked majorly and after that we all kind of grew apart except for me and Robert. So when me and Robert decided we wanted to start playing in a band again freshman year, we easily found a guitarist and vocalist willing to take the job. We first got together in my garage before it was remodeled and played with this line-up:

Kyle Longe; drums
Robert Lee; bass
Eric Irizarry; guitar
Matt Valadez; vocals

We played with this band for about a month before bringing in guitarist John Tucker. He was an amazing improvement to our band. At this point we are still only playing covers and not really focusing on writing original music.

After about 2 months as a band we decide we have to have a change in our line-up. It was a difficult decision but it proved to be the right one. Singer Matt Valadez was replaced with our new singer Brett McCollum. We did not want to severe any connections with our friend so we did it as politely as possible. The band still remains good freinds with Matt to this day and wish him the best of luck.

We have, and still are, having a difficult time agreeing upon a band name. At first we called ourselves the Misguided, but we quickly grew old of that. Then we decided on No Good Reason, but the only reason we like this was becuase the acronym was NGR...(yeah I think you get it). After that we started to try to decide between two names; Payment for a Mistake and Our Rival. In the end we decided on Our Rival and hopefully we won't have any other name changes.

As of now we have our (hopefully) final roster and have become a more mature band and are straying away from the covers as we write more and more of our own original music. Combining many genres, from pop punk and emo, to hardcore and punk rock, the band has a new fresh sound. Playing local parties and practicing hours upon hours, the band is now ready for new things. In mid July the band will go to the studio to record their demo which will only open new doors, including larger gigs and someday a full fetured cd. If you would like to set up a gig, or hear some songs, feel free to contact us.

-NEW as of 10/7/04
We now have had another line-up change in OR. Our bassist and longtime friend Robert Lee has been replaced with our friend Michael Gou. This new change will allow us to broaden our horizons as a band and let us explore new sounds. We have been playing shows and we are about to go re-record our demo.