Formation and early years (1990–1994) Unwritten Law was formed in
Poway, California by Wade Youman back in the mid 1980s when he was twelve years old. The band's first lineup was Youman on drums, Chris Mussey on vocals, Matt Rathje on guitar, and Craig Winters on bass, Youman described the early incarnations of the group as "kind of Punk,
Clashy, and
Bauhausy", They released their first
cassette demo on September 9, 1992, known as Six Song Demo. The lineup changed when Brehm left and was replaced by John Bell, with this lineup the band recorded and released the 7" vinyl single
Blurr in 1993, which was released by local label
Red Eye Records, Steve Morris was then recruited on
lead guitar, Unwritten Law quickly established themselves in the prolific San Diego music scene of the early 1990s that also included groups such as
Blink-182,
Agent 51,
Buck-O-Nine,
Sprung Monkey, One by One,
Drive Like Jehu, and
Rocket from the Crypt. In 1994 the band recorded their first album,
Blue Room, which established their early sound of fast-paced
punk rock and gave them the opportunity to build their reputation by playing local shows in and around the San Diego area. Songs such as "CPK," "Shallow," and "Suzanne" would become favorites with local fans and would remain in their live set for years to come.
Major label signing, Oz Factor (1995–1996) Blue Room attracted the attention of major labels, the band, having distribution problems, left Red Eye Records and signed a recording contract with
Epic Records. Their second album,
Oz Factor was released in 1996. The songs "Denied" and "Superman" received airplay on several southern California rock radio stations and were released as singles. Over the next year the band toured the
United States with bands such as
Blink-182 and
Pennywise.
Interscope Records, Self-Titled Album (1997–1999) By the summer of 1997 bassist John Bell had left the band.
Pivit bassist Micah Albao joined them in
Seattle for the recording of their next album. Pat "PK" Kim, formerly of
Sprung Monkey, would join as their new permanent bass player. and the band embarked on the Vans
Warped Tour, which took them across
North America,
Europe, and
Australia. In Australia the band developed an enthusiastic and dedicated following, and they would return there over the next few years and release several singles and live recordings exclusive to the country.
Elva, Music in High Places (2000–2003) The band spent a considerable amount of time recording and preparing their next release, 2002's
Elva. The album was a stylistic change of pace, deliberately moving away from their established punk rock formula and towards a more accessible hard rock sound. The lead single "Up All Night" became somewhat popular, but it was "Seein' Red" and its accompanying
music video which brought the band their greatest success, reaching No. 1 on US
modern rock charts. They toured extensively in support of the album alongside bands such as
Sum 41 and
The Used. In 2003 the band was invited by
VH1 to film an episode of the live acoustic series
Music in High Places. The invitation happened somewhat by accident, as the station was hoping to attract
Jimmy Eat World but contacted Unwritten Law's management by mistake. The band recorded a set of acoustic performances in various locales at
Yellowstone National Park. and signed to
Lava Records, who released
Music in High Places as an album. The performance was also released as a
DVD entitled
Live in Yellowstone. The song "Rest of My Life" from this performance received airplay on modern rock radio stations nationwide.
Here's to the Mourning (2004–2005) In March 2004, it was announced that Youman was ejected from the band due to personal and professional issues, Youman released a statement through his website addressing his departure from the band, In a 2014 interview with DyingScene, Youman would call the split devastating:We were just really hateful towards each other. At that time, me and Scott couldn’t even look at each other because we hated each other so much. It was the same way with Rob at the time. But the label pretty much came in and said “look, you guys have to pick one of these members or the fucking record deal is done Me and Scott just couldn’t see these things out. We couldn’t even look at each other. So the band decided to let me go. Youman would go on to play in various groups, including
The Rattlesnake Aces, Demasiado,
Underminded, and
Black President.
Brooks Wackerman of Bad Religion and
Tony Palermo of
Pulley would fill in on drums for several shows. For the recording of their next album ''
Here's to the Mourning'', Palermo and
Adrian Young of
No Doubt would join the band in the studio. The band got along so well with Palermo that by the time of the album's release in 2005 he had joined as their permanent drummer. Much of the lyrics on the album were co-written by singer Scott Russo's girlfriend
Aimee Allen, with whom he formed the side project Scott & Aimee. Allen and
Linda Perry contributed to the writing of the album's lead single "
Save Me (Wake Up Call)", which reached No. 5 on US modern rock charts. This was followed by the single "She Says". The band's song Celebration Song was featured in the soundtracks of
Need For Speed: Underground 2 and
MX vs. ATV Unleashed. In November 2004, the group was banned from
CBGB's New York. Russo was smoking a cigarette on stage in between songs, violating New York smoking laws, his monitors were subsequently turned off. Later on during the show Russo lit up another cigarette, and the lights were turned off. The band continued to play in the dark.
Best of Compilation, Live and Lawless and Swan (2006–2012) Unwritten Law spent much of 2006 recording a "best of" album entitled
The Hit List, which was released on January 2, 2007 by Abydos Records. It includes 17 of the band's most popular songs, most of which were re-recorded by the current lineup, as well as 2 new songs including lead single "Shoulda Known Better." Interscope also released a "best of" compilation entitled
20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection which includes songs from the albums
Unwritten Law and
Elva. On January 3, 2007 the band performed "Shoulda Known Better" on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. That July the band embarked on a North American tour in support of
The Hit List, with Scott & Aimee drummer Dylan Howard filling in for roughly half the tour while Palermo stayed home with his wife, who was due to give birth. Also during 2007, Palermo acted as fill-in touring drummer for
Papa Roach. In March 2008 it was announced that Palermo had joined Papa Roach permanently. Meanwhile, Unwritten Law, with new drummer Dylan Howard, filmed a live
DVD at the Key Club in
Hollywood, California in March 2008. The album, titled
Live and Lawless, was released September 30, 2008 through
Suburban Noize Records. Unwritten Law's sixth studio album,
Swan, was also released through Suburban Noize on March 29, 2011. On January 24, 2011, Unwritten Law posted on their Myspace page the first single from their new album called "Starships and Apocalypse". They had also been confirmed to play the
2011 Warped Tour. Guitarist Steve Morris and bassist Pat Kim left Unwritten Law at the end of their Swan Tour in 2011 due to a physical altercation between Scott Russo and Morris. This was kept silent for a few months until after the band finished touring with Warped Tour, although Morris and Kim did not tour with them. Derik Envy, formerly of Red Light Sky, and Kevin Besignano, formerly of
Bullets and Octane, had become the permanent replacements for Kim and Morris, respectively. On August 6, 2011, Youman got invited on stage to play C.P.K. at the
Yost Theater in
Santa Ana, California., Youman would join the band onstage again in June 2012 to play Harmonic.
Lineup changes, Acoustic (2013–2021) In 2013, Youman returned to Unwritten Law after reconciling with Russo. Following Youman's return, Derik Envy and Kevin Besignano both left the band, being replaced with Jonny Grill (Russo's younger brother) and Ace Von Johnson, respectively, Johnson would later be replaced by former
Pivit and
Fenix TX guitarist Chris Lewis. While performing at the Hits and Pits festival in
Perth,
Western Australia on May 18, 2014, the venue cut the power during Up All Night, the band carried on with only drums and the crowd singing along. Russo and Youman would subsequently destroy a hired DW Collector's Series drum kit owned by Mark Eggers of
The Casualties. Russo later commented that they weren’t informed about the midnight curfew, further explaining that the promoter didn’t pay any of the bands for that tour. The band left Suburban Noize, and would release a compilation album called
Acoustic on Cyber Track Records on April 1, 2016. On June 19, 2019 drummer Wade Youman posted on
Facebook that he left the band again and was replaced on drums for four shows by RJ Shankle and then on January 27, 2020
Behind Crimson Eyes drummer Dan Kerby posted on Instagram that he would be filling in on drums for shows in Australia. Youman returned to the band for a third time in 2021.
The Hum (2022) On April 29, 2022, the band played their first full performance in two years at
Soma San Diego, during their set they were joined on stage by various artists, including members of
P.O.D.,
Buck-O-Nine, Spray Allen, as well as singer
Mickey Avalon, and original guitar players Rob Brewer and Steve Morris. The band released their seventh album,
The Hum, July 29, 2022 on
Cleopatra Records. It was their first album of new material in 11 years. == Musical style ==