The Used

The Used is an American rock band from Orem, Utah. The band was founded in 2001 and signed to Reprise Records the same year. They rose to fame in June 2002 after releasing their self-titled debut album. They followed up with their second album, In Love and Death, in September 2004 and their third album, Lies for the Liars, in May 2007. An EP, Shallow Believer, was released in February 2008 that featured most of the band's B-sides to date. They spent the entire year of 2008 working on their fourth studio album, which was released on August 31, 2009, called Artwork.[1] The band has achieved both Gold and Platinum statuses in more than six countries worldwide and has sold over 3 million records worldwide.The Used was founded in January 2001 with the recruitment of members that were a part of several other bands throughout the 1990s.[3] Founding members Branden Steineckert, Quinn Allman and Jeph Howard engaged into the plan of starting the band and had music already prepared, but did not have lyrics and required a vocalist. Auditions for singers were held at Jeph Howard's residence.[4] Upon observations, the band was not satisfied with any of the results that the vocalists displayed and described the auditions as "terrible". Although, when Allman confronted Bert McCracken, he asked if he was interested in joining the band. Upon McCracken's meeting of the other band members, he was impressed with the material they created. After being given music that the band had written, McCracken wrote the lyrics to what would become "Maybe Memories" and returned the next day to record a demo version of the song. McCracken was then officially confirmed as being the band's vocalist. Throughout all of this, the band members suffered from poverty, homelessness, and substance abuse. They even panhandled for change in order to buy food to stay alive.[5] The members decided on their band name as being "Used" when their friends claimed they felt "used" when contact was lost between them and band members due to them becoming more involved in the band.[3][6]

The Used continued to write songs together and recorded a demo album in drummer Branden Steineckert's bedroom titled Demos from the Basement. Steineckert sent their songs to producer John Feldmann from the ska group, Goldfinger. After he heard the song "A Box Full of Sharp Objects", he gained an interest into having the band signed to a label. Feldmann flew the band to Los Angeles taking them out of their home state for the first time in their lives and played the songs for various record executives to try to get them signed, however, the first few weren't interested and it left John discouraged. Eventually, many copies of the demo were received by many record label representatives who found an interest into signing them. With many labels at The Used's choice, they decided to sign to Reprise Records in late 2001.

 Members

Bert McCracken
Quinn Allman
Jeph Howard
Dan Whitesides
 
Past members

Branden Steineckert