Tonic

With a name like Tonic, Emerson Hart, Jeff Russo and Dan Lavery have always been committed to supplying relief through their music. The band’s third album, Head On Straight, once again provides such a cure for the head and heart. But lyrically, at least, it’s not always an easy pill to swallow.

It’s been three years since Tonic’s last platinum-selling album, Sugar. And in that time, the Los Angeles-based trio has been winding down the road to connect with fans, while trying to keep relationships back home from unraveling. Not surprisingly, those intense experiences found their way into the band’s new music.

“The album reflects how the band felt when making the record,” says guitarist Russo. “It was inspired by our personal lives as well as how making and touring behind the last two albums affected us.”

It’s the age-old conflict between domesticity and destiny. And throughout Head On Straight’s twelve dynamic tracks, singer-guitarist Hart recalls the ups and downs of the past three years and compresses them into three-minute anthems. Call it a road map to the band’s emotional state.

“This is definitely the most personal and focused album we’ve ever made,” admits Hart. “I took a lot of time writing the lyrics. It’s a real album, and a lot deeper lyrically than a lot of music out there today.”

TONIC took the music industry by storm in 1997 with “Lemon Parade,” one of the most impressive debut releases in recent history. Following their #1 rock single, “Open Up Your Eyes,” and top 10 rock track “Casual Affair,” the band was awarded the 1997 Billboard Rock song of the year for “If You Could Only See,” which topped the Rock, Modern Rock, Hot AC, AAA and CHR radio charts and rocketed the band to platinum-plus status in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

Frontman Emerson Hart and lead guitarist Jeff Russo, both east coast transplants, formed TONIC in Los Angeles in 1994. The two crafted their songs playing acoustic sets in local coffee houses. Adding a drummer and bass player, the band went on to hone its distinctive melodic rock sound at LA’s esteemed blues joint, The Mint and at the now infamous Kibitz Room at Canter’s Delicatessen, once a hot spot for late-night jamming with the likes of The Wallflowers, Slash and Lenny Kravitz.

While the bassist and drummer from the band’s beginnings have since departed, the original vision of TONIC has flourished with the addition of Hart and Russo’s friend Dan Lavery. TONIC fans know Lavery well as he toured with the band for virtually the entire 2 1/2 years they spent on the road promoting “Lemon Parade.”

While the band’s record company was shifting from Polydor to Universal under the recent Seagram acquisition of Polygram, TONIC busied themselves by creating their own website — www.tonic-online.com — and independently releasing an internet-only live EP entitled “Live and Enhanced.” The EP features live tracks of some of their most popular songs, the never released video for the ballad “Soldier’s Daughter,” and the much in demand acoustic version of “If You Could Only See” which is available only on this EP.

TONIC is currently in the studio recording their next record for Universal Records and is enjoying the explosive success of “You Wanted More,” a song written for the American Pie movie soundtrack