members:
Brandon - guitar / vocals
Jeff - bass / vocals
Jon - drums

history:
Five friends from San Jose, CA decided to get together in the early summer of 1998 and make music. After a few times playing together they called themselves Fantastic Five. The original members of this punk/ska band included Jake Blaze - lead vocals, Brandon Kwock - guitar/bgv's, Joe McMahon - trombone, Matt Barr - bass, and Jon Sontag - drums. A couple months later they played for their first time at a festival called HG-fest in Paso Robles, CA. This festival had bands from all over including many Tooth and Nail bands. Fantastic Five wasn't scheduled to play, but they were on the waiting list and came down in Jon's RV hoping that they would get a chance to play. One night, the band was playing James Bond on N64 in the RV and a stranger stuck his head in the door and asked for some aspirin. He turned out to be a guy named Vince, the frontman for a band called Urn. Vince asked if the band had played yet, and they explained that they hadn't had a chance to get off the waiting list. After hearing this Vince decided, that since his band was playing that night, he would give Fantastic Five about ten minutes out of Urn's set. The band ended up playing right after another band called Ghoti Hook and performed two of their very first songs, "Longchanged" and "Shotgun." Not long after this, a band called Freeto Boat helped get Fantastic Five into their first few shows until they got their foot in the scene.
When winter came along, so did a few changes; they had lost their trombone player, Joe, and added a second guitarist, Steve Rechenmacher. This separated the band from their previous ska-sound and helped them develop a melodic punk sound. A few months later Jake left the band, and Brandon took his spot on lead vocals. The band then started over with a whole new set of songs as well as a new name, FAN5.

By September of 1999, FAN5 recorded their first real demo at Jon's house with Jared Elson. By this recording they were described as edgy and melodic punk rock, which is how they describe themselves today. This recording also helped them get their song, "Serendipity," on a nationally distributed compilation by Bettie Rocket Records called, "Nothing Says - 'I Love You' Like Punk Rock," which consisted of many Bettie Rocket bands as well as many unsigned bands from all over the country.
FAN5's next recording took place in the late fall of 2000 at Final Mix Studios in San Jose and was recorded by Don Bud. The band produced this recording as a five song cd through a production company called HybridArts.com. This cd gave them something to sell during the summer on their first tour from their hometown to Texas with Freeto Boat, which included many venues in cities such as: Pismo Beach, Phoenix, El Paso, San Antonio, and Dallas.
Soon after the tour, Matt Barr left the band to go to school at Clemson University in South Carolina. The band had anticipated his absence by previously asking Cory Linstrum, the bassist from Freeto Boat, to take his place. Cory helped the band play a few shows throughout the rest of the summer and fall until he decided to go full time with Fighting Jacks, an edgy rock band created by some of the original members from Freeto Boat. At the same time, Steve left the band, leaving Brandon and Jon searching for new members. Their search for a new bassist ended with the addition of Jeff Carmassi, who also lives in San Jose. Since then, they have been looking for someone to play bass allowing Jeff to play guitar. Now, they are finishing up their new five song demo and plan to tour the west coast for three weeks this July, hopefully with a fourth member.