Northstar was an American rock band formed in 1997 in Huntsville, Alabama.
Since the band's inception, they have had around five guitarists and three different bassists, have been a three-piece, four-piece, and a five-piece. Due to a lack of a dedicated music scene in the Huntsville area, the band decided to start touring the country in 2000. They booked their first tour, bought a van, and set out on the road. Since then, they have been on several U.S. and Canadian tours with bands including Taking Back Sunday, Hot Rod Circuit, Piebald, Moneen and The Jealous Sound. While touring to promote Pollyanna the band also made a brief visit to the U.K. with Modest Mouse.
After two years of booking, promoting, and producing everything themselves, the band signed a deal with Triple Crown Records of New York in June of 2002.
With all the band's numerous changes to the setup of band members over the years, the final and most common line-up was Nicolas Torres on lead vocals and guitar, Tyler Odom on guitar, Jake Fisher on bass and backing vocals, and Gabe Renfroe on Drums. This was the line-up on their last album Pollyanna, although Shawn Regan did replace Jake Fisher right before their signing to Triple Crown Records. Shawn took over bass duties on recording the band's debut Is This Thing Loaded? and toured for over a year in support of the album until Jake's return to the band.
Northstar broke up in April 2005. Nicolas Torres and Tyler Odom created Cassino. The demos for Cassino were recorded with Matt Squire and used drummer Will Noon, of Straylight Run fame.
A collection of B-sides and alternate recordings, entitled Broken Parachute, has been announced by Nashville-based Speak Music Media. The original release date was summer 2006, but this date has been pushed back frequently. The five track EP has been expanded to a nine track full-length upon the discovery of an old Northstar demo. The release date is currently set for January 8th 2008 with pre-orders available online.
