Out of the Officer Negative the DEATH CAMPAIGN was formed. The story starts back in 1999
In 1999 Officer Negative some what broke up with the announcement of Casey Wisenbaker leaving. He was our bass player since 1997. Well after 8 months I felt lead to get Officer Negative back together, so I called up Mike Dragon, Josh Handley, and Casey Wisenbaker asking them if they want to do Officer Negative again with me. Mike was skateboarding a lot and was getting very good, he became friends with the ZERO team and was skating with them, but then he blew out his knee. When asking mike about it he felt he was in a different season of life now and really wanted to pursue skateboarding. Josh just got married and was leading worship at his church and felt like he was in a different season of life also. So that left Casey and I looking for new band members. We asked Taylor Allender and Daniel Osborne, which were long time friends of Casey if they wanted to. Also we asked Casey's older brother Todd if he wanted to do it. All of us were excited.
In 2000 we played a Officer Negative re-union show at the Chain Reaction (over 600 people showed up. It was awesome). Shortly after that Todd wanted to step down because he informed us from the beginning he just wanted to help us out for a little bit. Then we asked Chris Sahagun to play guitar for us, which was Officer Negative's guitar player on our fist album in 1997.
At that time we decided to write new music. Casey and I always daydreamed of being in a band that played big heavy music. All of us decided that we wanted to really push our selves and play something new and exciting. The songs that we started to write were not Officer Negative style of songs at all but we went forward, recorded a EP with Something Sacred as Officer Negative. At that time we were playing the new songs with some of the old Officer Negative songs. I believe it was in 2001 we all quite our jobs and started touring again as Officer Negative with the new and old style of music. We named our tour "Officer Negative / the death campaign tour" We did this for about a year. After doing this for about a year we decided we needed to leave Officer Negative in the past and take the new music and start a new band. So we did and named it THE DEATH CAMPAIGN.
Right before we changed over to the death campaign I called my long time friend Chad Johnson from Slacker66/Take Hold Records/now working for Tooth and Nail. Also through out the years I would keep in touch with Brandon Ebel, about signing Officer Negative. So I called him also. (Chad Johnson used call me in 1997-98 and order Officer Negative CD's from me when he ran Slacker66) Anyways we were on tour though the North West. Chad and TN staff came out to see us at TOM Fest and in Seattle at the Paradox. 6 months later, after contract negotiations we were signed to Solid State Records.
We toured through 2002 as the Death Campaign. In January of 2003 we recorded at West Beach studios in Hollywood for 3 weeks. We stayed home for a while practicing our new songs and getting ready for touring in the spring and summer. At that time there were growing concerns with certain band members about money that I needed for my family and some other differences.
Summer of 2003 we were on tour with As I Lay Dying. After Cornerstone and Sonshine Fest we were going to head over to the east coast but the guys in the band asked me to step down and for us to go home and not finish the tour. So after some discussions I stepped down we headed home. Casey took over vocals and they asked Mark from Akeldama to play bass. They went for about 3 months and then broke up all together.
After they broke up Chad Johnson called me up and asked me to take over the death campaign and that's where we are today. I decided not to keep going with the death campaign because I am having a good time working and being with my family. I have been doing music for 9 years now so it feels good to take some time off. Anyways, Solid State was concerned about recouping their money they spent so they asked me if we could release it as "Officer Negative presents the death campaign", in hopes that Officer Negative fans would embrace the release (which I hope you do). I agreed because I didn't want to just stick Solid State with thousands of dollars.
I hope you guys enjoy the music. I believe it is one of the best releases of its kind. The musicians put a lot of heart and sweat into the album. And I myself studied for about 6 months with different books to write the lyrics, which I feel are the best lyrics I have written to date.
Blessings, Chad JCHC since 1995 and till the day I die.
Source: http://www.godcore.com