Nickelback

The band Nickelback was formed by three relatives - Chad, Mike and Brandon Kroeger along with Ryan Peake in 1995 in a small Canadian town of Hanna. The name was offered by Mike, who worked earlier in a fast-food cafe and often had to give a change in nickel coins to the clients. At first they were a cover band, but soon got tired of it. Besides, Chad wrote songs himself. Later the same year they were joined by percussionist Ryan Vikedal. In 1996 Nickelback moved to Vancouver and recorded their debut attempt, Curb, after which Nickelback went on a tour across Canada. In 1998 the band members decided to manage the project themselves, distributing the duties among each other.

In 1999 Nickelback released the sohpomore work, The State, which saw the light just in time. At that period there were no new Canadian rock groups, and Nickelback filled the vacant niche with the post-grunge single Leader Of Men. As a result of the supporting tour The State sold about 500,000 copies in Nickelback's home country, which was an undoubted success.In 2001 the band recorded the follow-up Silver Side Up. It was their breakthrough album that made Nickelback known all over the world with the hit single How You Remind Me. The album became 6 times platinum, throwing the band's songs on the top of Canadian, North American and British charts. At the same time Chad Kroeger collaborated with Josey Scott from Saliva on a powefull and romatic Spiderman soundtrack Hero. In 2003 the more sophisticated album The Long Road appeared. It became three times platinum with a hadful of alt-rock melodic singles - Someday, Figured You Out, Feelin' Way Too Damn Good, Because Of You and, at last, See You At The Show. The album saw a successful international support tour.

In the beginning of 2005 Nickelback's drummer Ryan Vikedal left the band and was soon changed by Daniel Adair, ex-3 Doors Down. The same year the band released All The Right Reasons. This record also generated a whole buch of successful hits, such as Photograph with the deeply personal lyrics, winding Animals, humorous Rockstar, hard rock Side Of A Bullet and a tender ballad Savin' Me. All The Right Reasons added the first Nickelback's World Music Award to their stock of awards on November 15, 2006. Getting this prize for the best rock group of the year became a descent present for Chad Kroeger's 32nd birthday. The album was sertified seven times platinum and became the 16th disc in this century to reach such level of sales. Nickelback planned to release their new work in 2007-2008, but evetually they decided to take a rest from touring before coming back to the studio. So the release date was transmitted to 2008-2009, though in spite of career pause Chad did not refuse to record Into The Night, a duet with inimitable Carlos Santana. This wonderful song can be found on Ultimate Santana by Santana.

The sixth studio album by Nickelback Dark Horse was released in November, 2008. Dark Horse was constructed entirely from the group's standard power ballads and hard rock templates. Dark Horse featured songs about love, meaning of life (If Today Was Your Last Day) and drugs, such as the track Just to Get High aimed at a friend who became a drug addict.