when shannon moore had the idea to start a band, he knew it could only work if the music had the same raw emotion and integrity as the music he was inspired by. thats a lot of music and some really big shoes to fill. at a young age he was obsessing over music from artists like prince, isaac hayes, funkadelic, james brown, metallica, slayer bad brains, cro-mags etc. after being personally mentored and rooted by legendary guitarist gary (dr know) miller (bad brains) and legendary drummer mackie jayson (cro-mags) he developed the confidence to write and perform music of his own. what he was looking for was a way to combine the sound the of the hardcore of the 80's an early 90's with the metal of now. after running into his friend, guitarist jared drace one random day on the lower east side he though that might be the answer he was looking for. he knew jared was into newer bands like in flames, at the gates, and municipal waste. shannon had the idea that with his knowledge of the old and jareds knowledge of the new they could make something special. he emailed jared and they immediately began writing songs together in a loft with no bass player and no heat. shortly after they recruited bass player willie paredes ( astroland, pagoda) and drummer garry sullivan (cro-mags, B 52's, bernie worrel, TM stevens) and ACTIVATOR was born. when the songs were ready to be recorded they turned to producer friend scott "scotty hard " harding (medeski martin and wood, dj logic, wu tang, gravediggaz) who recorded what was soon to become the unfortunate lovely EP at his studio in greenpoint. with the help of El-P and his label definitive jux, the "unfortunate lovely EP" will be available soon.