Spring Break
Adios, Parise and Stafford
Pair of juniors quit hockey team to pursue music career with Red Seal Peach
by Gibson Marshall Jr. IV
Issue date: 4/3/06 Section: Sports
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Red Seal Peach, a band featuring Sioux players Drew Stafford and Jordan Parise, signed a recording contract with Interscope over the weekend. The players flew to Los Angeles on Monday to begin recording the band's debut album, The Prailen.
The recording sessions will cause the pair to miss this week's Frozen Four in Milwaukee. Their absence means the Sioux will be without their leading scorer and top goaltender as they try to bring home UND's eighth national championship.
"Anytime you lose two guys like Drew and Jordan, it's going to sting a bit," UND head coach Dave Hakstol said. "But the only thing we can do is keep on keeping on."
Stafford said it was a tough decision to leave the team, but the right one for him and Parise. "There comes a time in every man's life where he has to make a decision between playing a game that could earn him millions of dollars or becoming a rock star," Stafford said. "That time has come ... and I wanna rock."
The group's big break was a stroke of luck. Parise gave the band's demo to Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford after UND's win over St. Cloud State in the championship game of the WCHA Final Five in Minneapolis on March 18. Halford, who attended the game with an illegitimate child of his who goes to UND, headed to the Sioux locker room after the game to congratulate the team, where Parise slipped him Red Seal Peach's four-song demo.
"Judas Priest, man," Parise said of the encounter. "Judas freaking Priest!"
After listening to the demo, Halford forwarded it to Interscope executive Karl Durden. Durden's decision to sign Red Seal Peach came after just one listen to the first song on the demo, "Fabian" - an ode to their former teammate Erik Fabian.
Durden said the song's strengths are in its lyrics. He specifically cited the lines, "I am Fabian/You are Fabian/We are Fabian/We are all Fabian."
"It's lyrically light years ahead of its time," Durden said via phone. "You look at Erik and think he's just your average hockey player. After listening to the song, however, you get in with touch Erik's soul ... you become Fabian."
Once they finish recording The Prailen, Red Seal Peach will head out on a nationwide tour. The tour will consist of around 50 stops, including a kickoff show in Grand Forks on June 13.
"We're going to rock this town like its never been rocked before," Stafford said. "If you think the Gin Blossoms brought the house down the other year then you ain't seen nothing yet. B ... b ... baby you just ain't seen nothing yet."
Stafford has already noticed one perk to live as a musician.
"Jersey chasers were great, but groupies ... damn," he said. "I know how Mark Wahlberg felt in that movie, minus the whole sleeping with a dude that looks like a woman thing."
Parise hopes his former team does well at the Frozen Four, but does not regret his decision.
"I'm just livin' the dream," Parise said.