The four members of Anadivine together is not a sight that would entice you to scream, “ROCK BAND!!” Rather, you’d be too busy wondering what these four strangers were doing together in the first place. Even during their photo shoots, the band has a hard time looking like anything more than a group of people who are forced to take pictures together.

“On one of our first tours with Hidden In Plain View, they told everyone, ‘Anadivine is great, but they look nothing like a rock band,’” recalls Anadivine’s bassist and vocalist Sean Paul Pillsworth (and yes, he has had the reggae hits of hip-hop superstar SeanPaul sung to him many times).

In Anadivine’s hometown of Kingston, New York, you are likely to see bands draped in the same outfits from head to toe or sporting the same hairdo that requires straightening four times a night, but you won’t see Anadivine bothering with these things. As outrageous as it seems, what unites this band is not style, but good music.

Anadivine is comprised of lead vocalist and bassist Sean Paul Pillsworth, guitarist and vocalist Mike Saracino, guitarist Bill Manley, and drummer Justin Meyer. Each member has played instuments since his early teens, and the impact of a lifetime of musical curiosity generates for Anadivine a list of influential bands that is extremely different from that of most other bands. In this day and age, it seems fewer and fewer bands cite the founding fathers of rock n’ roll as their influences, but Anadivine revels in the music of the past as well as the present.

The band Descendants is what made Sean Paul want to make music, along with growing up with his aunts and uncles who constantly listened to Pink Floyd. Justin’s whole viewpoint on drumming and how music should be constructed was recently changed due to the influential work of Miles Davis. For Bill, a lifetime of musical fervor and immersion in all different musical styles made all of the difference in inspiring change in the world around him. Mike draws upon influences from local bands such as Redeemed and Appleseed Cast. “When I saw those two bands, I was just really blown away by the emotion that was put into it. It changed something in me, and I wanted to recreate that for other people,” Mike explains.

In September 2004, Anadivine released their first full-length album, Zoo, in which all of their eclectic influences blend together efficiently. From one track to the next, Anadivine manages to showcase different styles of music that connects just enough so that it’s not completely random from track to track, yet keeps listeners wondering what’s next.

“I think we’re a band that kind of just goes with the flow,” says Sean Paul. “We don’t try to edge ourselves into any part of a song or an album we’re going to write.”

Maybe it is this kind of attitude that helped the band complete Zoo in less than a year, despite the changes the band went through at the time. While their EP was released by SideCho Records, their LP was released by SideCho’s partners, The Militia Group. The band also had a guitarist change in between. Both releases share similar tracks, but the differences are evident. “For the LP, we basically wrote all of the music first, and all of the vocal melodies were done afterwards,” recalls Bill. “Prior to the LP, we got the demo out with some recording stuff we had in our basement.”

This played a large role in expediting the completion of the album. Because Anadivine recorded a large portion of the songs on their own, all they needed was to complete a few additional tracks to weave the album together. “That’s probably the least stressful thing we’ve had to deal with so far,” comments Justin.

From mid-October until mid-December, Anadivine will tour extensively across the United States, first on the Stay Medicated Tour with Dead Poetic and Acceptance, and later with The Beautiful Mistake. They will play a show nearly everyday. It may sound like fun and games, but driving all night to spend the rest of the day hanging out at the show venue can get tiring. Anadivine’s not complaining, though. “[The Stay Medicated Tour] has been like a vacation for us,” Sean Paul comments. “We couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

One of the last stops on the Stay Medicated Tour was in Seattle, Washington, where Anadivine is not well known. When the band first took the stage - opening for Dead Poetic and Acceptance - they were met with hesitancy. Only a handful of people in the crowd knew who they were. By the end of their intense performance, however, new fans nodded in approval and satisfied cheers erupted from a previously silent crowd. Their upcoming national tour with The Beautiful Mistake will help secure more fans as well.

But what is unfortunate – as well as surprising - is that a band as talented as Anadivine has problems establishing a fan base in their own hometown. “Kingston is primarily hardcore. Lots of kids in the area mostly want to hear the drop C choke breakdown,” Mike comments. “It’s hard to gain your local fans sometimes.”

“Me and Bill have been in a band since he was 14 and I was 15, and we’ve been playing the same tunes until now -- he’s 21 and I’m 22,” Justin adds. “We’ve changed a lot. Sometimes kids don’t exactly like to see their local bands change.”

But for any band that wants to offer something new and innovative, change is inevitable. While it may become increasingly difficult to pinpoint which rock subcategory Anadivine belongs in, they achieve success in bridging the past and the future.