By the time Mt. St. Helens blew a few miles south of Randle the Mullenix and Halverson families had each produced four boys. They played and fought like eight brothers, though, raiding each other's cupboards. As Wayne got a drum set, Matt learned the guitar from Def Leppard and Motley Crue tapes. The Mudhoney and Supersuckers tapes a few years later taught him how to rock. He wanted a band with the dual angelic nature of Fleetwood Mac and neanderthal nature of the Melvins.
In 1994 Matt, a senior, and sophomores Joe and Wayne found themselves in band class at White Pass High School. Matt and Joe traded in their respective tuba and trumpet for baritones and Wayne stayed on the drums. Matt and Wayne messed around in 3 previous lineups before starting Strawberry with Joe in the summer of 1998 with the rental of a 10x15 storage locker in Everett. Shortly they banged out a set of originals and by March 1999 bought a PA and a couple microphones and started making up words.
That June, the manager of Jimmy Z's down the street knocked on their door as they finished a practice session, looking for a band to fill a vacancy that night. That was Strawberry's first show. After four more shows there and recording a CD "Sounds Like A Plan" for $365 that November at Shoreline Community College, they were ready to work their way south.
4 days into the millenium, they played at the Re-Bar. Three Lake Forest Inn shows later, Strawberry wore out their welcome by being "way too punk" and launched a media blitzkrieg aimed downtown and played at Gibson's. One year after their first show, Strawberry played at the Crocodile.
There was some sense of achievement for three morons from Randle, whose band is just an extension of the mentality they shared drawing dirty pictures on the track bus with their friends with delusions of hillbilly punk and rural metal grandeur polluting their minds