Birthdate: March 14, 1974
Hometown: Columbia, SC

Ed Sloan (lead vocals, guitar) grew up in Columbia, South Carolina and remembers his mother "always playing piano and singing hymns throughout my childhood." He began piano lessons at age eight and within a few years was learning songs from the radio and from records. He joined his first band, Darkchilde, in the eighth grade. "Soundgarden, Faith No More, Alice in Chains, and the earlier Metallica were my main influences during and after high school," he says. "The Deftones, (hed) pe, and Staind are some others who really hit home for me now."

	After several years of growing local notoriety, Ed left Darkchilde in search of older, more experienced musicians. He found bassist Mitch James and drummer Brian Geiger--they played the local circuit as The Nothing while Ed studied for his BS degree in computer science at the University of South Carolina.

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