My Favorite Illness is Matthew Kotarba (bass & vocals), Ian MacLeLLan (guitar & vocals), Brett Sherman (drums), and Ryan Slagle (guitar & vocals). The band formed during the summer of 2001 with original drummer Jared Reeves.
Before My Favorite Illness formed, Matt played guitar in a band called X.T.C. during the 7th grade. When the band broke up, Matt and X.T.C. drummer Jordan Jedlica formed Rampage with guitarist Ian MacLeLLan, during the spring of 2001.
When Rampage broke up, Matt and Ian moved on to form another band. Drummer Jared Reeves became part of the project after his band Fire n’ Ice broke up. Guitarist Ryan Slagle joined My Favorite Illness with a broken arm, and little knowledge on how to play guitar.
The band rehearsed all through the summer of 2001. Later on the rest of the band decided to part ways with Ryan Slagle, because their was no need for a second guitarist at the time.
My Favorite Illness played their first show on September 5th, 2001. The band played two more shows, and tried to record a demo. The demo was made at Jared’s House with one microphone, and featured three songs that were improvised-avant-garde’ post-art-punk-indie-guitar-bop-swing-free-form-experiments. The demo received one extremely poor review on a website called Local Music Magazine. The band tried to record a second demo, and it too went nowhere.
Meanwhile, guitarist Ryan Slagle formed the local band Conspiracy, who recorded a demo and got it played on college radio some how. Conspiracy broke up, and Ryan Slagle re-joined My Favorite Illness during April 2002.
The band recorded their first full-length album, with Eric Dressel (Conspiracy, and Korovas bassist) October 15th-16th, 2002. 19 songs were done in two days, but the band felt that they played poorly and scrapped the sessions. Matt went out and bought a really cheap 12 track mixer, and the band made ‘’How to Tune A Vacuum Cleaner in Drop-D’’. The band released the album themselves on December 7th, 2002.
After the band sold 50 copiesof the album, they realized how horrible the production was and stopped selling it. Rather than re-record the album, the band moved on and started on new material. The new songs the band made would make up the majority of the bands second record, ‘’Smile Upon with Hatred’’. The band plays some shows during the spring of 2003, and debuted these songs. During the summer of 2003 the band finally re-recorded ‘’How to Tune A Vacuum Cleaner in Drop-D’’, but decided to never re-release the album unless one of the band members died, although 3 songs were put on ‘’The Sauce of Chaos Volume I’’ comp. which was released by Giant Waffle Records.
The band continued to play shows, and work on new material all through 2003, and into 2004. On April 10th, 2004, the band recorded their second album, ‘’Smile Upon with Hatred’’. The band played a few more shows, and decided to part ways with drummer Jared Reeves. Jared played his last show on May 1st, 2004. Brett Sherman replaced Jared, and became the new drummer.
The band continued to play shows, and mix ‘’Smile Upon with Hatred’’, until it was done. The album was released on June 25th, 2004. Once again the band was un-happy with the way it was mixed, and decided to re-mix it later on. The band continued to play shows, and wrote more new songs. During the winter of 2004 the band bought some new recording equipment to fix up their home studio in Matt’s bedroom. The band spent their time recording, practicing, and playing shows. During the summer of 2005, My Favorite Illness mutually decided to disband, after they finished recording their 3rd, and final album, entitled Ho-Bo Love Machine. Matt and Ryan went on to form Ode to Iris, and Brett and Ian are busy forming a new band.
