Sick Puppies

Australian natives Shimon Moore, who handled vocals and guitar, and Emma Anzai, who covered bass and vocals, first encountered each other during 1997 inside a suburban Sydney rehearsal space, establishing the roots of hard rock outfit Sick Puppies, later based in California. The pair, still in high school and united by their shared admiration for Silverchair, would achieve mainstream commercial success on another continent within a decade. Joined by original drummer Chris Mileski, the group issued its initial outing, the self-released Dog's Breakfast EP, and followed that two years afterward with the full-length Welcome to the Real World. One track from the album, "Nothing Really Matters," claimed victory in the 2011 Triple J Unearthed contest spotlighting emerging local talent.

A spontaneous 2004 encounter with Australian performance artist Juan Mann ultimately supplied the group's major opportunity. Drawing from his "Free Hugs Campaign," Moore captured spontaneous footage of passersby responding to Mann's sandwich-board offer of embraces in a shopping district. Once "All the Same" by Sick Puppies was incorporated into the resulting montage, Moore forwarded the clip to Mann, who posted it on YouTube in 2006; by year's end the clip had accumulated ten million views.

At that stage the band had already shifted operations to the United States, where Mark Goodwin supplanted Mileski on drums, and soon secured a contract with Virgin Records. The second album, Dressed Up as Life, surfaced in April 2007. Momentum from the Free Hugs clip propelled "All the Same" to number eight on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, while follow-up single "My World" reached number 20 on the same tally and preceded three additional releases throughout 2008.

Collaborating with American production team Rock Mafia, Sick Puppies completed their third album, Tri-Polar, in 2009; it climbed to number 31 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Less than twelve months later came the Live & Unplugged EP, featuring acoustic renditions of material from that record. Another acoustic companion, Polar Opposite, also drawn from Tri-Polar, arrived in 2011. Once more produced by Rock Mafia, the fourth album, Connect, performed more strongly, attaining number 17 on the Billboard 200 during summer 2013. Despite mounting acclaim, Connect marked the final release featuring founding member Moore, who departed in late 2014.

Days after the announcement, Anzai received an audition submission from Texas-born singer and guitarist Bryan Scott, whose tape secured him the role as Moore's successor. The revised lineup began composing and tracking their next album, previewing it with the single "Stick to Your Guns" in early 2016. Fury, the band's fifth studio album and its first with Scott, appeared in May 2016.