Nickelback-Photogragh

Canada's Nickelback started life as a cover band in Hanna, 215 kilometres northeast of Calgary. Eventually, they got tired of playing other people's songs and singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger put together a bunch of original songs, borrowed 4,000 bucks off his stepfather, and went to big city Vancouver to record them in a friend's studio. Based on the results, Kroeger's guitarist brother, Mike, and pal bassist Ryan Vikedal all relocated to Vancouver in 1996; that same year, they recorded and released the EP Hesher and full-length Curb independently and embarked on a series of cross-country tours. The group's singer had spent two years selling advertising for a soccer magazine and now applied some of the skills he had learned to his band. He asked his friends to fax and phone radio stations to request their first single until it was played often enough for Nickelback to pick up fans on their own.