Soccer Team

Soccer Team is comprised of Ryan Nelson & Melissa Quinley, friends who met years ago when working together at Dischord Records in Washington, DC. Slowly discovering numerous shared tastes in music, art and popular culture, the two would occasionally retreat to Ryan’s house in southeast DC to record sounds on Ryan’s 4-track, and then, a 1/4” 8- track machine that Ryan acquired in 2004.

Slowly, a collection of songs that Ryan recorded both on his own and with Melissa was amassed, and Ryan proposed the notion of putting the out as a record. Dischord was kind enough to facilitate the idea, and in 2006, ‘Volunteered’Civility & Professionalism was released to rave reviews worldwide.

With the record “dropping” and throngs of fans suddenly demanding public performances, Soccer Team was compelled to “hit the road”(i.e. “gig” or “play shows”). They did just that, including one particularly epic tour with fellow Dischord recording-artists Antelope, in which North Carolina was entered not once but two times in the span of five days. The grueling schedule was taxing and certainly put Ryan & Melissa to the test, but as anyone who experienced their live performances can attest, the duo certainly delivered and their “show chops” were “honed”.

Road weary after all of their many public performances in 2006, it was then that Soccer Team retreated into Ryan’s basementonce again(now called “The Studio”) and laid to tape the framework for three sizzling tracks that would lie dormant for the ensuing four years. Alas, the call of higher education beckoned to Ryan, and he left the greater Washington, DC area soon after. Soccer Team was - quite unexpectedly - on "temporary hiatus".

Seasons passed, and life went on -- but Ryan and Melissa,now residing in different parts of the country, would often recall fondly the former “rock-n-roll lifestyle” of their time in Soccer Team.

In 2010, in a fit of nostalgia, Ryan flew to DC to meet up with Melissa, and Soccer Team magic prevailed once again: together, they finally completed the earlier recordings.

It was then that these tracks reached the ears of Lovitt Records chief, Brian Lowit, eliciting Brian’s one-word response: “Wow.” We feel confident that your one-word response will be a similar exclamation.