Icon for Hire is an American rock band from Decatur, Illinois. Created in 2007, it is composed of the singer Ariel Bloomer simply called "Ariel", guitarist Shawn Jump, bassist Josh Kincheloe, and drummer Adam Kronshagen. They first realized two EPs independently before signing with the label "Tooth & Nail", with which they made two albums. The one who made them known, "Scripted" on August 23, 2011, and the self-titled album "Icon for Hire" on October 15, 2013. Bassist Josh Kincheloe has been playing with the band since 2011, but is not recognized as a member official for unknown reasons. They announced their break with "Tooth & Nail" on June 6, 2015.
The group was formed in Decatur, Illinois by singer Ariel Bloomer and guitarist Shawn Jump. These last two began to collaborate musically in 2007 at the initiative of Ariel when they met and she discovered that he played the guitar. Jump recruited Adam Kronshagen on drums, an old acquaintance with whom he had done jam sessions in the past. Jump had cut the bridges with all his old friends with whom he used to "party", including Adam, when he decided to become "clean" six months ago. He reminded him when Ariel and he realized they needed a drummer. Bassist Joshua Davis joined the group that was officially formed in November of the same year. The name is a deliberate criticism of the music industry.
The group played in public for the first time at a local club. According to the group itself, they performed very poorly, but their friends and family still gave them a positive feedback and continued to encourage them. Ariel was interviewed on this beginning: "Our passion for music was real all that our sound was missing, we fill it with our enthusiasm". For the next two years, the group performed throughout the Midwest and created two EPs: Icon for Hire in 2008 and The Gray in 2009. The same year, Davis left the group.
Later in 2009, the group was contacted by Tooth & Nail Records on Myspace. The label then sent a representative to one of their concerts, and signed a contract with the group in July 2010. "We were very excited to be joined by a label as famous and respected as Tooth & Nail," said the group after contract signature. "It's a label that's known as producing good bands, and being really present at every stage of the rise of their bands - we would not have hoped for that before the age of 2. It's great to be a partner of Tooth & Nail We are very eager to record our first album and see what it can bring us. They will spend the last three months of 2010 in a studio with producers Rob Hawkins and Aaron Sprinkle to record their first full-length album, Scripted, which was released by the label on August 23, 2011. The album was ranked by the US Billboard hit charts like 7> for hard rock albums, 5> for "Christian Albums", 16> for alternative albums, 22> for rock albums, and 95> for "Billboard 200". The album sold 4,300 copies the first week and beat the record sales over this period of all albums of the label Tooth & Nail. The group's success was mainly due to its song "Make a Move", which took place at the "R & R / Billboard's Christian Rock" and had a clip exclusively published online on the website of Guitar World magazine. It was in this same year 2011 that the group welcomed the bassist Josh Kincheloe.
