Theywillrockyou.com Is by the Fans,
for the Fans
By Jillian Locke

To love music is to lose everything. That is, to truly love music, in all its grandeur and simplicity, is to know what it is to feel completely and utterly alone. You have to feel as though everything is lost. You have to feel like there is no one out there who could ever understand you, and that this beautiful, sorrowful, all-encompassing and sometimes strangely psychic music that’s blaring from your speakers is all you have left in the world. That is what it means to truly love music.

Mary Ouellette, founder of the music website www.theywillrockyou.com, has had a life-long love affair with music. “Have you ever seen the movie High Fidelity? That’s sort of how the story of my life reads ~ I associate moments in time with particular songs. Most people have pictures to remember things; I have a soundtrack stored in my head. Music has always been my best friend and my way to escape things so everything important in my life has been accompanied by music.”

This love affair quickly morphed into a way of life, as most passions do. In high school, Ouellette ~ who lives in Gardner and works her day job out of Marlboro ~ and a friend adopted a DIY attitude towards promoting bands they liked and followed. “My favorite thing in the world to do is to road trip, just get in my car and follow a band around for days. I’ve spent a ton of time doing this (more so when I was younger) all over the country and I think those experiences have taught me more than any book ever could…I started out with promoting local bands when I was in high school and into college. My friend and I started our own little promotion company and did everything from maintaining mailing lists, creating support teams, working merch booths at shows, we pretty much would do whatever we thought would help the bands that we were promoting. Later on we decided we wanted to branch out a little more so we created a fanzine. It was purely a labor of love ~ you have to remember, this is pre-internet so everything happened via mail or over the phone. My friend and I would literally make hundreds of copies of on our old Xerox machine, and we were so proud of what we did.”

The experience and effort paid off. Launching the site in 2002, Ouellette and her team of dedicated and music-crazed contributors have been running Theywillrockyou.com during their free time, as they are very willing slaves to their labor of love. “The site is constantly evolving and hopefully that never stops. The one thing we just don’t have enough of is time. The main thing to keep in mind is that this is not a job for any of us; it’s something we do for fun and for our love of music. We don’t run any pay ads, it’s pure music and nothing but…so time is always a factor because we all have day jobs or are in college full time.”

From news to interviews (with everyone from heavy hitters like Seether, Biffy Clyro, Slayer, New Found Glory, Night Ranger, Coheed & Cambria, and more to newcomers just making a name for themselves), to tour dates and lots and lots in between, the folks at TWRY.com have a very honest and passionate approach to the way they work, and why they do what they do. As Russell Hammond (played by Billy Crudup) of Stillwater from the movie Almost Famous states, “We play for the fans, not for the critics.” Ouellette and her team share the same mantra. “I guess the biggest thing I want people to take away from the site is that, we have no agenda. We are not some corporation chugging out things we want you to buy. We ARE the fans and we do it FOR fans, it’s a totally grassroots approach and we hope that the little part that we play just helps add to the music community in some small way.”

One of the features that Ouellette finds extremely pertinent to the purpose of the site is ‘Spotlight Band of the Week.’ “We try to post a profile on a new unsigned/indie band or artist every week and that’s the feature that we call our “Spotlight Band of the Week,” says Ouellette. “This is a huge priority to us because promoting up and coming bands is promoting the future of music. We’re not looking for cookie cutter, cardboard cut-outs who stand on stage and sing other people songs, we’re looking for bands who write their own music and lyrics and perform on whatever grimy, dingy stage will have them…real musicians who eat, sleep and breathe music…that’s what really drives us, that raw passion.”

So needless to say, the one requirement for contributing to this site is simple: an undying, sick passion for music. And with a philosophy like this, why wouldn’t you? There’s no pressure for anyone to contribute things, it’s pretty much an at-will gig,” Ouellette says. “We’re always looking for new contributors! We like to welcome people on board who are looking to further their careers in some sort of music related way, so they can use the site as a stepping stone to bigger and better things in their future.”

Meet the staff, hear from the best bands and up-comers lovingly presented for your enjoyment, read the reviews, and check out some killer pix over at

www.theywillrockyou.com or www.myspace.com/theywillrockyoudotcom.

Above photo: New Found Glory