The foundation of Contagin started in 1989 as the vision of Todd Ritchie covering his favorite bands. Although not gaining any traction as a cover band due to saturation of cover bands in the area. He went on a quest to find a singer that would fit. Along with Ray Barbour and Ashley Wilson they showed up at a cookout/practice of another local band to check out Brad Gentry who was currently the bass player of that band. They arrived at the time Ricky Allison was singing Sober a Tool song and Todd had complemented Ricky on the vocals. but was there to see Brad. Brad had a history as the vocalist for Necropolis a local thrash metal band that had gotten a good local following, so they were looking for someone kind of known in the area. Brad setup a day to audition and asked me to join him. The audition didn’t work out for Brad unfortunately. The next Saturday Ricky had showed up at their band room with small pa head and two huge sp1 Black Widow speakers to audition without being invited. They all stood and looked at him like he was crazy or something. He auditioned with Pantera’s cowboys from hell and NIB a Black Sabbath cover. It went well and Ricky was given 40 songs to learn in the 30 days for the debut show at Vance’s a local bar in the western part of Alamance County. The show went well and that set the stage for a discussion that would solidify Contagin as a original band. Ricky said he wasn’t interested in doing covers and wanted to pursue writing material. They set a course and set out to do just that. June 21, 1997, Contagin was born!
Moving forward through a few years of doing shows with some great bands in the area misfortune hit the band as we lost one founding member Ray Barbour, a great musician that felt Contagin had moved on without him. Todd, Ricky and Ashley pushed on bringing in Chris Castelda to join a show at the Wilson County Fairgrounds Metalfest in the year 2000. It was a great show with more awesome bands like Krusha, Strangelust, Obey Bizar, Lexx Luther to name a few. They had placed themselves in the scene and was headed in the right direction when Ashley decided to move on with his personal life. The hunt was on for a replacements for both drums and bass. Jamie Grubb joined on bass along with Josh Baker on drums. Josh had been a part of the band since The Biscuit Shop pre Ricky Allison days as a fan/roadie and had some drum time in there as well. He always was there in some form and understood what Contagin is about. A few years went by with some more lineup changes and it was back to Todd, Ricky and Jamie again looking to stay at it. They picked up more players adding Ray back in along with Steve O’Conner as second guitarist. During Steve’s time he helped write Identity Crisis and Strange Unknown two songs that are still in our catalog years later. Steve had to move on due to personal reasons and later passed at a show doing what he loved to do playing guitar. His contributions and friendship was sorely missed- Godspeed Steve! Contagin being the resilient machine it is had to move on once again and found Dan Whitt who came in on guitar to help Todd be able to branch out with new ideas and a tighter sound. We did several notable shows including being the first Heavy band to play downtown Burlington’s fountain at the Depot and The Paramount Theatre during a Multicultural Festival. At that point we Danny Neel playing drums in place of Josh who was drumming with Sin Inc his band playing cover tunes with a punch. Although this show went well it brought in yet another hit to the lineup. Todd had decided he needed to walk away to take care of his two kids on his own. Ricky was left holding the ball and looking not to quit. Ricky, Jamie and Dan Whitt decided to bring in Scott Crawford who at the time was playing in Absent Element with Chris Daughtry. After a few shows Jamie left the band for personal reasons and they continued doing shows as an acoustic act that surprisingly went well. Feeling the need to plug in again we added Jessee Fullerton on bass and a new era of Contagin was born. They opened for National acts such as Drowning Pool, Nonpoint, Bobaflex, The Exies and a host of great local acts. They had a great 3 year run with some opportunities but decided not to go the route due to ownership of rights to Contagin’s music. They didn’t want to sellout and be bought. Ricky decided to shelf the band after taking a new job for the next 13 years. Contagin sat dormant until Todd had called Ricky to start it up again. After some reluctance and overthinking, it was decided that it would yet again move forward. Todd had been working with Ray again when Ricky came back in. We jammed at Ray’s house setup in the living room and found out it could work again. Ricky called Jamie Grubb back in and we started the journey. Unfortunately it didn’t last long and the hunt was on yet again for a drummer and bass player. Josh Baker was available again and after a few bass player tryouts we had found one that was short lived due to musical differences and distance. During the downtime they built a new studio at Josh’s house and committed to make it work. Another hit came when Todd suddenly passed away July 30, 2024. Godspeed Todd you will be greatly missed and the years of fighting to keep this band alive will not be in vain.
Moving forward, Ricky and Josh decided to deliver the message of Contagin to as many that would listen. They added Dylan Gerner on bass. Dylan had previously played drums briefly with Contagin a few years ago and is family being Ricky’s cousin. He called Ricky and asked about playing drums but was told that a bass player was needed at that time. A few months passed and Ricky received a text from Dylan saying they needed to talk. Dylan had bought a bass guitar and amp destined to be a part of Contagin no matter what! Lewis Jernigan was brought in on guitar duties but had to leave for personal reasons. At that point, Dylan said he knew a guy from pool League named Tyler Benitez. We knew Todd’s sound would be hard to replace and were prepared to make the best of it but Tyler came in and put that to rest. He has taken Todd’s sound and made it part of him. Along with Dylan and Josh, they had now created Contagin once again and the energy is better than ever!
With a catalog of over 50 plus original songs and creating every time they get together there is no doubt Contagin is still alive after 28 years! They are looking forward to spreading this unique brand of melodic groove metal to the masses!!
English