Current Lineup

Sonny Sandoval: Vocals
Noah 'Wuv' Bernardo: Drums
Mark 'Traa' Daniels: Bass
Marcos Curiel: Guitars


While they play around with the infectious grooves of reggae and Latin music and the heavy deliverance of hip-hop and rock, San Diego's hard rock four-piece P.O.D. defined a universal message. They're born-again Christians and such a thing is central in their music. They're not entirely classified as a Christian band though. Let that be known.

Formed in 1992 in the SoCal neighborhood of San Ysidro, Marcos (guitar) and Wuv (drums) relished in the music they grew up on. San Ysidro or "Southtown" was a multicultural area, but working class. While Marcos and Wuv were fond of their jazz and reggae roots, they were young punks in the making. Both loved the gnarl of grunge and took to liking of Green Day, Pennywise, Bad Brains, and the Vandals. They got a band together, P.O.D. (short for "Payable on Death"), with Wuv's hip-hop MC cousin, Sonny, and aimed for something real. Cleveland native Traa joined in 1993 and P.O.D. were on the map.

Throughout the 1990s, P.O.D. played countless shows across the nation and sold more than 40,000 copies of their three homemade EPs -- Brown, Snuff the Punk, and P.O.D. Live -- on their own Rescue Records. Atlantic Records was intrigued by the group's hard-working ethic and passion for music, inking a deal with P.O.D. in 1998. The Warriors EP preceded the major-label debut of P.O.D.'s 1999 release, The Fundamental Elements of Southtown. "Southtown" and "Rock the Party (Off the Hook)" were powerful singles, pushing the album to go platinum. P.O.D. earned top honors for Best Hard Rock or Metal Group, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year for "Rock the Party (Off the Hook)" at the 1999 San Diego Music Awards as well.

A year later and with the buzz still going, P.O.D. hit the road with Ozzfest 2000 and shared dates with Crazy Town and Staind for the MTV Campus Invasion tour. They also ventured into films, contributing several songs to various soundtracks. "School of Hard Knocks" proved successful in the Adam Sandler comedy Little Nicky in 2001, whereas additional tracks featured in the Al Pacino sports thriller Any Given Sunday and Ready to Rumble maintained P.O.D.'s growing status. A second album for Atlantic, Satellite, was recorded with Howard Benson in spring 2001. Benson captured the magic once again, for P.O.D.'s stature exploded later that year, hot on the heels of the spiritual chaos of debut single "Alive." "Youth of the Nation" scored again for P.O.D., as its positive mix of hip-hop, reggae, and hardcore punk defined a different kind of rock next to the likes of Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit, and Korn.

Controversy hit the P.O.D. camp in 2003 when founding guitarist Marcos left the band. However, P.O.D. was soon back on track, tapping ex-Living Sacrifice guitarist Jason Truby as a replacement and recording the Satellite follow-up Payable on Death. Heavy touring followed, and stretched all the way into late 2004. Early the next year, P.O.D. reconvened in the studio, this time with Glen Ballard behind the board.

tes-ti-fy : To express or declare a strong belief, especially to make a declaration of faith.

With their fourth Atlantic Records release, San Diego multi-platinum hard rockers P.O.D. are ready to Testify. Testify to the power of rock; to the sway of perseverance and sweat; to the valor of hard work; to the might of unity; and to the importance of remaining true to your convictions.

To us, that word speaks for itself. It's powerful, Sonny says of the one-word album title. In our 14 years together, that's what we've been doing. We've been testifying to the things that we believe in and that we've come to know.

After all these years, the things that we believe in haven't changed, explains Sonny, deliberately choosing his words and delivering each one with conviction. If anything, from the struggles in the early years to the success that we've experienced and things gone through the past few years, its just reinforced what we've believed in all along. What we've been saying from the beginning and the faith that we have stands on its own, with or without music. But, music is our voice. On this record we never let go of that because its the cornerstone of who we are as people. It just comes down to the love we have in our hearts to make music.

With the addition of guitarist Truby just weeks before the quartet was to begin work on what would eventually become 2003's Payable On Death (which went on to sell a million copies worldwide), the band only continued to expand their sound. Each album has seen continued musical growth and complexity in the songwriting. And, yet with each release, one thing remains constant - the band has continued to speak to their fans in a voice that resonates with honesty, integrity, and, perhaps most importantly, love. Indeed, Testify is a word that has become synonymous with P.O.D. during the band's 14-year odyssey.

We've been in this game for a long time, reminds Sonny. And what we've learned in our experiences, not just professionally, but even in own walks of life, we want to put that in our music and pass that down to people who are listening. We knew very well that the word testify has its spiritual meaning. But, these are the things that we believe in. These are things that we've laid our lives down for and would die for. If you believe in something, then say it and, even more importantly, do it. December of 2006 marks the return of founding member Marcos Curiel.

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