Will Anderson wrote the song “She Is Love” in 10 minutes. Those 10 minutes would turn out to be an integral span of time in his band’s career.  The popular ballad, featured on a national TV advertisement for Nivea, is Parachute’s first single, and the Facebook status of romantically-inclined females everywhere.

Their journey has been significantly longer than ten minutes, but the story of Parachute (formerly Sparky’s Flaw) is an endearing tale of close friendship and musical talent.  It only seems fair that these guys are making it in the music industry together.  Will Anderson, Nate Mcfarland, Kit French, Alex Hargrave and Johnny Stubblefield are members of the band Parachute, an alternative-rock group that Anderson describes as “a mix between Maroon 5 and The Fray.”

This fresh-faced band mainly hails from the beautiful city of Charlottesville, Virginia.  Being best friends since middle school transferred smoothly to band-mates in high school and college, and eventually on the main stage.

Anderson reminisces, “We all grew up close together in Charlottesville.  Johnny, Alex and Kit were born there as well, and Nate was two hours away from us.  We’re very interconnected, whether we like it all the time or not!” 

“We always knew that we wanted to perform music after college, and we didn’t exactly know how to get about it.  It worked out well for us, we ended up getting signed by Mercury Records in the middle of college, and the label allowed us to finish our programs.  So we knew from there on that we were going to get to do it as a living.  We just went for it, tried to get noticed, and concentrated on making it marketable.”

If marketable is what Parachute is going for, most onlookers would say they are having an exceptional start.  They rocked out in Times Square in NYC on New Years, performing alongside superstars like the Jonas Brothers and country belle Taylor Swift.  Anderson describes their performance in New York as a “defining moment” for the band.

“We were this little band of college kids playing on the biggest stage in the world.  For us, playing to a million people, that is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  It was just mind-boggling, and so surreal. We are just so thankful to have had that chance, it was wild, there’s no other way to describe it.”

Will has been playing with Johnny Stubblefield, Alex Hargrave and Kit French since they were high school classmates.  He met Nate while attending University of Virginia together.  The commanding guitarist joined the band almost two years ago.

“I was studying music.  Nate was doing history and Kit was doing business.  In that sense, we’re a pretty eclectic mix,” laughs Anderson. “I guess you could say education was secondary.  We spent the majority of time developing our band and playing shows.”

In fact, it was in the University of Virginia where Anderson penned the song “She Is Love.”  His hordes of female fans will be happy to know that while the single was written for someone special at the time, they are not together. 

“It was good because it helped in trying to get all the girls to come to the show,” remembers Anderson.  “There was a girl from the sorority that I had a crush on, we were always good friends.  I wrote it for her, but that definitely did not happen!  We’re still friends and she knows its about her.”

The blue-eyed Anderson is the lead crooner of the group, with an infectious fresh voice that is perfect for radio play.  He also plays guitar and piano.  Hargrave is the bassist, and Mcfarland is the talented lead guitarist with backing vocals. French takes care of saxophones, keyboards and backing vocals, while Stubblefield mans the drums.

Anderson cites U2, Weezer, Ryan Adams and Kings of Leon as some of their major musical influences.  He also credited older material, like Stevie Wonder and Elton John that “works it’s way into the songs”.  When asked about other favorite artists, the amicable reply is that they “appreciate anything good.” Do not make the mistake of categorizing Parachute by their own sound, because they have a wide range of musical interests, and are not opposed to having a bit of fun.

“We’ll rock out to ‘Single Ladies’ on the bus, or sing along with Kelly Clarkson,” chuckles Anderson.  “We just really like a well-written song.  Paul Simon from The Beatles is great, and The Police were a big influence on us when we were growing up.”

Something special about Parachute is that they are very much in tune with their audience (no pun intended). They developed a rabid following in Virginia, and are only growing more popular by the day.  “Meeting fans and connecting and sharing music with them is my favorite aspect of performing.  We love having the fans be a part of the experience.  Getting to hand out with them afterwards, and getting to meet new people is great.” 

While some celebrities elevate themselves to a superhuman status on that unreachable pedestal, Parachute is very much a band of the people.  They remain very connected to their roots, constantly updating their MySpace site, and Anderson openly invites fans of the band to add him as a friend on Facebook. 

“It’s going beyond the mentality of ‘I’m the listener, you’re the artist.’ We get to know them at a personal level, and become friends with them.  Our job is to meet new people and play music for them.  There’s nothing better in the world than that.”

Parachute VA will be releasing it’s first album this spring 2009 entitled “Losing Sleep.”  Anderson and the band are really excited about it.

“It’s a cool picture of our growth,” he says. “We started it in our senior year and finished it this summer.  It’s not the same old stale thing, it’s cool.  Our band tries to write songs that people will relate to, so hopefully people will enjoy it, and if not, you’re entitled to your own opinion.” 

And why the name Parachute, you may ask?  “It was just a word we liked. It has a hopeful ring to it, and there’s some great metaphors attached to it.  It’s a good word that rolls off the tongue well.” 

Like a parachute, Anderson and the band’s aspirations are up in the clouds, looking to keep touring and playing a lot of shows while meeting more people. Listeners should be excited for their album to drop in this coming spring.