Center Divide

Several Center Divide members took to their instruments early. Joey Muller began sounding out nursery rhymes on his piano at age three and it later became his primary instrumental focus in the group. Todd Miller also took up piano at age three, then switched to bass in junior high. Ben Leinbach started as a pianist as well, then turned his talents to drums in high school. Justin Wells found his interest in singing, writing, and playing the guitar in junior high school and brought those skills forward into the band.

Center Divide was formed in 1991 when group members Justin Wells, Joey Muller, and Todd Miller met as freshmen at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire. Dorm jam sessions produced a fusion of folk, pop, and jazz — a sound they liked so much they made a band out of it. Their first gig together was that fall at a coed fraternity. They report: "We were playing to computer-sequenced drums. At one point, we sped up so fast we had to "hit the space bar" and lose the sequence entirely!" They've come a long way since then, both musically and geographically, since after graduation in 1995 they relocated across the country to Justin Wells' hometown of San Francisco, CA. There they began playing the bars and coffeehouses of the Bay Area and have built up an active local following. Drummer Ben Leinbach joined them in 1997 and their debut album, Lovelock to Winnemucca, was released the following year in 1998. Center Divide regularly performs live at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley, CA.