It might not be the route most people would map out, but for Fuel the road to the major label alt.rock playland went through Amish country.

The band relocated from western Tennessee to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where it soon built a loyal following on the same club circuit that gave rise to Live.

"It was all pretty much a do it yourself kind of project," Fuel guitarist/songwriter Carl Bell recently told our friends in the MTV Radio Network of the band's indie origins.

"We invested our money in the band and bought mobile studio gear and we would record it after hours and between sets and whatever we could on the road, and take it back to (frontman) Brett (Scallion)'s house and mix it down in the garage and put it out that way. We pretty much promoted it, distributed it, and did the whole thing for it."

The group eventually found

itself gigging in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, Baltimore, and New York, and landed a deal with Sony 550 Music.

"It's a little different when we got signed, and now you're handing the reigns over to the label," [320k Audio] Bell said of preparing the band's Sony debut, "Sunburn." That album has already spawned a rock radio staple, "Shimmer," [700k QuickTime] and has earned the band critical praise with "Billboard" calling the single "vibrant, aggressive rock 'n' roll for adults.

Fans can see for themselves when Fuel plays Atlanta's Midtown Music Festival on May 2.