COMPANY OF THIEVES: Oscar Wilde

Listen to Company of Thieves' "Oscar Wilde"

Return to the Chi-Tunes home page. Company of Thieves can be found at myspace.com/companyofthieves.

In the space of two years, Company of Thieves blossomed from the dreams of Marc Walloch and Genevieve Schatz into "the most talked about band in the industry." The outfit's track to success began, appropriately, at Union Station.

Guitarist Walloch remembers meeting singer Schatz through a mutual friend there.

"We were on the same train and just talked for the whole train ride and hit it off," Walloch said. "We started having nightly music jam sessions every Monday night at my apartment. We'd watch movies, play guitar and sing songs for fun. Then the songs just sort of started getting good."

Scott Heatherly (keyboards), Jim Ratke (drums) and Brad Sawicki (bass) round out the lineup of Company of Thieves, finalizing the band personnel a week before heading to New York for Billboard and Yahoo's "Next Big Thing" showcase.

As the band nervously waited their turn on stage, a Yahoo promoter stepped to the mic and introduced Company of Thieves, saying, as Walloch remembered, "Up next is the band you've been waiting for, the most talked about band in the industry."

"We were just like, 'What? How is that even possible?' We freaked out," Walloch recalls. "But it turned out awesome. … [The audience] got up and gave us a standing ovation and asked for an encore."

That show plus a series of successful open-mic night performances in Chicago have built a solid fan base for Company of Thieves--a foundation they want to spread throughout the country in 2008.

"We did a great job, I think, of building up a following in Chicago and getting the fan base going. …We just really want to do that in every other city now," Walloch said.

The band's success in such a short a time has its price, however.

"Its overwhelming in both positive and negative ways," Walloch said. "Sometimes I ask myself why I'm still doing this. I have no money; I'm really stressed out and freaking out."

[ michael schmitt is a redeye special contributor. ]