You can work hard, be talented, and experience a few lucky breaks. But, sometimes, as the hard-working and fully talented Default might admit, it's good to have friends.

For instance, when drummer Danny Craig and guitarist Jeremy Hora decided to form a band in 1999, they asked high school pal Dallas Smith if he knew any good singers around Vancouver. He answered, "Guys, give me a chance to sing." The two musicians were surprised. Sure, Dallas' sister had played in Danny's band some five years earlier, but they had no idea talent ran in the family...

But a pal's a pal. The wary pair invited Dallas to a rehearsal, suggested a run-through of Stone Temple Pilots' "Plush." It turned out that was real, real good. Especially for a guy who only ever sang along to his car radio. Other scheduled auditions were squelched and the Fallout was born.

Danny and Jeremy knew Nickelback's Chad Kroeger from the Vancouver circuit, and the Fallout's second show was supporting the rising "How You Remind Me" band. The Fallout's novice singer was a little stiff behind the mike, but Kroeger became curious about the group after hearing their demo.

Kroeger, an ambitious front man who would physically press his albums onto record store employees, decided to play Svengali. Jeremy and Danny were about to get another surprise. Kroeger called them out of the blue at one in the morning to say, "Guys, the stuff is good. We've got to get back into the studio and do another record."

That meant the Fallout had to pay for studio time. Dallas came to the rescue. He persuaded his dad to finance the first version of their Fallout debut with $20,000 from his retirement account. Kroeger applied his editorial sense to stage-hardened rockers like "Wasting My Time," and "Seize the Day," making the arrangements vacuum-packed tight.

Nickelback rocketed to fame after winning local radio station CFOX's 1999 talent search, so Kroeger decided to play the game again. In January 2000, he entered his new prot´g´s into the same contest. Following a name change, Default beat 300 entrants for a space on the CFOX-issued Seeds EP.

CFOX became another chum, giving Default the kind of rotation that launched Nickelback, and playing their song "Deny" over 500 times. Seeds sold out twice over. Default enlisted bass player Dave Benedict, and Fallout hit Canadian record stores. Their meteoric rise attracted the attention of TVT Records, who signed them.

When Rick Parasher took an interest in the group, Default rushed to re-record The Fallout with the Pearl Jam producer, and it was released in July 2001. Default lost no time in enjoying the fruits of excess. On their first American tour with Nickelback, they specified a rider of a case of domestic beer, 12 bottles of Corona, 12 bottles of Heineken, vodka, Crown Royal, cranberry juice, soda, Gatorade and Gummi bears.

By January 2002, Nickelback had chaperoned Default on a tour of Canada's biggest stadiums, culminating in a performance before 13,800 people in Edmonton. From there, armed with "Wasting My Time," they've played the Tonight Show, toured America with Bush, and donated a song to the Spider-Man soundtrack. From there, the foursome are on their own. And we have a feeling they'll do pretty well.