Second Cup Cafe: Five Times August

Singer and acoustic guitarist Brad Skistimas doesn't need the frills that often accompany signing with a record label. Instead, the solo act just lets the music speak for itself.

The unsigned musician, also known as "Fives Times August," proves that an artist doesn't need a record label and a marketing team to have a successful career in the music business.

The Dallas native jump-started his career by word of mouth, through the Internet and by booking gigs on his own at different venues and colleges around the country.

Needless to say, Skistimas' grabbed MTV's attention.

MTV caught Skistimas' music on the Internet and contacted him to write several songs for the first two seasons of the MTV reality series, "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County."

Two new songs from the upcoming album release were also featured on MTV's "Real World Sydney" finale on January 9th.

Recently, "The Way You Do" was featured in the "One Tree Hill" episode entitled "Things I Forgot at Birth."

Skistimas' music has even made the crossover to video games. He appeared in numerous videos as "Unaware Steve" on a popular video game Web site, Screwattack.com. As "Unaware Steve," he does "humorous but facetious interviews" at popular video game events.
By Melissa Castellanos