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MIND-A-STRAY

MIND-A-STRAY Radio

Music

FEATURED SONG
Last of my Kind
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Last of my Kind
Album:
Released: Dec 19, 2011
Label:

General Info

  • Genre: Acoustic / Metal / Progressive

    Location Helsinki, Etelä-Savo, Fi

    Profile Views: 62757

    Last Login: 11/18/2012

    Member Since 8/19/2006

    Website www.facebook.com/mindastrayed

    Type of Label Unsigned

  • Bio

    The story of the band in its current form began in year 2000. Principle song-writer, vocalist and rhythm guitarist Tommy Dee formed the band from the scratch after moving from Savonlinna to Helsinki, and leaving the earlier version of the band completely behind. Back then the band was known as Holochaust and Tommy Dee had several line-ups with many different musicians and things just didn't seem to work in Savonlinna. Anyway Tommy produced the 71 minute long album called Ultimate Metal Trademark in his own home studio. The recording featured the latest of his Savonlinna era drummers (Mikko Purontaus) on the drums in 6 out of 12 songs. The rest of the drums were made with a PC-software. The recording got a huge following around the world in Internet, making thousands of fans to Tommy Dee's music..... The new line-up in Helsinki comprised of the front-man Tommy Dee, bassist Jukka, lead guitarist Rizzto and drummer Tony. The guys started practicing hard resulting as a debut gig in Nummirock metal festival after playing just 3 months together in summer 2000. In the beginning of 2001 the band started recording their very first promo together - with this "new" line-up. The promo was named Valley of Misery and it included three songs which all were also featured on Ultimate Metal Trademark album. Many gigs were thrown and the band grew its popularity convincingly. In the beginning of 2002 the band released their secong promo called PanDEMOnium, which also contained three songs and these songs also appeared on U.M.T. The band wanted to use these good songs so that they could prove to work together as a band.And since U.M.T. was never sent to any record labels there was no reason for not re-recording these "old" songs. This year they also attended to the annual Champinonships of Rock -competition in Finland. They finally won a place among the 6 bands in the finals which was a good achievement among the hundreds of the bands that attended to the competition. This time around they got some media exposure also, which felt surreal. This wouldn't be the last time for that.. Later in year 2002 they decided to change their name because the name Holochaust caused unnecessary Nazi-associations and such. And the name didn't really describe their music so well; giving too harsh conception about it. The new name was chosen to be Darcane. Obviously they were quite ignorant at the time for not knowing about the swedish band called Darkane and quite soon they started getting negative feedback about it. They thought about the name change again but it seemed quite too soon to do that right away so they waited for about two years. In the year 2003 it was time for the third promo. This one was named Survivors of the Holochaust and the title implied to the name change; they once were named as Holoc(h)aust and survived it. Get the point? The promo had four songs and still comprised of three songs that also were on U.M.T. but the opener track was the first completely new track from Tommy Dee since the release of U.M.T. The band's conspicuousness got even bigger and the band started to stabilize their name in the Finnish metal underground scene. A year 2004 was a time of turmoil for the band and they went through lots of line-up changes. First their guitarist Rizzto decided to leave the band to start the one of his own. They soon found one Tommi Ahtila to fill the empty spot in the band and with him the band released their fourth promo named Anamorphica in the beginning of 2004. This promo was the first promo that was done completely on a decent studio and the sound and production got very much better, resulting as even better reviews. Later on Toni and Tommi Ahtila had some difficulties on getting along. This, and that the guys' schedules didn't quite match, made Tommi to make a choice to leave the band after just 6 months together. Finally after the second hopeless trial they found a prominent guitarist Jere Lappalainen who very soon gained a firm role in the band. In November 2004 they decided to get a new lead singer to the band. They only had two candidates at the time since they just didn't have time for more; the recordings of the 5th promo Sign of Victory were closing in dauntlessly and they also needed some training before the recording sessions. The band found a guy named Sami Ilvonen and he was a real character along with his singing skills. It was also time to change a drummer, just after the drum recordings of the Sign of Victory were ended. The band didn't try to abuse Toni in any way; the situation and problems just finally culminated to their extremes and they had to do this decision. The band found Tommi Lehtosaari who was talented enough to face the challenging musical requirements of the band in the future. In January and February 2005 Sami did his contribution on the 5th promo. Actually the band did the training in the studio. As the recordings went on, Sami was in the singing booth and Tommy and Jukka were in the monitoring room. They just communicated through a microphone and after all the trouble they finally got everything done within few days. The mixing of this 5th promo took some time and the band got it published not until March 2005. At this point and after all these changes the band finally decided to change the band's name and settled with MIND-A-STRAY which symbolizes the new relaxed and etheral style of the band. Also the name is quite characteristic with all the hyphens, and it sounds beautiful - just like their music does. The promo itself got excellent reviews and the band started to plan some gigs to throw, again the first time after a very long break. However the co-operation with the singer Sami didn't pay off the way the band wanted it to. The band only had a few training sessions with him and eventually Tommy Dee "had to" do the singing in the first two gigs with this line-up. So the things were kind of a way they have always been, and to be honest: it felt really good! There were also some schedule problems and by mutual decision the band decided to let Sami go. Although the co-operation was later to be continued. In organizing gigs and such. Tommy also felt that nobody could be singing his songs the way he ultimately wanted them to, and many fans were also disappointed because the band had replased Tommy Dee as a lead singer. So all those things combined was the reason to get Tommy back to do the lead vocals. The band says they will never again consider changing this, no matter what.. Eventually the Sign of Victory promo was re-sang by Tommy Dee and only those versions of the promo's songs are currently available.

  • Members

    Tommy Dee (rhythm guitar, vocals), Jarmo Hautamäki (bass)

  • Influences

    Metallica, Sepultura, Opeth, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Beatles, Slipknot, Linkin Park

  • Sounds Like

    Metallica, Megadeth, Beatles, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Testament

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