THE PHASE :: BAND
The Phase biography » Band members
BIOGRAPHY
The Phase originates from the end of 1990's when the progressive rock band Menhir (1991-1996) came to the end of its five year road. Band members were separated by different activities like studies, army service and such peculiarities.
Riku Pasanen ( ex. Menhir guitarist ) began his army service in 1997 at Lahti as a sound technician and part time guitarist. At the same time a musically liberal guy Mikko Kaakkuriniemi started his army service in Lahti as well. After hearing Riku's demo tapes Mikko got very interested in working together so they started working on the compositions which later were to become an album. During the evenings and nights the recording studio of the garrison was in industrious use. As a result of these activities the [Tau] -demo was born.
At this time the project/orchestra had no name. Mikko used to greet Riku by saying; "Hey Pheis!" which referred to Riku's surname Pasanen. In the end the name stuck as "Phase" and later (2006) "the" -prefix was added. This was mainly because of the only reasonable free web address.
After army it was time for civil life again. Active life of Phase subsided for awhile when Mikko was still living in Keminmaa ( far far away that is ) and Riku in his new home city Lohja. The enthusiasm to re-record [Tau] material and some songs "from the table drawer" was still alive. At last Mikko started studies in Helsinki ( not that far away ) making the recording sessions possible again.
An old primary school was rented in winter 1998 and during weekends the place acted as a recording studio. After six months of hard work "Views" saw the daylight. The album "Views" consisted mainly heavily recomposed [Tau] songs. After finishing the album the guys were interest in rehearsing the songs for live performing. In 1999 Johan Fallenius, a bass player from Lohja was asked to join the band and the search for a keyboard player began, but there were no suitable candidates available. Phase rehearsed few times as a trio without keyboard player and then the whole thing faded.
Mikko began to have a firm foothold as a professional musician in Helsinki area and his time for Phase was very limited, so the decision for canning Phase was clear. Low activity continued until 2005, when after many turns Riku's music hobby caught fire and the band was put together again. Ari Sinkkonen, ex Menhir drummer and progressive music digger listened to "Views" and got interested in the music. Johan joined the band as well and a year long rehearsing period began. A live set consisting mainly songs from "Views" was rehearsed. The decision to play as a trio was technically challenging. The objective to play all sounds live without background tapes arose a lot of problems, but in the end the problems were solved and the first official The Phase gig took place in Tampere "University Student House" on 2.3.2006.
31st of July 2007 The Phase finally relesed the debut album "Reviews".
Today we are working with new fresh ideas, which might end up to the 2nd album. Hopefully this time you dont have to wait as long than with the debut. Keep on checking the pages regularly for more info!
We hope to bring new winds and flavors to Finnish music scene and especially to the wide genre of progressive music.
16.9.2007, The Phase
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