Biography
Talks of Payload began in the spring of 2008 when Vic and Ripa were partying abroad together. It wasn't until the summer of 2008 when the actual band was formed though.
Soon joined Toni, whom they both knew previously. The trio started to write material immediately and they also put an ad to a local musicians website for a keyboardist and a drummer.
After Henna and Jontte had joined the band the now five member group got themselves a place for practice and they started to fine tune the material while Vic and Ripa kept working on new tunes. The band also added few classic cover tunes for fun even though the main focus remained on own music.
October of 2008 begun with high hopes. Band had done some intence practicing and the band decided to have a first official photo shoot, mainly to get some decent pictures to the website. Expectations were piling up and the band wanted to advance faster than it actually could.
By the November 2008 the band's lead vocalist Ripa, who was also the rhythm guitarist at the time didn't really keep up with the band's pace with the guitar and the band decided to search for a new guitarist. At that time also the bassist Toni didn't seem so keen to practice the band's material anymore, being new to bass guitar it would've taken too much time from his hectic life and by the end of the month he decided to resign from the band after discussing with the band members of the situation.
After a few interviews and testouts Payload assigned Timo for the 2nd guitar and started to search for a new bass player. This wasn't as easy as it first seemed. Good available bass players who also had the right twisted personality to fit in the band just weren't around that much.
December 2008 began normally, band practiced the material they had and also wrote new material, still looking for the bassist. Talks of EP being recorded at the verge of next summer was rumbling the band and since there wasn't any suitable music to put to the website, no demo recorded, the band's new kid Timo reserved a demo studio for the band. The studio was set to be in beginning of March of 2009 leaving the band enough time to decide the tunes to be recorded and then fine tune the material. At the end of December the band retired for 3 week christmas holiday.
January 2009 began fast. It took in the time the band "lost" in December. Payload assigned a new bassist, Iikka, and started to focus on the upcoming demo recording. The songs which the band was going to record on the demo were decided and the band started to practice and fine tune the selected material.
Ripa threw a little party for the band in January to celebrate the starting season. Payload also had another photo shoot in January after Iikka was signed to get pictures of the whole band.
As February started the Lintukorpi training place started to feel a bit too shitty. 4 hours weekly training time which almost every time shrinked to good 2-3 hours just didn't do the trick for the band anymore. Payload started to look for a new training facility. Soon they found a few private training places and got to choose the cream from the crop. February also came with bad news, Henna's school and day-job taking so much time on her schedule that the increasing pace of the band was too much and she had no choice but to resign, although promising to be available as a session keyboardist when needed.
March began with Payload in studio. The demo "Bad Coffee" was recorded without Timo, who was running a fever and had to stay at home while Vic did all the guitars on the demo. Demo and this website were both published in same day, the 3rd of March 2009. In mid-March more bad news came out. Jontte decided to leave the band and did it behind the band's back, without telling others and just taking his drums away from the new practice place leaving others to wonder that what happened.
By the April the band had gone through some big changes. No more keyboardist, no drummer and on the positive note, a new training place called "Indie Center". Payload assigned for a local Radio station's, Radio Rock's demo contest which was to be ended by the end of May.
April and May was slow progress for the band. Without a drummer the band couldn't really practice the material and therefore the plans to start gigging in the summer had to be sacked. Timo stepped up in terms of writing new material and it was soon discovered that his style and music fitted extremely well with Vic's style. Soon they both wrote new tunes together and the springtime was very fertile in terms of getting new material done.
As the band kept on looking for a new drummer while writing new material, the spirits started to get low. At the end of May Payload got a boost injection in self confidence, the band ended in top 50 at the Radio Rock's demo competition, which had over 800 bands in it. Few drummers were audited without finding the right person. June passed the same way as the previous months: Vic and Timo kept writing new material and Ripa did his best to provide lyrics for the composed tunes.
By midway of June the band had interviewed and auditioned a few drummer candidates. The right one had not been found though and the mood inside the band was hitting new lows. Payload kept up the active searching though, and towards the end of the month the band started negotiating about the post with Mikko Kattelus.
The talks and the audition went well, and the band felt this was the man for the job. On July 1st Mikko was added to the ranks - little did we know how this would affect the whole band and its future. July and the beginning of August was a half-paced time with members being on vacation from their jobs and spending time with their families. The new guy made his presence felt and it was obvious he wouldn't just be a background noise. It was all or nothing: everything received its fair share of opinion - the band web pages, MySpace, the style of the band, the appearance of the members, even the music. It wasn't too hard to see that the new drummer wanted to make the band look like him; not vice versa.
The band set about arranging a new photo shoot in order to get new, up-to-date photos of the group. There was also an experimental "music video" filming at the end of August, for the sake of practice and to tape up something at the practice hall since the fans hadn't really heard anything new in a good while. After the shoot there were some internal differences of opinion on whether or not the obviously lousy quality recordings should be publicized at all. In the end the band made a flash video with Vic's phone camera about the band hassling about the practice centre, available to the registered fans only.
After the vacations and the silence it was time to take a re-check on the band's goals and schedules. It was unanimously decided that there would be no similar stalling and frustration as there was before the first demo. This meant that the band would learn all the existing material (and maybe something new) well enough during the winter - latest early spring so we could finally get some gigs under our belts. First occasionally in the spring, then more frequently in the summer, there were even discussions about throwing a few gigs south of the gulf in Estonia. The whole band agreed to this and dedicated themselves to work in order to realize those ambitions.
There was constant tension between Vic and Mikko over all kinds of things - it almost seemed like a power struggle. The spirit inside the band started to fall apart with the constant battling. In the latter half of October the situation escalated so badly that Mikko thought it would be best if he and the band went their separate ways.
A week after Mikko left, Iikka also said that he would be leaving the band. He stated that the bands' and his ambitions don't match, and that he wouldn't be able to put as much time and effort into the process as was required. Given this, a week passed and then Timo announced that he didn't have the energy or motivation to start over again - so off went he also. Both members said that they'd be taking a break for a while and then start to look at bands again - who would've thought they'd be teaming up with the departed drummers' new project in less time than it takes to say 'new band'. Obviously, we would like to wish all three all the best for the future.
During all these resignations the band had, however, already found a new drummer, Samuli Rova and there was no resting on the laurels this time. The band put together its so far largest search for new members. After a few auditions Jari Rinnemäki was added to the roster as our new bassist, and after seeing and auditioning quite a few guitar slingers, Miro Aalto was accepted in as the new rhythm guitarist. In just a couple of weeks, Payload was back stronger, better and more fit than ever before.
Band also decided to relocate once again after finding a bargain for a practice place. November and December went by more or less waiting for Samuli's new drum set and renovating the new practice place to suit our demanding needs. Vic showed the existing tunes to Miro and Jari while renovating the new place and little by little the band started to feel more relaxed with each other while the cave begun to get its form. In December there was a well-deserved holiday for everyone and soon it was time for some real action.
The year started with the waiting game, as Samuli didn't have a full set of drums and rehearsing was a bit half-paced. The band did what it could though, and as the new members were learning the songs the new practice facility started to feel more comfortable. Some modifications and arrangements were made to make the place look more like ours, and the band actually spent some time just remodelling the place and getting to know each other better. During that time the decision was made too, that whenever the band should start to perform live, all the possible gigs would be videoed in order to get to see what needed to be worked on, and how to make the band work live too. This proved to be one of the best decisions and most valuable sources of information the band had made thus far.
Early February marked the arrival of focal points as the band agreed a miniature gig in Seurahuone Kivenlahti, Espoo, to open up an "open stage" -night. A tight-scheduled few weeks of rehearsing followed and Payload made its first live public appearance on March 7th. Payload played a re-run with a some other tunes on March 28th, after which it was time to hunt some bigger stages and longer playtime.
In April the band started to fervently hunt after gigs, but it was ominously late to get gigs for the spring at that point. Only a couple of more gigs were booked. The month was then mostly spent analyzing the video material from Seurahuone and honing out the obvious flaws. Around midway of the month there was a bit of change when the band arranged a photo shoot with Arto Santala and Tiia Teerioja on probably one of the coldest and rainiest days of the whole month. After a few hours of shivering the band officially had the new look, followed by a couple of mugs of beer to warm up.
In May the band played its first full-scale gigs, Cantina, Otaniemi on the 15th and Bar Escape, Riihimäki on the 22nd. Although both gigs turned out excellent on the performance side, the circumstances didn't favour the band. Unfortunately the timing wasn't the best possible so the crowds weren't plentiful. The band didn't give up though, having gotten to the taste of performing and doing a good job at it. The strong faith in the doing was enhanced with a lot of positive feedback regarding the music, which originally was the main goal for the shows.
By June it was already clear that the summer of 2010 wouldn't be all too booked for the band. The concept born in May, "Release the Payload Summer Tour 2010", was shelved without too much noise. The members had made some of their summer plans already before the first gigs, and finding free time that would've suited everyone was hard to find. Not to mention the difficulty in booking shows on a short notice. It was still a bit unclear between the band how to start working towards the bookings, and although there was the possibility of a couple of one-off gigs, the band decided to focus on enjoying the summer, making new material and planning for the upcoming latter half of the year.
After having a sloppy June to the tune of R&R the quintet wanted something concrete to happen, and early July the band booked a studio for October. It was decided to focus on quality instead of quantity, and the booked 6 days would be used as effectively as possible. It was a common joke within the band that this would be a damn expensive single, even if the hope existed to maybe be able to get a total 6 songs on track.
In the spring the band also took part in the 2010 Radio Rock Starba -competition that ended in the turn of August. Payload didn't finish as high as the previous year, but it was still a success: 67th out of 228 bands in the "metal" -category, which wasn't all too bad given the song used for participation was a low-quality practice facility recording of "Nails", with the song ending up changing quite a bit during the autumn.
In September the band started intensive rehearsing for the studio. most of it was focused on the 4 songs the band definitely wanted to have recorded, yet some room was given to other tunes as well in the hope that the 6 days would give enough room to get more songs on record. The band was also working on a new tune, "Last Action Hero", that from the beginning seemed so good it was unanimously decided to record.
October started with excitement, anticipation and tension. A 2-month full-pronged rehearsing streak started to make itself felt and the pressure was piling up. Feelings within the band can be read from the studio diary (http://www.payloadband.info/studiodiary.asp), where the members dropped their lines on the verge of and during studio.
Once in the studio, it became obvious that 4 songs was the maximum that could be done with the wanted quality within the time limit, thus the focus shifted on getting those done with style. Last Action Hero was finalized on the first morning of studio, as Vic got the idea to the solo while walking down the studio stairs for the first time. With that, all 4 songs were ready to go.
October was remarkable for the band in other ways too. The official home page had its 20 000th visitor. The first 10K took over a year, the 2nd about 8 months.
During the autumn Vic had done the CD cover art layout and planned the band site to the same theme - October marked the sites' facelift to a new look. Payload also started promoting the to-be-released EP on stage as the band got the honour of grazing the stage of the legendary Semifinal Rock Club (governed by Tavastia Club) on October 21st. This led to the beginning of a big-scale promoting effort that was to bear fruit sooner than expected.
In November Vic managed to pull off some international distribution contracts and did a lot of the necessary background work on the verge of the release of the EP for sale. Midway through the month Risto won a Radio Rock competition and took Vic with him to meet and greet Disturbed - the US nu-metal powerhouse - and gave the band members copies of the yet unreleased EP. Last Action Hero EP was finally released on November 26th and on the 27th there was a release party in Espoo, the home of the earliest, and so far most loyal, fans. Joining in the celebration were Angry Molez and EvilDrive, with the latter making the trip from Estonia to do a show and celebrate with Payload.
In the biggest crowd the band had had so far was also a Radio Rock representative, who was impressed with what he saw and heard, and promised to write a review of the EP as well as promote it to the station show hosts.
Vic started negotiations with the international band promoter Mama Trash (e.g. The 69 Eyes). The band also decided to advertise the EP on radio and made a deal with Nelonen Media for the EP ad to be played on Radio Rock every day for a month.
December was spent mostly with invisible work - domestic distribution deals, gig booking as well as promoting and selling the EP. The Radio Rock representative wrote his review of the EP on different Radio Rock -related medias and took the whole band by surprise with the glowing appraisal of the recording. For Christmas the band withdrew to recharge the batteries for a few weeks after a hectic autumn and started preparing for 2011. Payload had finally achieved a foothold in the Finnish metal scene, and at the end of the month the home page visitor account exceeded the 30 000 mark, with the third set of 10k visitors taking only about 2 and a half months.
January got underway with Miro being away for 2 weeks on his winter holiday in Egypt but the rest of the band kept rehearsing intensively for the spring gigs. The first gig of 2011 was on January 22 in Espoo with 3 other setups, and it proved to be a success with one of the biggest crowds the band had had so far. There was also widespread interest from new listeners, and Radio Rock Prospect - member Jani was there again too to witness the show.
In the turn of February the band signed up for the Emergenza Band Competition, which featured unsigned bands throughout the land and genres. The band was actively trying to brand itself at the time too, with an ad placed for artists to design a mascot for the band, in the tune of "Eddie", "The Guy" and others. A few promising artists were found, and the band decided to go with one of them. Everything was agreed regarding the character, shirt designs and such, but soon it turned out the artist was busy with everything else and the band heard nothing from him in a while.
Vic was moving house in the spring and it was agreed that he could take some time off administering things regarding the band so he could set house in the new place.
The gigs kept coming 2 weeks apart, the next being at the Darkside club in early February. There Payload was joined by Shades of Nowhere and 1Logic, that turned into a fruitful co-operative trio that would see the bands play together in the future too. 2 weeks on and the band was on stage in Musta Härkä with Armed and Alone.
Late in February Jari revealed that his wife was pregnant and they would be having their firstborn in June. The band thus agreed to spend the early summer working on new material and rehearsing less intensively to give Jari the home time he needed. Also gig bookings were delayed so that the band started looking into late summer and early autumn as the next gig dates after April.
In March begun the Emergenza competition with Payload playing in the preliminary round at Bar Loose, going through to the semi-finals with flying colours. There it was also agreed Payload would be playing a gig with a fellow competitor, Sverige no Börje, on April Fools day in Espoo.
The turn of the month saw the international promoter Mama Trash arrange the fourth TrashFest in Helsinki. The 4-day festival started off in the Semifinal club on Wednesday March 30 and went on for 3 days at Gloria. Members of Payload were attending the festival as much as they could, building relationships and acquiring acquaintances throughout the scene, the only interruption being the gig in Espoo on April 1st. On the last day of the festival Vic got to play on stage as part of the MTFA (Mama Trash Family Artist) All-Star Band, that featured members throughout the roster of bands mixing and matching to play some great cover songs.
April 15th saw the band on stage at On the Rocks club in Helsinki as part of the Emergenza semi-finals. The gig was recorded on video and the band now had its first quality recording on a live appearance, the song "Nails" ending up on the bands website, Youtube and other music media, such as MySpace, ReverbNation etc. Payload didn't make it through to the final though, but the experience was well worth it. This proved to be the last gig of the spring and the band laid low and started looking at what had happened and what needed to be done next.
Soon after it turned out that an email had been missed, and the band had missed the opportunity to make it on stage to one of the major summer festivals in Finland, the Kotkan Meripäivät. This resulted in some heated exchanges within the band, as there were other concerns too regarding duties and responsibilities going on. It was a difficult time for the band all in all, with a lot of tension after the spring that had been probably the busiest ever for the band both musically and in the private lives of the members. Things escalated and a lot was said in anger, but eventually the differences were solved and the band could continue looking forward.
In May the band still hadn't heard anything from the artist chosen to provide the mascot and other art, and the band started rushing him into work too. Promises were made, but it turned out nothing was to be heard once more.
June came and the band was working on new material and invisible work, arranging gigs for the autumn and such. At the end of the month Jari dropped a bomb on the band though, deciding his family was more important to him than the band, and he decided to quit the setup. The band understood the decision though, and wishes Jari all the best in his future endeavours.
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