Mirka Rantanen

I don't know from where I got the idea back in the day that I'd like to play music but when I was something like eight years old, I found myself sitting in front of the TV and beating gigerbread cans with wooden sticks. A program called "Lauantaitanssit" was aired on TV at that time and I tried to play with all the songs I heard. The songs were mostly schlagers but in the end of each show the TV-band always played a famous rock song, and then the cans were in for a serious beating.

My career as a drummer started for real in 1985 when me and some friends put together a band called Loud Crowd . A year from that we hit the studio to record our first single. With that single we soon got to open for Dio and Helloween at the Giants of Rock festival in 1987, and I can tell you that I was damn nervous. A while later we signed a record contract with Poko Records and our debut album "Guardians" was released in 1988. Although we started recording our second album, it was never released because the band broke up due to internal tensions a bit before the recordings were done.

Then it was time to take a step forward and so I moved to Helsinki in 1991. It took a couple of years to get to know people but I ended up playing with people like Jari Kainulainen, Timo Kotipelto, Kari Tornack, and Pasi Rantanen. I think you can see a pattern forming here... . I made two albums with a progressive metal band called Tunnelvision, and at some point we ended up at the same rehearsal room with Antidote in which Nino and Titus were playing. This room became later the Sonic Pump Studios in which all the first Thunderstone songs were recorded.

At some point in 1999 Nino asked if I could record drums for a few demos of his. He told me that he had a burning desire to compose some more melodic metal and he would like to find out how the songs in his head would sound in real life. We made a demo which had the first versions of the songs "Spread My Wings" and "Voice In a Dream". Thanks to positive feedback, the next question Nino asked was: "Want to make an album and have a real band?" And you know the rest.

When I have had the time, I have also played in many other bands and projects. These include Kotipelto, Warmen, Strandberg Band, Revolution Renaissance, Joe Lynn Turner, etc.

www.myspace.com/mirkarantanen