Tonight at Rick’s Cafe, concert goers should expect to hear some out of the ordinary rock ‘n’ roll. Sound of Mind will play a musical style that they say has not been heard on this side of the pond. They will play their first gig with a set list of nine original songs.
Sound of Mind is comprised of Blue Tattoo guitarist Shawn Miller, drummer Mike McGrath, bassist Joe Lawder and vocalist Petra Blazkova.
“Our music is rock ‘n’ roll but more intelligent rock ‘n’ roll—- nothing like in the United States yet,” Petra Blazkova,the vocalist, said.
Sound of Mind will open tonight for Blue Tattoo’s final performance. All original tunes will be played and will consist of “very sexual lyrics about love, sex and life.”
“We should be pretty big within a year as far as all the doors manager Valdev can open for us,” McGrath said.
Miller, McGrath and Lawder met Blazkova on the Internet in an ad section of a United Kingdom Web site. It was a musician’s wanted ad, looking for an over seas gig. The musician flew to the States and saw Blue Tattoo. Two days later, they began forming a new group. Manager Frank Valdev has been pressing them to spend more time in the studio. They said that for the past two months they have been writing songs and practicing as much as they can.
“Valdev is a really good business man and has great connections—- hard worker. He pushes us really hard and keeps us focused,” Miller said.
Petra Blazkova is from the Czech Republic. She and Valdev established the initial relationship. Soon after, they began looking for a band in Europe. Blazkova became involved with music at the age of five. She met the members of Blue Tattoo, all songwriters, and decided to go through with it. The band tried for weeks to think of a name that would sum up their style of music.
“We would get a call everyday, with a question from our manager. Do you have a name yet?” said McGrath.
Everytime they had an idea they wrote it down. They eventually had about 100 names. “Nobody really knows who came up with our name, but they finally captured a name and we liked it,” McGrath said. “Then we had to find out if it was taken.”
The new band has already played a few gigs in Starkville. In the coming months, they plan to possibly record and play in Austin, Miami and New York. They are also thinking about traveling overseas to England, as soon as the conflict with Iraq settles down.
“We change our mind everyday about where we are going to live. Our upcoming goals are to work hard and try to make it. We have been writing songs left and right,” said McGrath.
One can compare Sound of Mind’s music to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Foo Fighters. Blazkova’s accent adds a bit of uniqueness to the band’s vocals.
“Our crowd should expect good old rock ‘n’ roll with a lot of sexuality,” said Miller.
Sound of Mind will play in Starkville just a few times. When their demo CD is ready, they are planning on hitting the road.