Music Style Rock and Roll with an Edge

Musical Influences Queensryche, Rush, Candlebox, Live

Similar Artists Queensryche, Rush, Candlebox, Journey, Triumph, Armada

Artist History The History of Armada... as told by us.Yea, sure we made up some of this stuff... but most of it's true.In a nutshell:Ted met Steve; Steve met Wal; Ted knew Dave...Wal left; We all met Cory; Cory left; Wal came back; Wal left; Cory came back...That Was Then:Ted and Steve met in high school. Steve was doing the drum thing and Ted was learning to play bass. A couple of years later the two of them started a cover band named SIGNALS. They played around Columbus, mostly the Ohio State campus, for a couple of years... until that got old! One night on campus, Steve met a guy from Cleveland who seemed to be surprised to see someone with longer hair than himself (Remember... times were a little different then). That guy was Wal Ozello. After a few beers, and some unsuccessful attempts to pick up women(immediately followed by some verbal woman bashing), Wal joined up with Ted and Steve. The band started taking shape. Which brings us to Dave... Ted had known Dave since they were kids. Ted knew that Dave wasn't playing in a band at the time but that he had been competing in guitar competitions around Ohio. After a phone call and a rough audition, Dave joined the band didn't bitch too much about the already-picked band name. Time-out for Name Explanation: The name ARMADA came from a news flash concerning Steve's brother, who was in the navy at the time. The news was concerning a naval armada that was being sent to the Persian Gulf. A quick check with the dictionary revealed the meaning the word armada was defined as a moving or driving force of elements. This defined what we were attempting to be as a band. We just hoped we could keep all the elements moving in the same direction...OK... Back to the Story:In early 1991, we started practicing together as a cover band. We tried to choose cover tunes that were challenging for us (to keep things interesting), and entertaining for the audiences. The foundation for the original influences began to take shape with the line-up of cover tunes, ranging from Rush and Triumph to Queensryche and Tesla. Wal's high-pitched, Journey-style vocals suited this style of music perfectly. This was to be our thing up until I got a drunken call from Dave and Wal... we had just written our first original. Tanya( listen!)The song, and the band as a writing group, came together so well that we started writing new songs every few weeks! Within six months we had the material for the first album written and started on writing for the second. After releasing "Don't Give Up the Ship" in the spring of 1992, we played around Ohio a lot! Sales of CD's, cassettes, and T-shirts were going well. We did interviews regularly on Z-Rock, the CD got some good airplay, and we even got to played live on Z-rock. Playing with national acts such as Dream Theater, Night Ranger and Tesla helped the band get even more exposure. Then we got a call from RCA records in New York... things were rolling! Meanwhile, this new band called Nirvana had recently released "Smells Like Teen Spirit"... Welcome grunge rock, and goodbye to the rock scene that we were flourishing in. Things stopped rolling...In 1993, Wal announced that he was moving to New York to pursue a job opportunity. We were happy for him but were a bit discouraged about seeing the magic that was ARMADA come to and end.This is Now:Over the next two years, Dave, Ted and Steve kept writing and rehearsing and auditioning singers. Eventually we were introduced to Cory Hutchenson... He was the only person to audition that could sing both the strong, low-end vocals and the high-vocal songs from the first album. Cool, a new sound for the band could this work? It took a while, but things have turned out better than ever! We started writing new songs that better fit Cory's voice and ARMADA had become complete again. Which brings us to the present...Beginning in the Spring of '99 we revamped the show... keeping the best (hopefully) of the cover tunes and originals... and adding new originals and covers to the set list. We have always tried to be an original band... with just enough covers to keep Armada virgins interested. We will continue to write new originals and learn more covers as long as there is someone out there to listen.Come check us out and let us know what you think.

Group Members Dave Manring - Guitar & Vocal Cory Hutchinson - Lead VocalsSteve Matthews - Drums & Vocals Ted Spradling - Bass, Keys & Vocals

Location Columbus, OH - USA

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