Antti Karhu – Guitar
I remember having been interested in music already much before I was tall enough to climb behind the drums or strong enough to hold an electric guitar. It was at the dawn of the 90′s when my brother watched over my first steps as a musician. These steps I took as an aspiring young drummer. I wore out countless drum sticks before and during the life span of my first band. We played alternative rock under the monicker After Sun. Drummer I remained also into my next musical operation, Predominance. We played heavy rock of some kind. The frontman of this unit was Juha Kylmänen, later better known from bands like Reflexion and For My Pain.
Not only was splintering drum sticks by the untold thousands, I was also ambitious about learning the guitar. Eko was the brand of my first electric guitar, the tool with which I learned to play the essential Metallica. My learning curve led to a situation where the guitar eventually became more and more important and interesting to me. It was a tool for creation. I started writing songs of my own and round about when they started to sound halfway decent, my taste of music took a turn for progressive. This prog metal -season of mine lasted for ten or so years and culminated in the band named Mental Voice. In the line-up were names like Marco Sneck (later Poisonblack) and Jarru Kanniainen (Depth Beyond One’s).
I have never been too black and white about the music I like. And never been afraid of stepping outside of my musical comfort zone – to explore something different. On the side of Mental Voice, I got involved in two other bands, playing two quite different styles of music. Impish was a thrash outfit featuring names like Juho Raappana (Eternal Tears of Sorrow) and Jyrki Hiltunen (Clock Paradox). Joint Depression was very depressive and quite Tool-ish.
Call it ambition or lack of co-ordination, time and again I have also landed in the singing territory. I was privileged to perform the vocals on the album release of the fine prog metal outfit named Depth Beyond One’s. This band was loaded with musical talent. From the ranks of this one my still currently ongoing Clock Paradox found itself a drummer, Jani Kuorikoski. Despite my focus on the guitar and vocals during the later years, I never actually gave up drumming. I have had chances to revisit my first instrument on a number of occasions, one memorable one of these was the band of singer-songwriter Heikki Hallanoro, whose dark stories we performed live all over Finland.
About twenty years down the road, I was contacted by Janne Markus of The Man-Eating Tree and here I am. Rich with new experiences with The Man-Eating Tree. But it’s early. No doubt this adventure has many more brilliant highlights in store for me.
Past Appearances:
Joint Depression – Savage Infinity (2007)
Joint Depression – Into Something New (2008)
Depth Beyond One’s – Red Lines Entwined (2009)
Various EP, Promo and demo recordings