Based in New York Citys various boroughs, IONIA is a hard-rock/ metal-pop band that has been compared to Thrice and Rise Against, or to a lesser degree, My Chemical Romance. The band quotes a wide range of early influences from NIN, Marilyn Manson, to Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. IONIA's songs are passionate, driving, and scream-filled, with socially conscious thought provoking lyrics and a stage show full of physical energy.
The basis for Ionia got started, when lead singer Blaise Beyhan left the alternative community in Alaska where he had grown up in exchange for the busy cities of the northeastern continental US. Blaise laughs, when I got to the lower 48 it was news to me that Mick Jagger wasn't 20 years old, I just saw album covers where I grew up and thought they were new. Witnessing the huge differences between his upbringing and his surroundings, Blaise sought out a way to express his wonder and consternation with the trappings of urban life; he found that in writing lyrics and music.
Shortly after arriving in New York Citys Penn Station by bus, Blaise linked up with a bunch of local session players and began working on material. Hungry to get a band together Blaise scoured the New York City music scene and spread the word that he was interested in forming a band. Answering the call, Freddy Epps(Bass) Chris AhKao (guitar) and Kyle Walters (guitar) appeared in the rehearsal space and demonstrated their chops. To test the creative water, the group attempted writing some songs together, and it worked. "Freddy brings a creative element to the band that widens the palate of our writing process," Blaise says.
With the lineup in place, the band took a vote on what their name should be; they decided on the name IONIA basing it on the Carl Sagan novel, Cosmos, where inhabitants of an Earth-like planet seek to escape a Big Brother controlled society to reach the decentralized, free-thinking continent of IONIA. With their philosophy and identity set, the band started playing up and down the Northeast corridor and continue to steadily develop their fanbase. The band says, we love the underground party type shows, but honestly the shows at community centers that are packed with kids are a lot of fun too.
Lyrically, IONIA is inciting in that it is both ominous and energizing. Blaise explains that the band's lyrics are a method in which he and the band express the problems they and the world are going through; the lyrics force us to question how we deal with those problems. The band takes an egalitarian approach to writing which brings a wealth of identity and viewpoints into the songs creating a fullness of sound and style that is unique to this band.
In late 2008, IONIA recorded their first EP at Atlantic Sound in Brooklyn, NY with engineer Ross Peterson (Finger Eleven, Brand New, Say Anything). The EP contains the bands first single Winning is Everything, a hard-driving radio favorite which presents an indictment of the American obsession with being No. 1 while honesty is a distant second. How timely!!!???
In their short two years, the guys have scored festival appearances at NEMO, Locobazooka, taste of chaos, warped tour, Popfest and the Millennium Music Conference. The bands online fans reach into the tens of thousands they were voted No.1 Unsigned Artist in the first two weeks of their presence on PureVolume.com. The band notes one key show that they did abroad in Costa Rica, for the Roberta Felix Foundation who serves Costa Rican teens who had found the band on Myspace. The band was a featured performer at the CMJ 2008 Metal Radio party. The band recently won a battle of the bands to be featured on the Hartford Connecticut stop of the Taste of Chaos tour. they also won a spot on the ernie ball stage on warped tour and and played dates in 09 and 2010 on the warped tour. The band was featured on two television shows CN8 and Fearless Music Television, with their appearance on Fearless being re-run do to voter request. Their work is starting to pay off, and the guys are having a great time doing it.
hoping to put out there first full length record this fall, entitled 'moral hazard' and just shot a music video the song mutiny, which they wrote and directed them selves.
