A Brief History of Trusties

Trusties started as a song writing collaboration between Matti Ylilauri (vocals) and Marko "Oikku" Oikarinen (guitar). Getting Ville Veijalainen (bass) on board allowed the trio to begin exploring less common rhythmic and harmonic territory as documented on their 1997 all acoustic debut CD 'Growing Smaller'. The band played gigs all around Finland as a three-piece acoustic band.

During the writing of the follow-up album it became clear that some of the new songs would definitely need drums. The band made the decision to not try to force the songs into the acoustic trio format. The arrangements were done using instruments that worked best for the given song (drums, electric guitar, synths). The songs on the second album We Just Want To Rule The World (2003) feature a wide palette of styles mixing world music and thrash metal into the traditional progressive rock vocabulary.

To be able to perform the new material live, the band acquired new members: Janne Ervelius (drums) and Ari "Suti" Sutinen (guitar/keys). Janne was already familiar with some of the material having played drums on some of the We Just Want To Rule The World songs. All the instrumentalists had also performed together live as a Zappa-cover band during the late nineties.

When the time came to start writing material for the third release, the starting point was a cohesive five-piece band with some mileage under their belt. The new material was arranged together in rehearsal sessions which gave the songs a natural band-oriented feel. The third album, 'Human Wheel' was released on 6 Jun 2009.

Matti Ylilauri Lead Vocals Percussion
Oikku Electric & acoustic guitars Backing Vocals Keyboards
Ville Veijalainen Fretted & Fretless Bass Keyboards Backing Vocals Clarinet
Suti Guitar synth & Electric guitar Keyboards
Janne Ervelius Drums