Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

NEAR was formed in 2007 by brothers Tigran (aka Tiger) and David Tonoyan and they're joined on bass by Andrew Kuznetsov.

They say they're influenced by an array of heavy and hard rock bands - from Bryan Adams at the MOR end of the scale to thrash acts such as Metallica at the other. However, it's not all guitar-driven. There's plenty of keyboards and they also cite Coldplay, Sting and Peter Gabriel as influences.

Tigran said: "Our music is deeply personal. We search every inch of the sonic spectrum to create songs that appeal on many different levels."

The Tonoyan brothers hail from Armenia (formerly part of the Soviet Union) and they've also lived in Russia and Belarus. They arrived in Suffolk in 2007 to work in chicken factories and started gigging at the Suffolk Songwriters sessions which, at the time, were held at The Arboretum pub in Ipswich.

Tigran said: "Our love for rock music comes from our parents. They listened to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd etc. even in Soviet Union times in late 70's. But to be honest some of the greatest bands of those times were banned in USSR, and it was very difficult to get any records.Μύ

"I was born in 1983 while David was born in 1986 when Armenia was still part of the Soviet Union. We grew up listening to classic rock and pop, but we didn't have a chance to see some of our favourite musicians live because of the 'iron curtain'. Artists never put such countries as Armenia or other parts of the USSR on their tour lists."

Post-communist era

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 the Tonoyan family moved from Armenia to Moscow in 1993. The brothers' father had his own business there, but he later moved it to Belarus because he felt it was a more stable country.

The rest of the family still live there, but Tigran had other ideas: "We started writing and playing music, bought our first instruments, formed a band, started playing gigs, everything seemed to be ok, but the president of Belarus turned out to be a communist and nothing seems to change.

"This couldn't but affect the cultural life of the country. There is no music industry there, no rock labels. It's a return to old Soviet times and we knew that if we really want to achieve something in music we would have to go somewhere where we would have more possibilities for making our dreams come true.

"This is how we came to Ipswich and ended up working at the chicken factory. We are ready to take everything just to have a chance to play music and see some of our favourite artists live.

"We don't know how far we can go but we at least know that our dreams are more realistic."

Their first demo (from where the tracks on this page come from) was recorded at home in 2007 and more recordings are in the pipeline.

You can keep track of Near's gigs, recordings and latest happenings by visiting their MySpace page using the link on the right.