BAND BIO
By Adriana Rubio
Lead guitarist, song-writer Vincent Quinn (Vince) is the founder of Swedish Rock Band Stone Ticket. At 33 he quitted the British rock scene leaving his Birmingham based band “The Rain Men” behind to never come back. Vince needed a break, a long one which lasted for 14 long years. He sold his guitars and moved to Sweden. Vince spent most of these years working as a computer tech in a local school.
In late 2007 Vince couldn’t refuse to accept a new music call and was back into regular jam sessions with a few Swedish bands together with progressive rock guitarist Henrik Widing. The interaction between the two guitarists was perfect and that encouraged them to record and old song, “Easy Money”, Vince had written for the Birmingham band “The Rain Men”.
“Easy Money” was recorded live on a small computer in a rehearsal room on purpose to capture the essence of what rock music is about. They kept rehearsing for several months and from time to time auditions were set up with some musicians. Although most of the jam sessions were good, the whole work for them didn’t feel right at all. But things turned out different when punk bass player Jarmo Vehmanen walked in. The jam session was so thrilling and everyone in the rehearsal room was as excited as impressed on how they were amazingly working things out since the musical likes, influences and experiences among them were different, and not to mention that they were still in need of a drummer. So, Jarmo contacted his old friend-metal drummer John Lilliestrand, and invited him to jam with them.
Sometime between late 2009 and early 2010, Stone Ticket went into a small studio in Malmö to record five tracks: “I Can't Find My Way”, “The Queen of Rock & Roll”, “Wildcat”, “Don't Try To Find Me” and “Lights R Low”. Four more tracks were then added to complete their first full length release: “Punk’s Dead”. Soon after the album was out the band added a new member Kalle Strandberg for the lead guitar.
But… who sings? Well, about the time Vince had started to jam for some local bands only for fun… he was working in a school in Malmö Sweden and someone from Serbia, a former radio star, approached him with a song he had written: “Let’s Make Poverty History”. The song this Serbian guy was presenting to Vince was for the School Charity Group. It was good but the singing needed adjustments.
Vince admits that even though he had written most of the songs in the past for his old Birmingham band, he was never a singer and perhaps he hadn’t had the guts to sing to live audiences. He had always felt more comfortable playing lead guitar and writing music. But tunefully talking he had enough experience and authority to say that the singing parts didn’t fit properly. And although Vince didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, he gave his honest opinion on the matter and suggested the singer to choir instead of lead sing. In addition to this, Vince proposed himself to rewrite the entire song. Little by little he had started to feel the excitement of making music again. Vince got seriously involved with the School Charity Group project and took the lead in rewriting the song, booked a studio and got the school to pay for the recording sessions plus 1000 CDs. Vince ended up singing on the song himself and it was then played on National radio as well as on TV in Sweden.
The band Stone Ticket was first created with Vince playing lead guitar and singing in late 2007 after a long music career hiatus of 14 years. Stone Ticket has now a powerful rockin’ lineup. They co write all the songs as one unite and every band member is as important as the next member in this process and no one sticks out. These guys are on their way to connect with fans worldwide.
For further info on the band, tour dates or to purchase their latest release “Punk’s Dead”, visit the official site at:
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