Introducing: Pyramids of Mars & Kevin Estrella "The Satriani of The North"
The story starts way back on September 5, 1987.......
It was the first day of grade 10 at Notre Dame Secondary School, Brampton, Canada. Kevin Estrella was sitting in home room next to his friend Mike Rose. Mike had on his portable CD player with a pile of tapes next to him. He turned to him and said, “Hey Kev, you have to check out this guitar player Joe Satriani. Here is his latest album Surfing With the Alien. He is amazing!” Kevin listened to the entire album that day and had an epiphany. He wanted to play like Joe Satriani.
Thus began years of practice and dedication. In high school Kevin and his brother Craig who played bass guitar, had a band and played after school coffee houses and band wars. Wowing students with their energy and technical prowess, they became music legends that would be spoken of for years after graduating.
Playing with bands such as Firestorm and Shatter Instinct they cut their stage performance teeth in the 90’s playing the Toronto and the southern Ontario music scene. A musical journey lasting almost 25 years. Then on January 4th, 2011, (New Age of Aquarius) Kevin’s melodic instrumental rock solo project Pyramids on Mars was born.
Pyramids on Mars is music that really sounds like it’s from Mars!! Every once in a while there comes along a band that is so different or unique, you would think they were dropped on Earth from another planet. Pyramids on Mars, is one of those bands. What first catches you, is that they are an instrumental band. A combination of elements such as hard rock, industrial, metal and psychedelic rock. And then... the lead guitar comes soaring in. Well crafted, beautiful, melodic phrases so catchy and memorable they will be stuck in your head the rest of the day. The guitar has become the "vocals" of the music.
As the solo project of guitarist Kevin Estrella, he wanted to do something musically different that would stand out from the crowd:
"Pyramids on Mars is the embodiment of who I am, really. My musical influences, my philosophies on life, the universe and our place in it." Kevin went on to say, “I have always been attracted to space, and a lot of my sound is influenced from my childhood growing up in the '70's. Some of my favorite TV shows back then were Star Trek and Space: 1999. Plus I am a huge Rush and Pink Floyd fan! Thus I use a lot of analog synthesizers like the Minimoog and Oberheim Polyphonic. Predominant of the '70's era and used exclusively by those bands. They are just so warm and mysterious sounding, they resonate with me."
His musical style is very similar to world renowned rock guitarist Joe Satriani. So much Kevin has nicknamed himself the "Satriani of the North."
"Of course Satriani is a huge influence on me", he says. "But he (Satriani) does more of a bluesy thing. I am more influenced by classical music. I absolutely love baroque classical composers J.S Bach and Antonio Vivaldi. They are a paradigm shift for me, and are my biggest musical influences. I spent 3 years in fact, studying classical guitar. Mix my classical influences with all the bands I grew up listening to like Rush, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Ministry, Pink Floyd for example, and bands like Meshuggah, I am a blend of it all. And much more...."
PYRAMIDS ON MARS
Kevin recorded, produced, engineered and mastered his first debut CD, self titled "Pyramids on Mars" released in 2013. He performed all the instruments on the album and did all the drum programming. He has been capturing music industry attention, and getting international radio airplay in the U.S, Canada, South America and Europe.
Pyramids on Mars continue to gain a tremendous amount of fans worldwide on Jango Radio, Soundcloud, Reverbnation and Twitter. His goals are to continue to build a loyal fan base and bring his powerful, ambient music to the masses.
They recently caught the attention of Jesse Mitchell of Coalition Entertainment Management (Our Lady Peace, Finger Eleven, Simple Plan). He had this to say:
“I was on the CBC “Search Light” website and was listening to their listed track King of the Mountain. Really impressive! I am not familiar with anyone in the Greater Toronto Area who are instrumental rock. The music scene is very saturated with artists and bands pretty much doing the same thing (stylistically speaking). With the current popularity of instrumental guitarists like Joe Satriani, there is a good possibility of instrumental rock coming back. Pyramids on Mars have a niche market with very little competition that they can control the market share in that music genre.”
Jesse Mitchell |Coalition Music
Their songs are well-constructed, with catchy melodic hooks. They are Radio ready and professionally produced. Pyramids on Mars have been quickly building a fan base locally and worldwide.
Pyramids on Mars is music from the Mystical Red Planet - Recommended If You Like: Joe Satriani, , Steve Vai, David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Yngwie Malmsteen, Rush, Nine Inch Nails, 30 Seconds to Mars, Rammstein, Pantera, Meshuggah and Metallica to name a few.
Find out more at www.pyramidsonmars.com
