This German Hard Rock act band was formed in Frankfurt am Main in 2006, but the foundation goes back a little further.
You see, guitarist Stephan “Branko” Ebert had been looking for musicians to found a true Rock band since November 2004, when he came across an ad from drummer Fabian “Boozey” Ortkamp, whom was looking for same such...and that's how it came to the first, still irregular, rehearsals, during which early versions of the band's later songs would come to life. In May 2005 bassist Martin showed up at the doorstep. Although he came from an Indie Rock background, he originally fit in just perfectly, and the jam sessions bacame far more frequent. Last part of the equation, was the singer. Branko and Matze (Matthia Diener) had actually been going to the same school for 9 years, but it wasn't after they met at June 2005's Rock Am Ring, that they truly got to know each other. Eventually he decided he might as well start singing, and soon the band's music was provided with lyrics. Within 4 or 5 months, a set of 10 own songs and two covers were rehearsed, after which the band set out to play gigs in a couple of small local places.
But the original euphoria was starting to crumble. As Branco, Fabi and Matze were also getting closer to each other outside the band, and making true bonds of friendship, Martin was separating from the band. And after the recordings of their first demo CD, contacts with Martin were deteriorating. Still, in the rehearsal room things were still booming, and new songs were being written. Then when the opportunity came up to play supports to The Generators and V8-Wankers, MTG was having a real problem, as martin had been out of sight for a while already, and so Branco called upon his friend Vjeran Wertag. The rehearsal room was transformed into a party place, and within a week Vjeran had studied the material. He did his live debut with the band on May 21, 2006, which is since considered by the band as its actual birth date. Since then, the boys haven't looked back once, making a party of each rehearsal and live gig!
The need was felt to record more songs on demo, and in late 2006 the boys set out for a studio in Berlin. However, after only 100 km Branco's car broke down, and a replacement car had to be secured. Details were omitted, but apparently a bit later some drunk woman drove her car in the side of the band's replacement car. Undaunted, the jolly foursome continued the rest of the 550 km in what was factually “total loss” vehicle. The day after, the guys recorded 3 songs including “Don't Stop the Booze”, which jumped to #1 in some Internet Rock forum before the band was back home. The other songs, “Fever” and “Wastin' Your Time (Motherfucker)” would get the same honors from that same forum in the months to come. In July 2007, the band played abroad (on a French stage) for the first time, and in December of the same year the band went into a decent studio (LTF- Tonstudio in the village of Reichelsheim, some 65 km from Frankfurt's center of town, by motorway) to record its debut 6-Track EP Rock 'n' Roll Decadence (containing the three aforementioned songs), which was released in April 2008. Obviously, the release came with a release party at Frankfurt's Elfer, which was filled to completion for the occasion. Obviously, that was just the beginning of a series of gigs, and by the time of the band's release of its debut full-length, they had over 125 shows to their credit.
The debut full-length? That was recorded during the summer of 2011, again at LTF-Tonstudio, in collaboration with producer Marc Bugnard (formerly of Roko). 11 songs on which a variety of Hard Rock styles is displayed, from down 'n' dirty Sleeze Blues, over mouth harmonica driven, from including female backing vocals (care of Florencio Giorgi, Deborah Schmidt and Olivia Schmidt) to saxophone (thank you, Alexander Hanke), and from Blues harp to piano, sitar and an occasional Hammond organ. Actually, the album was recorded in two sessions, the first concentrating on the core elements of lead vocals, guitar, bass, and drums. The second session was for the overdubs.
With a style cornered in the '80s and '90s scene of Hard Rock, the band nevertheless has a modern sound. One thumb up for the exuberant singer, by the way, he really lives his lyrics! Don't bother going to look for audio files anywhere other than on the band's own 'www.) mindthegaep.com (“music” section → players with each song of both the album and EP)!! Go check that out now, and enjoy! Funny thing, what with Spring finally coming through at the moment, this is the kind of fee-good music we need at the moment! By the way...why “Gaep”?