the fishtale..

Started in 2000 by Jouni Porio (voc, gt, prog; graduate from Musicians Institute, London) & Jari Vireaho (dr, perc; graduate from Musicians Institute, California), ZebraFish is a project designed to produce strong groove compiled with beautiful melodies and depth.

The band was joined in 2001 by Johanna Vireaho (keys, backing voc) and 2002 by Esa Räsänen (bass) and the first gigs were played summer 2002 in Esplanadi Park, Räyhärock festival and local clubs.

Winter 2002-2003 saw a lot of new songs composed and rehearsing done with quite a few gigs and raising interest in people -during spring and summer 2003 ZebraFish played successful concerts in clubs and on Räyhärock´s main stage warming up for bigger finnish acts such as Egotrippi & MaijaVilkkumaa. After a short summer break the band joined together to record the first acclaimed EP "Brace For Impact!".

In 2004 ZebraFish started a new chapter as Esa"mr.funk"Räsänen left the band and was replaced by Raif Hairulla, an extremely groovy and powerful bass player. After a couple of successful gigs ZF decided it was time for a new release and "Falling To the Scene" EP´s recording session was kicked off in November. Final cut saw daylight in January -05 (please visit “earlier releases” in MUSIC )

Summer -05 was excellent gig-wise –ZF rocked and grooved better than ever and feedback from both shows and the new EP were encouraging to say the least. ZF participated also in Helsingin Juhlaviikot/Art Goes Kapakka-festival by playing at Motti restaurant.

Winter 05-06 was well spent putting together fresh material and finally in May-06 the new, self-titled EP was released (downloadable from MUSIC). Summer-06 included gigs from Räyhärock, Loviisa to Esplanadi Park, Helsinki (see GIGS for details).

Update 2007: Year 2007 was spent rehearsing new material. New bass player Stefan Svanfeldt joined the band. ZF will retreat to studio in the beginning of 2008 and the new EP will see daylight before spring.