The Guitar Player's Resource
Guitarist Mika Luoto, from Ouiainen, Finland, mentioned in the letter accompanying his eight-song demo that he used a drum machine on the tracks. Frankly, the drum machine rhythm sound will bring tears to your eyes - Luoto should definitely not be distributing his demo in this form because it makes it more difficult to evaluate the music when the production is quite basic, and the rhythm is being brought down by a budget beat box. Luoto can really wail on the guitar through, and he has a good rhythmic feel, but his compositions need to be structured better in order to make the listener sit up and take notice. There are some vocals here and there, which should also not be included on future demos, since Luoto is not a singer. Luoto should concentrate on his guitaristic strengths, and get outside production, engineering and rhythmic help to make his demos more impressive. These problems are fixable - don't give up!
Mika was born in 1973 and received his first guitar on Christmas of 1987, and ever since then he has been crazy about it. He counts among his influences players such as Steve Vai, Dream Theater, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Brent Mason. Mika has played in many styles and plans to play in many more. He has logged time in bands such as Nightmare, Undead (speed/thrash instrumental metal), Nappulaliiga (rock/pop/jazz), Luoto & Knit (blues/rock), Epidemia 5 (punk), E5 (punk/metal), Coralia (Finnish dance music) and the Heavy/Rock/Blues Project (heavy/rock/blues, well, what did you expect?) Mika's hobbies include music, computer, and Sony Playstation, just to name few. At the moment he is not a member of a fully functional band, but he is very eager to get one.
Luoto hopes to go into the studio soon to record a full band demo.
Mika Luoto
Finland
Web site: www.kotinet.com/mika.luoto