Moon Cakes is a band that plays alternative/indie/pop/rock music. Moon Cakes incorporates more diverse and innovative styles in their music, exploring the likes of different genres of music. That´s why Finnish top musicians play in this band. Moon Cakes on: Aino Roivainen - vocals and keyboards Sakari Pesola - guitar Kirka Sainio - bass Mika Simo - drums All started 1983 in a small town in Finland, Kerava. Some brave people formed a music association called Kerava´s Honest Music Association (in Finnish KERMU). Town of Kerava offered KERMU a beautiful old mansion, Lapilan Kartano, to use for band rehearsals. During the years many bands rehearsed in this mansion... also three young musicians who started the story of Moon Cakes: Aino Roivainen who played synthesizers, Mikko Karmila was an enthusiastic guitar player and Jari Mantila the drummer. This group had no name, but made new songs and recorded them, as Mikko Karmila liked recording and had equipment for that purpose. The idea was to create new kind of music and just to enjoy it. Spring 1990 Jari Mantila died in fire when the mansion burnt. That´s when Aino and Mikko decided to do everything they can in order to publish songs that they had made together. Atte Blom, CEO of a famous Finnish indie label, published the debut album "Yours Sincerely" in 1991. The album was received well by critics and single release from that album reached number seven on the Finnish offcial charts. At that time the band was called "Moon" and right after the debut album Aino wanted to add "cakes" into it...this was because Aino had read a book about ancient culture and history of Europe and she liked especially that part where the history of croissant was revealed: "women used to bake cakes when moon was crescent..." It was in 2004 when Aino discovered that moon cakes were baked also in China. These cakes had the shape of full moon. Second album "Moon Cakes" was released in 1993. Drummer Paavo Kaihola and bassist Hannu Järvinen had left the band and new band members were recruited. Mika Simo started as a drummer. He was VERY young and his father drove him to rehearsals. Mika´s mother informed the band that Mika was also a great singer, but for some reason Mika has always refused to sing in Moon Cakes. Already in 1994 the third album was released. Aino enjoyed writing songs and she had bass guitar strongly in her mind when she wrote songs to this album. To get the most out of the instrument, bassist Kirka Sainio was asked to join the band. After he had said yes he was taken immediately to Finnvox studio to record new songs. In the studio there was a very cool grand piano and Aino decided to impress Kirka and played classical Sibelius "Ristilukki", right after this Kirka played another Sibelius classical piece "Kuusi" which he played brilliantly. Aino was shocked. Kirka told her that actually his main instrument in music shool was violin. This guy is so strange and always on top of everything. In 1995 Aino and Mikko got married, they had a child in 1996 and a new release "Intimidate" in 1997. Mikko was very good in recording, mixing and producing music and he had been working with many famous Finnish bands, eg Nightwish, Stratovarius, Children of Bodom, Waltari, Amorphis, Sonata Arctica...all rock bands, most of them heavy rock/metal bands. He spent his days in studios and slowly but surely stopped playing guitar. This is when Sakari Pesola came into the picture. Sakari was the guitar player and songwriter in a very famous, very legendary, Finnish rock band "Kolmas Nainen". Moon Cakes needed a strong and talented guitar player and now got one. Not to mention the analytic thinking this guy has! Fifth album "Undoubtedly" was released in 2001. Mikko was still playing some guitars on this album and did all the recordings and technical stuff in the studio. In May 2011 the sixth album "XX" will be released. The name of the album refers to the frst album released twenty years ago, but also to a song "Xtra Xcellent" on the new album. This time Aino challenged the band to participate more in songwriting and arranging the songs, Sakari wrote fve songs together with Aino. The album is produced by the band and many years was spent in rehearsing and arranging the songs together. Moon Cakes is an exceptional band. http://www.mooncakes.fi http://www.myspace.com/mooncakeband