The Raygun Girls

      Geoff Saavedra is the man behind the music for the Hard Rock project, The Raygun Girls. The name was inspired by a song on The Clay People's self titled album. "I liked what Trent Reznor was doing with Downward Spiral, but the Clay People was much rougher, much more guitar oriented.  Also, the lead singer (Dan Neet), was singing how I did - with a rough growl.  Even through the anger, they had melody.  So, we picked that name as sort of an homage to them."
      Geoff works with artists all over the world to create Raygun's heavy, guitar driven sound. "There's a Punk attitude along with the heavy Sabbath grooves.  It's a little too Industrial to be called Heavy Metal, and a little too Heavy Metal to be called Rock, so I've been calling it Hard Rock.  Gothic Rock sometimes works, but we're also a little too Metal to be just Gothic Rock." Says Geoff.

(Claim This Photo)

      The Raygun Girls haven't always been a one-man show. Geoff and Jamie Lendino collaborated in a heavy metal band with Geoff on guitar and Jamie on the drums. After getting a bit bored, the band began playing with guitar loops with Geoff singing. What started as a side project quickly came to the forefront when the heavy metal band threw in the towel. "Jamie and I started to seriously record an album under The Raygun Girls name.  We got backing vocal help from a female friend who was in a folk band- I thought that we needed a contrast to my gruff sounding vocals."
      "When we started, the music was much more electronic, and it was only going to be a studio band.  Also, it was just me and Jamie writing all of the music.  We got such a good reaction to the first album, "Mars Eclipsing", that we put together a live band.  In 2004, Jamie left, and the core of the band became me and George Tsolekas (bass and backing vocals)." Their next album, The Ones I Denied, featured female vocalist, Maya, to the front of the band. "There has always been an underlying darkness to the music.  I once described it as looking at life from the opposite angle- expressing anger, sadness.  There's a lot of themes of loneliness in the lyrics."
   

(Claim This Photo)

      The band was signed to an Indie Label, replaced Maya with Cila, and originally recorded their album, Dirt Collector, for the label. Unfortunately, the label went belly-up. After releasing Dirt Collector on their own, Geoff underwent emergency heart surgery. Without label support and due to Geoff's health issues, the band took a break. Geoff continues to work on music under the name, releasing the album, The Taker on July 25th.
      "After trying to, unsuccessfully, find other band members, I decided to stop waiting and just began to record, enlisting help, through the internet, from female vocalists around the world.  I'm very happy with what turned out, and I truly believe that it is the next step for The Raygun Girls. George still helps out a lot with opinions and lyrics (he wrote "Designated Killer" on the new album), and Cila might return at some point." Says Geoff.