A young, talented band, consisting of four self-taught artists.
Offload was formed, and is based, in the Seychelles.
With their rock influences, their music is very popular among the younger generation.
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OFFLOAD IN CONCERT!!! Saturday September 1st, 8:30pm, at the Mont Fleuri National Theater, Seychelles.
Call 572368, 799157 and 565545 for tickets.
OFFLOAD BAND BIOGRAPHY
What started as a bedroom project became OFFLOAD by early 2003. It was in late 1999 that Patrick Marianne (lead singer/songwriter/composer) started writing and composing songs with Roy Leon (former guitarist who has now left the band.) Childhood friend, Cyril Rignace soon joined them to play bass.
Soon after, Patrick met up with Angelo De-Rosa, (guitarist/composer), and extended an invitation to join the band. They wrote songs, recorded demos and developed their sound, practicing three times a week. They agreed on a band name. It would be called “At Last”.
“When I founded the band, I made it clear that this was no local project. I wanted to expose our music to as many people as possible” says Patrick.
In 2003, after changing the band name to “OFFLOAD”, Kurt Gilbert joined the band to play drums. He soon left when his parents moved to England.Cyril decided to give up bass and learn to play drums. Angelo’s younger brother, Alberto took up bass. Notably, before joining, Alberto had been around every time the band was practicing. He was another self-taught musician. In fact, all the guys are self-taught.
“The first few band sessions were terrible”, reminisces Cyril. “But everything started to come together after a month''. Roy left the band just before OFFLOAD played their first show. Nevertheless, the guys carried on. With Patrick on vocals, Angelo on guitar, Alberto on bass and Cyril playing drums, OFFLOAD performed for the first time at a beach side restaurant called “Why Not”, in April 2004.
It was a lovely Sunday afternoon. Hot chicks walking around in sexy bikinis. Most of them thought OFFLOAD was a foreign band. They loved it. Through word of mouth, more and more people came to see the band play. They played in front of a bigger audience in August 2004, during the youth festival. The kids went crazy. Over a month later, they rocked the Seychelles band festival creating a bigger buzz. They had to go back on stage at the end of the show for an encore.
Soon after, the band started rehearsing and experimenting with new materials to record the debut album. In late November 2004, young guitarist, Selby Jeannie was brought in to fill the void caused by Roy’s departure. He had witnessed how the band captured the crowd at the band festival, and was eager to form part of this talented, exciting, up and coming band.
They hit the studio in early March 2005 to record “Revolution”. It took three months to complete the album, initially intended to be a 13-track album. The guys decided to drop two tracks including one entitled “ If that’s the way you want it” because they did not like the final cut. This track was the first song by OFFLOAD which got some airplay in 2003.
The band made their first TV appearance in July 2005. They performed what became Offload's first single called - "The Voice Inside My Head". It blew everyone away and generated lots of interest from people who wanted to know what the song's about.
Three weeks later, “Revolution” was released and all of a sudden everyone wanted to rock and roll. “We really did not expect this kind of reaction we got. Seychelles is a reggae country, but it feels that even the reggae lovers are feeling our vibes” Angelo added.
The album's opening number "Gossip River" a song about gossip lovers has proven to be a crowd favorite along with " Choose","Voice inside", "Adelle" and " My fairytale".
With Kurt Gilbert back in the band, the current line up includes Patrick Marianne (Vocals), Angelo De Rosa (Guitar), Cyril Rignace (Bass) and Kurt Gilbert (Drums).