The story of MKIO, as told by Natasha In my time in MKIO, people from the very beginning have asked me what we’re trying to say and what we sound like. I have never known quite what to answer. MKIO means so many things. It means an amalgam of 6 years of love, sacrifice, and dedication. Four band members, all from a different background, fused together in a common vision. We started this whole crazy mess in 2002 when Jon (drummer) and myself (singer) saw each other in a music school hall and thought how cool it was that we had the same Sisters of Mercy shirt on. I was studying keyboards, himself drums. So we started writing some stuff and couldn’t find a singer. Jon didn’t want to play the Phil Collins role, so the duty fell into my lap. So a few vocal lessons, songs, and band members later, we decided to start touring. By this time, Scott (the awesome guitar dude we met while opening for Collide) and Gordon (the crazy upright bass player dude that I met one day at music school while sharing stories of Texas) had joined our little musical operation. Because Jon came from a DIY punk background, we started touring pretty early on. The rest of us had a lot to learn from Jon. One day, after weeks and months of touring, we decided to take things a little further and went on a year-long adventure at what turned into one of the most intense, painful, beautiful, growing years of our life. We played hundreds of shows in nearly all the states, ate ramen, slept on floors, and let go of all of our material possessions. We still have very little in that department, but just like in the beginning, a lot of love. We never know where we’ll go next. We just know that we want to make music that means something to us, something to others, and ultimately helps us grow. We’ll see you out there on the road…. ~tash ;)